“ DLXXX.
The pettitoes are little feet,
And the little feet not big;
Great feet belong to the grunting hog,
And the pettitoes to the little pig.
DLXXXI.
Charley Warley had a cow.
Black and white about the brow;
Open the gate and let her go through,
Charley Warley's old cow!
DLXXXII.
I had a little cow;
Hey-diddle, ho-diddle!
I had a little cow, and it had a little calf,
Hey-diddle, ho-diddle; and there's my song half.
I had a little cow;
Hey-diddle, ho-diddle!
I had a little cow, and I drove it to the stall;
Hey-diddle, ho-diddle; and there's my song all!
[page 279]
DLXXXIII.
The Cock. ”

“ DXLVI. [The Proverb of Barnaby Bright is given by Ray and Brand as referring to St. Barnabas.]
Barnaby Bright he was a sharp cur,
He always would bark if a mouse did but stir;
But now he's grown old, and can no longer bark,
He's condemn'd by the parson to be hanged by the clerk.
DXLVII.
Pussy cat eat the dumplings, the dumplings,
Pussy cat eat the dumplings. ”

“ CXLVI. [From 'Histrio-mastix, or, the Player Whipt,' 4to, Lond. 1610. Mr. Rimbault tells me this is common in Yorkshire.]
Some up, and some down,
There's players in the town,
You wot well who they be;
The sun doth arise,
To three companies,
One, two, three, four, make wee!
Besides we that travel,
With pumps full of gravel,
Made all of such running leather:
That once in a week,
New masters we seek,
And never can hold together. ”

“ These, or any such objections,—for it seems there are others of about equal weight,—are, it appears to me, more silly than the worst nursery rhyme the little readers will meet with in the following pages. I am quite willing to leave the question to their decision, feeling assured the catering for them has not been in vain, and that these cullings from the high-ways and bye-ways—they have been collected from nearly every county in England—will be to them real flowers, soothing the misery of many an hour of infantine adversity. ”

“ The infants and children of the nineteenth century have not, then, deserted the rhymes chanted so many ages since by the mothers of the North. This is a "great nursery fact"—a proof that there is contained in some of [page iv] these traditional nonsense-rhymes a meaning and a romance, possibly intelligible only to very young minds, that exercise an influence on the fancy of children. It is obvious there must exist something of this kind; for no modern compositions are found to supply altogether the place of the ancient doggerel. ”

“ The cat's got into the tree.
Pussy, come down,
Or I'll crack your crown,
And toss you into the sea.
CCCCXVIII.
Little Jack a Dandy
Wanted sugar-candy,
And fairly for it cried;
But little Billy Cook
Who always reads his book,
Shall have a horse to ride.
CCCCXIX.
Hyder iddle diddle dell,
A yard of pudding's not an ell;
Not forgetting tweedle-dye,
A tailor's goose will never fly. ”

“ Hush-a-bye a milk cow,
You shall have a little stick
To beat the naughty bow-wow.
CCCXCIV.
Hush-a-bye, baby, on the tree top,
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock,
When the bough bends, the cradle will fall,
Down will come baby, bough, cradle, and all.
[page 210]
CCCXCV.
Ride, baby, ride,
Pretty baby shall ride,
And have a little puppy-dog tied to her side,
And little pussy-cat tied to the other,
And away she shall ride to see her grandmother,
To see her grandmother,
To see her grandmother. ”

“ CXXXII. [This is the version generally given in nursery collections, but is somewhat different in the 'Pills to Purge Melancholy,' 1719, vol. iv, p. 148.]
One misty moisty morning
When cloudy was the weather,
There I met an old man
Clothed all in leather;
Clothed all in leather,
With cap under his chin,—
How do you do, and how do you do,
And how do you do again!
CXXXIII.
The fox and his wife they had a great strife,
They never eat mustard in all their whole life;
They eat their meat without fork or knife,
And loved to be picking a bone, e-ho! ”

“ As soon as the cat had lapped up the milk, the cat began to kill the rat; the rat began to gnaw the rope; the rope began to hang the butcher; the butcher began to kill the ox; the ox began to drink the water; the water began to quench the fire; the fire began to burn the stick; the stick began to beat the dog; the dog began to bite the pig; the little pig in a fright jumped over the stile ”

“ USHY cow bonny, let down thy milk,
And I will give thee a gown of silk;
A gown of silk and a silver tee,
If thou wilt let down thy milk to me.
CCXXXVIII. [Said to pips placed in the fire; a species of divination practised by children.]
If you love me, pop and fly;
If you hate me, lay and die.
[page 136]
CCXXXIX.
[The following, with a very slight variation, is found in Ben Jonson's 'Masque of Queen's,' and it is singular to account for its introduction into the modern nursery.] ”

