The west-country wonder: or, William the serving-man's good fortune in the marriage of an ancient lady, whom he got with child when she was threescore and six o[r] seven years of age, tho' she had ne'er been with child before, to the joy of her, and the admiration of others. To the tune of, The guinnea wins her. Licensed according to order. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription B06527 of text R228656 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing W1409). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 4 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 1 1-bit group-IV TIFF page image. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2018 B06527 Wing W1409 Interim Tract Supplement Guide C.20.f.8[516] 99887949 ocm99887949 183611 2240888616

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Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. B06527) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 183611) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books; Tract supplement ; A5:2[402]) The west-country wonder: or, William the serving-man's good fortune in the marriage of an ancient lady, whom he got with child when she was threescore and six o[r] seven years of age, tho' she had ne'er been with child before, to the joy of her, and the admiration of others. To the tune of, The guinnea wins her. Licensed according to order. 1 sheet ([1] p.) : ill. (woodcuts). Printed for J. Blare on London-bridge., [London] : [between 1684-1690] Place and date of publication suggested by Wing. Verse: "Attend to this relation ..." Trimmed. Reproduction of original in the British Library. eng Ballads, English -- 17th century. eebo The west-country wonder: or, William the serving-man's good fortune in the marriage of an ancient lady, whom he got with child when she was threescore anon 1690 1 571 1 0 0 0 0 0 17.51 C The rate of 17.51 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the C category of texts with between 10 and 35 defects per 10,000 words. 2008-02 Assigned for keying and markup 2008-07 Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2008-09 Sampled and proofread 2008-09 Text and markup reviewed and edited 2009-02 Batch review (QC) and XML conversion
The West-country Wonder :

OR , William the Serving-man's good Fortune in the Marriage of an ancient Lady , whom he got with Child when she was threescore and six o● seven Years of Age , tho' she had ne'er been with Child before , to the Joy of her , and the Admiration of others .

To the Tune of , The Guinnea wins her .

Licensed according to Order .

ATtend to this Relation , Which I in kindness bring you , The Wonder of the Nation , My loving Friends , I sing you ; The like was never known before , There 's a Lady that exceeds Threescore , By six or seven Years , This of a Truth apears , That now this very day , She is with Child , and may Have two or three , they say , For Will , has prov'd himself a Man of Skill . This was an ancient Lady , Who had both Bold and Treasure , In Bags and Coffers ready ; Yet wanted youtful Pleasure ; The Knight her Hushand being dead , With her Servant William she did wed , A proper Man indeed , Who at a time of need , Could please a Woman well ; And now the Truth to tell , He thousands does excel , For Will , has prov'd himself a Man of Skill . Altho' near Sixty seven , She makes as fair a figure , Of one scarce twice eleven , Few Woman being bigger ; And joyfully she doe's declare , That she hopes to have a Son and Heir , She having none before , Tho' six above Threescore ; Thus we may see in Truth , The sweet effects of Youth , She had a Coultish-tooth , And Will , has prov'd himself a Man of Skill . Raising so sweet a Flower , From such decays of Nature , It shows a manly Power , Of one that would not bait her An ace of what 's a Woman's due ; Such a brawny Lad you never knew , Both Proper , Straight and Tall , And lusty Limbs withal , Oh , such a Man behold , If he was to be sold , He 's worth his weight in Gold , Thus Will , has prov'd himself a Man of Skill . When at the Lady's Table , He as Servant waited , She little though him able To do what is reloted ; Yet when her Knight was laid in Grave , None alive but William would she have ; She made him out of hand , The Lord of all her Land ; Which kindness to requite , He yields her the delight And pleasant joys of night , For Will , has prov'd himself a Man of Skill . His Years is two and twenty , The Lady 's thrice as many , Yet having Wealthy in plenty , He loves her best of any , And she likewise does him adore , Having never any Child before ; And since the deed is done , If it should prove a Son , We shall great Triumph see ; For Lords of high Degree , Will at the Christning be , Since Will , has prov'd himself a Man of Skill .

Printed for J. Blare on London-bridge