Up streets, down streets,
Windows made of glass;
Isn’t “Jenny Jenkins” a handsome young lass?
Isn’t “Johnny Johnson” as handsome as she?
They shall be married,
When they can agree.
—Monton, Lancashire, Colleyhurst, Manchester (Miss Dendy).
Up street and down street,
Each window’s made of glass;
If you go to Tommy Tickler’s house
You’ll find a pretty lass.
—Halliwell’s Nursery Rhymes, cccclxxx.
(b) In the [Liverpool version] the children stand in a ring and sing the words. At “Fie, for shame,” the child named ceases to sing, and the others address her particularly. When the verse is ended she turns her back to the inside of the ring. All do this in turn. The [Monton game] is played the same as “[kiss-in-the-ring]” games.
(c) Northall (English Popular Rhymes, p. 549), gives a version almost the same as the [Monton version]. He also quotes some verses from a paper by Miss Tennant in the English Illustrated Magazine, June 1885, which she gives as a song of the slums of London. In Gammer Gurton’s Garland (1783, reprint 1810, p. 34), is a verse which is the same as [Halliwell’s], with two additional lines—
Hug her, and kiss her, and take her on your knee,
And whisper very close, Darling girl, do you love me?