Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales Part 40

PACE-EGGING.

It is a custom in some parts of England for boys to go round the village on Easter eve begging for eggs or money, and a sort of dramatic song is sometimes used on the occasion. The following copy was taken down from recitation some years ago in the neighbourhood of York; but in another version we find Lords Nelson and Collingwood introduced, by a practice of adaptation to pa.s.sing events, which is fortunately not extensively followed in such matters. A boy, representing a captain, enters and sings-

Here's two or three jolly boys all o' one mind, We've come a pace-egging, and hope you'll be kind; I hope you'll be kind with your eggs and your beer, And we'll come no more pace-egging until the next year.

Then old Toss-pot enters, and the captain, pointing him out, says-

The first that comes in is old Toss-pot you see, A valiant old blade for his age and degree; He is a brave fellow on hill or in dale, And all he delights in is a-drinking of ale.

Toss-pot then pretends to take a long draught from a huge quart-pot, and, reeling about, tries to create laughter by tumbling over as many boys as he can. A miser next enters, who is generally a boy dressed up as an old woman in tattered rags, with his face blackened. He is thus introduced by the captain:

An old miser's the next that comes in with her bags, And to save up her money, wears nothing but rags.

_Chorus._ Whatever you give us we claim for our right, Then bow with our heads, and wish you good night.

This is repeated twice, and the performance concludes by the whole company shouting to the top of their voice-

Now, ye ladies and gentlemen, who sit by the fire, Put your hands in your pockets, 'tis all we desire; Put your hands in your pockets, and lug out your purse, We shall be the better, you'll be none the worse!

"Pase-day, Easter-day. Pase-eggs, Easter-eggs. Corrupt. from Pasch. They have a proverbial rhyme in those parts for the Sundaies in Lent:

Tid, Mid, Misera, Carl, Paum, good Pase-day."

Kennett, MS. Lansd. 1033.

COLLOP-MONDAY.

Collop Monday, Pancake Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Bludee Thursday, Friday's lang, but will be dune, And hey for Sat.u.r.day afternune!

Verses for Shrove-tide, Collop-Monday being a North-country name for Shrove-Monday, because eggs and collops compose a standard dish for that day. At Islip, in Oxfordshire, the children, on Shrove-Tuesday, go round to the various houses to collect pence, saying:

Pit-a-pat, the pan is hot, We are come a-shroving; A little bit of bread and cheese Is better than nothing.

The pan is hot, the pan is cold; Is the fat in the pan nine days old?

"_Collap Munday._-This time reminds me on a bit ov a consarn at happand abaght two year sin, to a chap at thay call Jeremiah Fudgemutton. This Jerry, yo mun naw, went ta see a yung womman, a sweetheart a hiz, an when he put hiz arms raand her neck ta gie her a cus, it happand shood been hevin sum fried bacon to her dinner, an f.a.gettan ta wipe t' grease off on her magth at after. Thear hiz faice slip't off on her chin-end, an slap went hiz head reight throot winda, an cut tip ov hiz noaze off."-Yorkshire Dial.

ISLE OF WIGHT SHROVERS.

Until within about the last thirty years, it had been the custom in the Isle of Wight from time immemorial at all the farms and some other charitable houses to distribute cakes on Shrove-Tuesday, called Shrove-cakes, to the poor children of the parish or neighbourhood, who a.s.sembled early in the morning at the different villages, hamlets, and cottages, in parties of from two to thirty or more, for the purpose of what was denominated "Going Shroving," and the children bore the name of _Shrovers_. At every house they visited they had a nice Shrove-cake each given them. In those days the winters were much more inclement and of longer duration than at the present time, and it often happened that, in addition to a severe frost, the ground was covered several inches high with snow, yet however cold or intense the weather, it did not prevent these little ones from what they called in the provincial dialect _Gwine a Shrovun_, and they jogged merrily along hand in hand from one house to another to obtain their cakes; but, before receiving them, it was expected and deemed necessary that they should all sing together a song suitable to the occasion; those who _sang the loudest_ were considered the _best Shrovers_, and sometimes had an extra cake bestowed on them; consequently, there was no want of noise (whatever there might have been of harmony) to endeavour to get another Shroving gift. There were many different versions of the song according to the parishes they lived in. The one generally sang by the children of the East Medina was as follows:

A Shrovun, a Shrovun, I be c.u.m a Shrovun, A piece a bread, a piece a cheese, A bit a your fat beyacun, Or a dish of doughnuts, Aal of your own meyacun!