“ Two tee-totums totally tired of trying to trot to Tadbury;
Three tall tigers tippling tenpenny tea;
Four fat friars fanning fainting flies;
Five frippy Frenchmen foolishly fishing for flies;
Six sportsmen shooting snipes;
Seven Severn salmons swallowing shrimps;
Eight Englishmen eagerly examining Europe;
Nine nimble noblemen nibbling nonpareils;
Ten tinkers tinkling upon ten tin tinderboxes with ten tenpenny tacks;
Eleven elephants elegantly equipt;
Twelve typographical topographers typically translating types.
CCCXXVI. [The following lines are sung by children when starting for a race.] ”

“ We have endeavoured, as far as practicable, to remove every line from the present edition that could offend the most fastidious ear; but the following annotations on a song we cannot be induced to omit, would appear to suggest that our endeavours are scarcely likely to be attended with success.]
"Hey! diddle, diddle,
The cat and the fiddle"—
Yes, thee may say that, for that is nonsense.
[page 223]
"The cow jumped over the moon"—
Oh no! Mary, thee musn't say that, for that is a falsehood; thee knows a cow could never jump over the moon; but a cow may jump under it ”

“ He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,
And they all lived together in a little crooked house.
XLIX.
Solomon Grundy,
Born on a Monday,
Christened on Tuesday,
Married on Wednesday,
Took ill on Thursday,
Worse on Friday,
Died on Saturday,
Buried on Sunday:
This is the end
Of Solomon Grundy.
L.
Robin the Bobbin, the big-bellied Ben,
He eat more meat than fourscore men;
He eat a cow, he eat a calf,
He eat a butcher and a half;
He eat a church, he eat a steeple,
He eat the priest and all the people! ”

“ Some little mice sat in a barn to spin;
Pussy came by, and popped her head in;
"Shall I come in, and cut your threads off?"
"Oh! no, kind sir, you will snap our heads off?"
DVI.
The sow came in with the saddle,
The little pig rock'd the cradle
The dish jump'd over the table
To see the pot with the ladle.
The broom behind the butt
Call'd the dish-clout a nasty slut:
Oh! Oh! says the gridiron, can't you agree?
I'm the head constable,—come along with me.
DVII.
"What do they call you?" ”

“ The tale of Jack Horner has long been appropriated to the nursery. The four lines which follow are the traditional ones, and they form part of 'The pleasant History of Jack Horner, containing his witty Tricks and pleasant Pranks, which he plaied from his Youth to his riper Years,' 12mo, a copy of which is in the Bodleian Library, and this extended story is in substance the same with 'The Fryer and the Boy,' 12mo, Lond. ”

“ At Colchester there is a large earthwork, supposed to have been a Roman amphitheatre, which goes popularly by the name of "King Cole's kitchen." According to Jeffrey of Monmouth, King Cole's daughter was well skilled in music, but we unfortunately have no evidence to show that her father was attached to that science, further than what is contained in the foregoing lines, which are of doubtful antiquity. The following version of the song is of the seventeenth century, the one given above being probably a modernization ”

“ The child struck leaves the ring, and takes hold of b behind; b in the same manner takes the other children, one by one, gradually increasing his tail on each repetition of the verses, until he has got the whole; a then tries to get them back; b runs away with them; they try to shelter themselves behind b; a drags them off, one by one, setting them against a wall, until he has recovered all. ”

“ So she said, 'Cat! cat! kill rat; rat won't gnaw rope,' &c. But the cat said to her, 'If you will go to yonder cow, and fetch [page 294] me a saucer of milk, I will kill the rat.' So away went the old woman to the cow.
"But the cow said to her, 'If you will go to yonder haystack,* and fetch me a handful of hay, I'll give you the milk.' So away went the old woman to the haystack; and she brought the hay to the cow. ”

“ DLXVIII. [A north country version of a very common nursery rhyme, sung by a child, who imitates the crowing of a cock.]
Cock-a-doodle-do,
My dad's gane to ploo;
Mammy's lost her pudding-poke,
And knows not what to do.
[page 275]
DLXIX.
Higglepy Piggleby,
My black hen,
She lays eggs
For gentlemen;
Sometimes nine,
And sometimes ten,
Higglepy Piggleby,
My black hen!
DLXX.
Pretty John Watts,
We are troubled with rats,
Will you drive them out of the house?
We have mice, too, in plenty,
That feast in the pantry;
But let them stay,
And nibble away;
What harm in a little brown mouse? ”

“ Blind man can't see,
Every knave will have a slave,
You or I must be he.
CCLXXVIII. [A game of the Fox. In a children's game, where all the little actors are seated in a circle, the following stanza is used as question and answer.] ”

