“A-shrovin, a-shrovin,
I be come a-shrovin;
A piece of bread, a piece of cheese,
A bit of your fat bacon;
Or a dish of dough nuts,
All of your own makin!
“A-shrovin, a-shrovin,
I be come a-shrovin,
Nice meat in a pie,
My mouth is very dry!
I wish a wuz zoo well-a-wet,
I’de zing the louder for a nut!
Chorus.—A shrovin, a-shrovin,
Chorus.—We be come a shrovin!”
Sometimes he gets a bit of bread and cheese, and at some houses he is told to be gone; in which latter case he calls up his followers to send their missiles in a rattling broadside against the door.—Book of Days, vol. i. p. 239.
The late Dr. Husenbeth in N. & Q. 4th S. vol. ix. p. 135, gives another version of the above rhyme:
“I’m come a shroveing,
For a piece of pancake,
Or a piece of bacon,
Or a little truckle cheese,
Of your own making.
Give me some, or give me none,
Or else your door shall have a stone.”
Hampshire.
At Basingstoke, and in some other parts of this county, the boys and girls go to the houses of the well-to-do classes in little companies, and, knocking at the door, repeat the following rhyme:
“Knick a knock upon the block;
Flour and lard is very dear,
Please we come a shroving here.
Your pan’s hot, and my pan’s cold,
(Hunger makes us shrovers bold)
Please to give poor shrovers something here.”
They then knock again, and repeat both knocks and verses until they receive something. The line in brackets is not said in Basingstoke and several other places.—N. & Q. 1st S. vol. xii. p. 100.