In the year 1794, being at Vauxhall Gardens for the first time, I happened luckily to fall in with a pleasant youth, whose appearance was truly respectable.  We felt equally disgusted with many of the songs, written in a mock pastoral Scottish style and supposing myself capable of producing what might by the public be considered equal, or perhaps superior, on the following day I wrote four, viz: “Lucy Gray of Allendale,” “I sigh for the Girl I adore,” “The lovely brown Maid,” and “Ellen and I.”  “Lucy Gray” was my first attempt at poetical composition: and was suggested from hearing a Northumbrian rustic relate the story of the unfortunate lovers.  […]

The abovementioned songs, with several others, I offered to my friend, Mr. Hook, a composer of celebrity.  They were set to music by him; and my first poetic effusion was sung by Master Phelps, in Vauxhall, in 1794, with great applause, and loudly encored.  The others also obtained the flattering approbation of the public; to the great joy of the author.  For my services, he granted me free admission to that delightful scene of amusement; visited by the first ranks in London, and the neighbourhood.