“It will be difficult, however, if not impracticable to form a complete collection of David Williamses publications...You probably overrate the merit of the above… Godwin says he is never without an eye to self; and, in fact, a man of talents, who can puff Velnos vegetable sirop, and fawn upon the Prince of Wales, cannot be a very virtuous character. I have a notion, indeed, that he is a plausible parasite, and that it was as much by well-managed flattery as by profound politics he insinuated himself into the good graces of the citizeness Roland.”

English antiquary

Joseph Ritson was an English antiquary active in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He is known for editing the first scholarly collection of Robin Hood ballads in 1795, and for his work on English nursery rhymes. He became a strong supporter of the French Revolution after visiting France in 1791, and later emerged as an influential advocate of vegetarianism. He also assembled nursery rhyme collections such as Gammer Gurton's Garland, or The Nursery Parnassus, published in London by Joseph Johnson, including familiar verses like "Roses Are Red" and "Little Bo-Peep".