On the following eve (Shrove Tuesday), the clubs are again in requisition; but on this occasion the blows on the door keep time to the following chant:
“Nicka, nicka nan;
Give me some pancake, and then I’ll be gone.
But if you give me none,
I’ll throw a great stone,
And down your doors shall come.”
Report of the Royal Institution of Cornwall for 1842; N. & Q. 1st S. vol. xii. p. 297.
Devonshire.
In the neighbourhood of Bridestow, Okehampton, the children go round to the different houses in the parish on the Monday before Shrove Tuesday, generally by twos and threes, and chant the following verses, by way of extracting from the inmates sundry contributions of eggs, flour, butter, halfpence, &c., to furnish out the Tuesday’s feast:
“Lent Crock, give a pancake,
Or a fritter, for my labour,
Or a dish of flour, or a piece of bread,
Or what you please to render.
I see, by the latch,
There’s something to catch;
I see, by the string,
There’s a good dame within.
Trap, trapping throw,
Give me my mumps, and I’ll be go” (gone).
The above is the most popular version, and the one indigenous to the place; but there is another set, which was introduced some years ago by a late schoolmistress, who was a native of another part of the country, where her version was customary:
“Shrovetide is nigh at hand,
And we are come a-shroving;
Pray, Dame, give something,
An apple, or a dumpling,
Or a piece of crumple cheese,
Of your own making,
Or a piece of pancake.
Trip, trapping throw;
Give me my mumps, and I’ll be go.”
This custom existed also in the neighbourhood of Salisbury.—N. & Q. 1st S. vol. v. p. 77. Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 62.
