“Please, Mr. Whiteleg,
Please give us an Easter egg;
If you do not give us one,
Your hen shall lay an addled one,
Your cock shall lay a stone.”
Sometimes with the addition from “Souling” of:
“One for Peter, two for Paul,
And three for the One who made us all.”
“In Birkenhead, for some years after the Park was laid out, there were several grassy mounds inside the railings ... which went by the name of ‘The Bouks’ (Banks).... Every Easter Monday the children would bring baskets of coloured eggs. Then a game was played. First, wickets were fixed at intervals at the foot of the ‘Bouks,’ the children took their eggs to the top of the hills and rolled them down, aiming to pass them unbroken through the wickets.”[66]
[66] Gamlin’s Memories of Birkenhead.