“ Pease-pudding hot,
Pease-pudding cold,
Pease-pudding in the pot,
Nine days old.
Some like it hot,
Some like it cold,
Some like it in the pot,
Nine days old.
CCLXXXIV.
Awake, arise, pull out your eyes,
And hear what time of day;
And when you have done, pull out your tongue,
And see what you can say.
[page 159]
CCLXXXV. GAME OF THE GIPSY.
[One child is selected for Gipsy, one for Mother, and one for Daughter Sue. The Mother says,—
I charge my daughters every one
To keep good house while I am gone.
You and you (points) but specially you,
[Or sometimes, but specially Sue.] ”

“ Wine and liquor in good store,
Pretty maidens plenty;
Can a man desire more?
There ain't such a town in twenty.
DC.
The little priest of Felton,
The little priest of Felton,
He kill'd a mouse within his house,
And ne'er a one to help him.
DCI.
[The following verses are said by Aubrey to have been sung in his time by the girls of Oxfordshire in a sport called Leap Candle, which is now obsolete. See Thoms's 'Anecdotes and Traditions,' p. 96.] ”

“ CCCXLIII. [The two following are fragments of a game called "The Lady of the Land," a complete version of which has not fallen in my way.]
Here comes a poor woman from baby-land,
With three small children in her hand:
One can brew, the other can bake,
The other can make a pretty round cake.
One can sit in the garden and spin,
Another can make a fine bed for the king ”

“ Is a good girl,
She shall have a spouse,
And make butter anon,
Before her old grandmother
Grows a young man.
CCCCLVII.
Jack in the pulpit, out and in;
Sold his wife for a minikin pin.
CCCCLVIII.
Did you see my wife, did you see, did you see,
Did you see my wife looking for me?
She wears a straw bonnet, with white ribbands on it,
And dimity petticoats over her knee.
[page 232]
CCCCLIX.
Rosemary green,
And lavender blue,
Thyme and sweet marjoram,
Hyssop and rue.
CCCCLX.
"Little maid, pretty maid, whither goest thou?"
"Down in the forest to milk my cow."
"Shall I go with thee?" "No, not now ”

“ CXXXVIII.
[The first line of this nursery rhyme is quoted in Beaumont and Fletcher's Bonduca, Act v, sc. 2. It is probable also that Sir Toby alludes to this song in Twelfth Night, Act. ii, sc. 2, when he says, "Come on; there is sixpence for you; let's have a song." In Epulario, or the Italian banquet, 1589, is a receipt "to make pies so that the birds may be alive in them and flie out when it is cut up," a mere device, live birds being introduced after the pie is made. This may be the original subject of the following song.] ”

“ Pray thee, fine lady, come under my bush.
[A passes by under the arch, followed by the whole string of children, the last of whom is taken captive by B and C. The verses are repeated, until all are taken.]
[page 161]
CCLXXXVIII. [The following seems to belong to the last game; but it is usually found by itself in the small books of children's rhymes.]
Sieve my lady's oatmeal,
Grind my lady's flour,
Put it in a chesnut,
Let it stand an hour;
One may rush, two may rush,
Come, my girls, walk under the bush. ”

“ I will go to market, and buy a little pig.' As she was coming home, she came to a stile: the piggy would not go over the stile.
"She went a little further, and she met a dog. So she said to the dog, 'Dog! bite pig; piggy won't go over the stile; and I shan't get home to-night.' But the dog would not.
"She went a little further, and she met a stick. So she said, 'Stick! stick! beat dog; dog won't bite pig ”

“ The game of water-skimming is of high antiquity, being mentioned by Julius Pollux, and also by Eustathius, in his commentary upon Homer. Brand quotes a curious passage from Minucius Felix; but all antiquaries seem to have overlooked the very curious notice in Higgins' adaptation of Junius's 'Nomenclator,' 8vo, London, 1585, p. 299, where it is called "a duck and a drake, and a halfe-penie cake." Thus it is probable that lines like the following were employed in this game as early as 1585 ”

“ The butcher that killed the ox denotes the crusaders, by whom the Holy Land was wrested out of the hands of the Saracens.
9. The angel of death signifies the Turkish power, by which the land of Palestine was taken from the Franks, and to which it is still subject.
10. The commencement of the tenth stanza is designed to show that God will take signal vengeance on the Turks, immediately after whose overthrow the Jews are to be restored to their own land, and live under the government of their long-expected Messiah. ”

“ The dramatis personæ form themselves in two parties, one representing a courtly dame and her daughters, the other the suitors of the daughters. The last party, moving backwards and forwards, with their arms entwined, approach and recede from the mother party, which is stationary, singing to a very sweet air. ”

“ Repeating the last words very rapidly, till she drops the glove behind one of them, and whoever has the glove must overtake her, following her exactly in and out till she catches her. If the pursuer makes a mistake in the pursuit, she loses, and the game is over ”