I can make diet bread
Thick and thin,
I can make diet bread
Fit for the king; (No. cccxliv.)
which may be compared with the rhyme given by Chambers (Popular Rhymes, p. 136), and another version given by Halliwell, p. 229.
If these rhymes belong to this game it would have probably been played by each child singing a verse descriptive of her own qualifications, and I have some recollection, although not perfect, of having played a game like this in London, where each child stated her ability to either brew, bake, or churn. It is worth noting that the [Forest of Dean] and [Berkshire] versions have absorbed one of the “selection” verses of the love-games. Mr. Halliwell, in recording the Nursery Rhymes, Nos. cccxliii. and cccxliv., as quoted above, says, “They are fragments of a game called ‘The Lady of the Land,’ a complete version of which has not fallen in my way.” Mr. Udal’s versions from Dorsetshire are not only called “The Lady of the Land,” but are fuller than all the other versions, though probably these are not complete. Mr. Newell (Games, pp. 56-58) gives some versions of this game. He considers the original to have been a European game (he had not found an English example) in which there were two mothers, a rich and a poor one; one mother begging away, one by one, all the daughters of the other.
(d) This game no doubt originates from the country practice of hiring servants at fairs, or from a dramatic “Hirings” being acted at Harvest Homes. The “Good-bye” of mother and daughters belongs, no doubt, to the original game and early versions, and is consistent with the departure of a servant to her new home. The “lover” incident is an interpolation, but there may have been a request on the part of the “mother” to the “lady” not to allow the girl followers or sweethearts too soon. As to the old practice of hiring servants, Miss Burne has noted how distinctly it stamps itself upon local custom (Shropshire Folklore, pp. 461, 464). That the practice forms the groundwork of this game is well illustrated by the following descriptive passage. “They stay usually two or three dayes with theire friends, and then aboute the fifth or sixth day after Martynmasse will they come to theire newe masters; they will depart from theire olde services any day in the weeke, but theire desire (hereaboutes) is to goe to theire newe masters eyther on a Tewsday or on a Thursday; for on a Sunday they will seldome remoove, and as for Monday, they account it ominous, for they say—
Monday flitte,
Neaver sitte;
but as for the other dayes in the weeke they make no greate matter. I heard a servant asked what hee could doe, whoe made this answeare—
I can sowe,
I can mowe,
And I can stacke;
And I can doe,
My master too,
When my master turnes his backe.”
—Best’s Rural Economy of Yorks., 1641; Surtees Society, pp. 135-136.
In Long Ago, ii. 130, Mr. Scarlett Potter mentions that in South Warwickshire it was customary at harvest-homes to give a kind of dramatic performance. One piece, called “The Hiring,” represents a farmer engaging a man, in which work done by the man, the terms of service, and food to be supplied, are stated in rhymes similar to the above. See “[Lammas].”[Addendum]