Oxfordshire.
In this county children go about singing the following rhyme, begging at the same time for half-pence:
“Knick, knock, the pan’s hot,
And we be come a shroving:
A bit of bread, a bit of cheese,
A bit of barley dompling,
That’s better than nothing.
Open the door and let us in,
For we be come a pancaking.”
At Islip in the same county this version is used:
“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?”
Brand, Pop. Antiq., 1849, vol. i. p. 88.