I
Sir E. Brydges, Restituta, I, 381, “obtained some years since” (1814) from the recitation of an aged lady.
1
It rains, it rains in merry Scotland,
It rains both great and small,
And all the children in merry Scotland
Are playing at the ball.
2
They toss the ball so high, so high,
They toss the ball so low,
They toss the ball in the Jew’s garden,
Where the Jews are sitting a row.
3
Then up came one of the Jew’s daughters,
Cloathed all in green:
‘Come hither, come hither, my pretty Sir Hugh,
And fetch thy ball again.’
4
‘I durst not come, I durst not go,
Without my play-fellowes all;
For if my mother should chance to know,
She’d cause my blood to fall.’
* * * * *
5
She laid him upon the dresser-board,
And stuck him like a sheep;
She laid the Bible at his head,
The Testament at his feet,
The Catechise-Book in his own heart’s blood,
With a penknife stuck so deep.
* * * * *