A Shrovun, a Shrovun, I be c.u.m a Shrovun, Nice meeat in a pie, My mouth is verrey dry!

I wish a wuz zoo well a-wet, I'd zing the louder for a nut![49]

_Chorus._ A Shrovun, a Shrovun, We be c.u.m a Shrovun!

[Footnote 49: Composed of flour and lard, with plums in the middle, and made into round substances about the size of a cricket-ball. They were called _nuts_ or _dough-nuts_, and quite peculiar to the Isle of Wight.]

The song of the children of the West Medina was different:

A Shrovun, a Shrovun, I be c.u.m a Shrovun, Linen stuff es good enuff, Vor we that c.u.ms a Shrovun.

Vine veathers in a pie, My mouth is verrey dry.

I wish a wuz zoo well a-wet, Then I'd zing louder vor a nut!

Dame,[50] dame, a igg, a igg,[51]

Or a piece a beyacun.

Dro awaay[52] the porridge pot, Or crock to bwile the peeazun.

Vine veathers in a pie, My mouth is verrey dry.

I wish a wuz zoo well a-wet, Then I'd zing louder vor a nut!

_Chorus._ A Shrovun, a Shrovun, We be c.u.m a Shrovun!

[Footnote 50: Dame. The mistress of the house, if past the middle age, was called Dame, i. e.

Madame.]

[Footnote 51: An egg, an egg.]

[Footnote 52: Throw away.]

If the song was not given sufficiently loud, they were desired to sing it again. In that case it very rarely required a second repet.i.tion. When the Shrovers were more numerous than was antic.i.p.ated, it not unfrequently happened that, before the time of the arrival of the latter parties, the Shrove-cakes had been expended; then dough-nuts, pancakes, bread and cheese, or bread and bacon, were given, or halfpence were subst.i.tuted; but in _no instance_ whatever were they sent from the door empty-handed. It is much to be regretted that this charitable custom should have become almost extinct; there being very few houses at the present time where they distribute Shrove-cakes.

"There was another very ancient custom somewhat similar to the Shroving, which has also nearly, if not quite, disappeared; probably it began to decay within the last half-century: this was a gift of cakes and ale to children on _New Year's Day_, who, like the Shrovers, went from house to house singing for them; but, if we may judge from the song, those children were for the most part from the towns and larger villages, as the song begins, "_A sale, a sale in our town_;" there is no doubt but it was written for the occasion some centuries since, when "a sale" was not a thing of such a common occurrence as now, and when there was one, it was often held in an open field in or near the town." So writes my kind and valued correspondent, Captain Henry Smith, but _town_ is, I think, merely a provincialism for _village_. It is so, at least, in the North of England. As for the phrase _a seyal_, it seems to be a corruption of _wa.s.sail_, the original sense having been lost. The following was the song:

A seyal, a seyal in our town, The cup es white and the eal es brown; The cup es meyad from the ashen tree, And the eal es brew'd vrom the good barlie.

_Chorus._ Cake and eal, cake and eal, A piece of cake and a cup of eal; We zing merrily one and aal For a piece of cake and a cup of eal.

Little maid, little maid, troll the pin,[53]

Lift up the latch and we'll aal vall in;[54]

Ghee us a cake and zum eal that es brown, And we dont keer a vig vor the seyal in the town.

_Chorus._ W'ill zing merrily one and aal Vor a cake and a cup of eal; G.o.d be there and G.o.d be here, We wish you aal a happy New Year.

[Footnote 53: That is, turn the pin inside the door in order to raise the latch. In the old method of latching doors, there was a pin inside which was turned round to raise the latch. An old Isle of Wight song says,-

Then John he arose, And to the door goes, And he trolled, and he trolled at the pin.

The la.s.s she took the hint, And to the door she went, And she let her true love in.]

[Footnote 54: "Aal vall in," stand in rank to receive in turn the cake and ale.]

The above was the original song, but within the last fifty or sixty years, as the custom began to fall off, the chorus or some other part was often omitted.

EASTER-GLOVES.

Love, to thee I send these gloves, If you love me, Leave out the G, And make a pair of loves!