He said it would bear a man for to slide,
And laid a hundred pound;
The King said it would break, and so it did,
For three children there were drown’d.
Of which, one’s head was from his should—
ers stricken,—whose name was John;
Who then cried out as loud as he could
‘Oh Lon-a! Lon-a! Lon-don!’
‘Oh! tut—tut—turn from thy sinful race!’
Thus did his speech decay;
I wonder that in such a case
He had no more to say.
And thus being drown’d, Alack! Alack!
The water ran down their throats,
And stopp’d their breath three hours by the clock,
Before they could get any boats!
Ye parents all that children have,
And ye that have none yet,
Preserve your children from the grave,
And teach them at home to sit.
For had these at a sermon been,
Or else upon dry ground,
Why then I never would have been seen,
If that they had been drown’d!
Even as a huntsman ties his dogs,
For fear they should go fro him;
So tye your children with severity’s clogs,
Untie ’em—and you’ll undo ’em.
God bless our noble Parliament,
And rid them from all fears;
God bless all the Commons of this land,
And God bless—some of the Peers!’
“And now, Sir, I shall, by your favour, say a few words with respect to the tune to which these verses were formerly sung; which I am the better enabled to do by the researches of a gentleman, to whom, in several other particulars of our history, I have been considerably indebted. By his information, I shall first inform you, that the foregoing Song exists in its original state, in the Pepysian Collection of Ballads preserved in Magdalen College, Cambridge, volume ii., page 146; where it is called ‘The Lamentation of a bad market, or the drownding of three children on the Thames. To the tune of the Ladies’ Fall. Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, and J. Clarke.’ Now the old verses, entitled ‘A Lamentable Ballad of the Lady’s Fall,’ you will find, with some account of it prefixed, in Bishop Percy’s ‘Reliques of Ancient English Poetry,’ volume iii., book ii., article x., page 137, fourth edition, London, 1794, octavo; or, indeed, you may consult any edition but the last. From the Editor’s notice of this latter poem, we learn that it was sung to the tune of the verses called ‘The Shepherd’s Slumber;’ better known by the first three words of the commencing stanza.
‘In pescod time, when hound to horne
Gives eare till buck be kill’d;
And little lads with pipes of corne,
Sate keeping beasts a-field.’