latter passed into the hands of Captain Thompson, who, with the
assistance of Mr. Robert Nettleton, a grandson of one of Marvell's
sisters, at once began to get his edition ready. On Nettleton's death
his "Marvell" papers came into Thompson's hands, and among them was, to
quote the captain's own words, "a volume of Mr. Marvell's poems, some
written with his own hand and the rest copied by his order."

The _Horatian Ode_ was in this volume, and was printed from it in
Thompson's edition of 1776.

What has become of this manuscript book? It has disappeared--destroyed,
so we are led to believe, in a fit of temper by the angry and uncritical
sea-captain.

This precious volume undoubtedly contained some poems by Marvell, and as
his handwriting was both well known from many examples, and is highly
characteristic, we may also be certain that the captain was not mistaken
in his assertion that some of these poems were in Marvell's own
handwriting. But, as ill-luck would have it, the volume also contained
poems written at a later period and in quite another hand. Among these
latter pieces were Addison's verses, _The Spacious Firmament on High_
and _When all thy Mercies, O my God_; Dr. Watts' paraphrase _When Israel
freed from Pharaoh's Hand_; and Mallet's ballad _William and Margaret_.
The two Addison pieces and the Watts paraphrase appeared for the first
time in the _Spectator_, Nos. 453, 465, and 461, in 1712, and Mallet's
ballad was first printed in 1724.

Still there these pieces were, in manuscript, in this volume, and as
there were circumstances of mystification attendant upon their prior
publication, what does the captain do but claim them all, _Songs of