And a happy New Year.”
Ritson reprinted Gammer Gurton, with additions, in 1810; but in the meantime an unknown editor had collected new “Songs for the Nursery”,[182] and adapted them “to favourite national Melodies”.
This is the biggest gap in the hedge. Here, at last, is the open country,—the cuckoo’s song:
“The Cuckoo’s a bonny bird;
She sings as she flies;
She brings us good tidings
And tells us no lies:
She sucks little birds’ eggs
To make her voice clear
And never cries Cuckoo!