Oxfordshire.
“The fifth of November,
Since I can remember,
Gunpowder treason and plot;
This was the day the plot was contriv’d,
To blow up the King and Parliament alive;
But God’s mercy did prevent
To save our King and his Parliament.
A stick and a stake
For King James’s sake!
If you won’t give me one,
I’ll take two,
The better for me,
And the worse for you.”
This is the Oxfordshire song chanted by the boys when collecting sticks for the bonfire, and it is considered quite lawful to appropriate any old wood they can lay their hands on after the recitation of these lines. If it happen that a crusty chuff prevents them, the threatening finale is too often fulfilled. The operation is called going a-progging. In some places they shout, previously to the burning of the effigy of Guy Fawkes,
“A penn’orth of bread to feed the Pope,
A penn’orth of cheese to choke him;
A pint of beer to wash it down,
And a good old faggot to burn him.”
Halliwell’s Pop. Rhymes, 1849, pp. 253, 554.
Formerly, it was the custom for the undergraduates of Pembroke College, Oxford, to make verses on the 5th of November, and to have two copies of them, one to present to the master, the other to stick up in the Hall, and there to remain till a speech on this occasion was spoken before supper.—Pointer, Oxoniensis Academia, 1749, p. 109.