Here comes a candle to light you to bed, Here comes a chop'n bill to chop off your head- [Or Here comes a chop'n bill to chop off the last man's head.] XI. -Earls Heaton, Yorks. (Herbert Hardy). X. Lend me five shillings, Said the bells of St. Helen's. When will you pay me? Said the bells of St. Philip's. I do not know, Said the Great Bell of Bold. Ring a ding, ding, Ring a ding, ding, Ring a ding, ding, ding, ding. -Earls Heaton (Herbert Hardy, as told him by A. K.). Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clement's; Say the bells of Old Bailey. When I grow rich, say the bells of Shoreditch. And the last one that comes shall be chop, chop. Hersham, Surrey (Folk-lore Record, v. 86). XII. Orange and lemon, Say the bells of St. Martin (or the bells of Sweet Lemon); I owe you five farthings, But when shall I pay you? Here comes a candle To chop off your head. -Eckington, Derbyshire (S. O. Addy). XIII. Oranges and lemons, The bells of St. Clement's; Sim, Bim, bim, bow, bay. -Settle, Yorks. (Rev. W. E. Sykes). XIV. Oranges or lemons, The bells of St. Clement's; You owe me five farthings, Pray, when will you pay me? Here come the clappers to knock you down backwards, carwoo! -Suffolk (Mrs. Haddon). XV. Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clement's; You owe me three farthings, say the bells of St. When will you pay me? say the bells of Old Bailey; XVI. Pancakes and fritters, Says the bells of Cold Higham; Says the bells of Great Billing; When will you pay me? Says the bells of Widdleton Cheney; When I am able, Say the bells at Dunstable; That will never be, Says the bells at Coventry; Says Northampton Great Bell; Says the bells at Kingsthorp; Trundle a lantern, Says the bells at Northampton. -Northamptonshire (Baker's Words and Phrases). (c) This game is generally played as follows: Two of the taller children stand facing each other, holding up their clasped hands. One is named Orange and the other Lemon. The other players, grasping one another's dresses, run underneath the raised arms and round Orange, and then under the arms again and round Lemon, while singing the verses. The three concluding lines are sung by "Orange" and "Lemon" in a slow emphatic manner, and at the word "head" they drop their arms over one of the children passing between them, and ask her secretly whether she will be orange or lemon. The captive chooses her side, and stands behind whichever leader she selects, placing her arms round her waist. The game continues till every one engaged in it has ranged herself behind one or other of the chiefs. When the two parties are ranged a "tug of war" takes place until one of the parties breaks down, or is pulled over a given mark. In the Middlesex version (Miss Winfield) the children form a ring and go round singing the verses, and apparently there is neither catching the "last man" nor the "tug." Mr. Emslie says he has seen and played the game in Middlesex, and it always terminated with the cutting off the last man's head. In the Symondsbury version the players drop their hands when they say "Sunday." No tug is mentioned in the first Earls Heaton version of the game (Mr. Hardy). In the second version he says bells are represented by children. They should have in their hands, bells, or some article to represent them. All stand in a row. First, second, and third bells stand out in turn to sing. All rush for bells to sing chorus. Miss Barclay writes: The children of the Fernham and Longcot choir, playing on Christmas Eve, 1891, pulled across a handkerchief. In Monton, Lancashire, Miss Dendy says the game is played as elsewhere, but without words. In a Swaffham version (Miss Matthews), the girls sometimes call themselves "Plum pudding and roast beef," or whatever fancy may suggest, instead of oranges and lemons. They join hands high enough for the others to pass under, which they do to a call of "Ducky, Ducky," presently the hands come down and catch one, who is asked in confidence which she likes best. The game then proceeds in the usual way, one side trying to pull the other over a marked line. Oranges and lemons at Bocking, Essex, is an abbreviated variant of the rhyme printed by Halliwell (Folk-lore Record, iii., part II., 171). In Nottinghamshire, Miss Peacock says it is sometimes called "Tarts and Cheesecakes." Moor (Suffolk Words) mentions "Oranges and Lemons" as played by both girls and boys, and adds, "I believe it is nearly the same as 'Plum Pudding and Roast Beef.'" In the Suffolk version sent by Mrs. Haddon a new word is introduced, "carwoo." This is the signal for one of the line to be caught. Miss Eddleston, Gainford, Durham, says this game is called Through and through the shally go, The last shall be taken. Mr. Halliwell (Nursery Rhymes, No. cclxxxi.) adopts the verses entitled, "The Merry Bells of London," from Gammer VOL. II. C Gurton's Garland, 1783, as the origin of this game. In Aberdeen, Mr. M. L. Rouse tells me he has heard Scotch children apparently playing the same game, “Oranges and Lemons, ask, Which would you have, 'A sack of corn or a sack of coals?'" (d) This game indicates a contest between two opposing parties, and a punishment, and although in the game the sequence of events is not at all clear, the contest taking place after the supposed execution, these two events stand out very clearly as the chief factors. In the endeavour to ascertain who the contending parties were, one cannot but be struck with the significance of the bells having different saint's names. Now the only places where it would be probable for bells to be associated with more than one saint's name within the circuit of a small area are the old parish units of cities and boroughs. Bells were rung on occasions when it was necessary or advisable to call the people together. At the ringing of the "alarm bell" the market places were quickly filled by crowds of citizens; and by turning to the customs of these places in England, it will be found that contest games between parishes, and between the wards of parishes, were very frequent (see Gomme's Village Community, pp. 241-243). These contests were generally conducted by the aid of the football, and in one or two cases, such as at Ludlow, the contest was with a rope, and, in the case of Derby, it is specially stated that the victors were announced by the joyful ringing of their parish bells. Indeed, Halliwell has preserved the "song on the bells of Derby on football morning" (No. clxix.) as follows:Pancake and fritters, Say All Saints and St. Peter's; Say the bells of St. Alkmun; Says Saint Werabo; Says little Michel. This custom is quite sufficient to have originated the game, and the parallel which it supplies is evidence of the connection between the two. Oranges and lemons were, in all probability, |