Hampshire.
At Basingstoke, and in some other parts of this county, the boys and girls go to the houses of the well-to-do classes in little companies, and, knocking at the door, repeat the following rhyme:
“Knick a knock upon the block;
Flour and lard is very dear,
Please we come a shroving here.
Your pan’s hot, and my pan’s cold,
(Hunger makes us shrovers bold)
Please to give poor shrovers something here.”
They then knock again, and repeat both knocks and verses until they receive something. The line in brackets is not said in Basingstoke and several other places.—N. & Q. 1st S. vol. xii. p. 100.