John Gilpin

a ballad by William Cowper, published in 1785. It is named for its hero. Lady Austen, a friend of Cowper's, told him the story to arouse him from one of his fits of melancholy. The next day he turned it into poetry.

John Gilpin found its way into all the periodicals of the day, was read to crowded houses in London, and was repeated with equal success on provincial stages. Perhaps it has given as much pleasure to as many people, young and old, educated and uneducated, as anything of the same length that ever was written. It is worthy of remark that this merry ballad was written by a man who at the time seemed to himself suspended over an abyss--the flame and darkness of hell, and, while it was convulsing audiences with laughter he was in the depths of despair.--Welsh.