Notes & Queries Archive
REPLY1850

Long Lonkin

By G. BOUCHIER RICHARDSON. (Newcastle-upon-Tyne)

This ballad does not relate to Cumberland, but to Northumberland. This error was committed by Miss Landon (in the *Drawing-room Scrap-book* for 1835), to whom a lady of this town communicated the fragment through the medium of a friend. Its real locality is a ruined tower, seated on the corner of an extensive earth-work surrounded by a moat, on the western side of Whittle Dean, near Ovingham. Since this period, I have myself taken down many additional verses from the recitation of the adjacent villagers, and will be happy to afford any further information to your inquirer, SELEUCUS.

Topics: Ballads, Historical Geography

Locations: Cumberland, Northumberland, Whittle Dean, Ovingham