THE BALLAD OF SIR HUGH, ETC.
The fact mentioned by your correspondent C. Clifton Barry, at p. 357., as to the affinity of Midland songs and ballads to those of Scotland, I have often observed, and among the striking instances of it which could be adduced, the following may be named, as well known in Northamptonshire:
"It rains, it rains, in merry Scotland;
It rains both great and small;
And all the schoolfellows in merry Scotland
Must needs go and play at ball.
"They tossed the ball so high, so high,
And yet it came down so low;
They tossed it over the old Jew's gates,
And broke the old Jew's window.
"The old Jew's daughter she came out;
Was clothed all in green;
'Come hither, come hither, thou young Sir Hugh,
And fetch your ball again.'
"'I dare not come, I dare not come,
Unless my schoolfellows come all;
And I shall be flogged when I get home,
For losing of my ball.'
"She 'ticed him with an apple so red,
And likewise with a fig:
She laid him on the dresser board,
And stickéd him like a pig.
"The thickest of blood did first come out,
The second came out so thin;
The third that came was his dear heart's blood,
Where all his life lay in."
I write this from memory: it is but a fragment of the whole, which I think is printed, with variations, in Percy's Reliques. It is also worthy of remark, that there is a resemblance also between the words which occur as provincialisms in the same district, and some of those which are used in Scotland; e.g. whemble or whommel (sometimes not aspirated, and pronounced wemble), to turn upside down, as a dish. This word is Scotch, although they do not pronounce the b any more than in Campbell, which sounds very much like Camel.
B. H. C.