See Chappell’s Old English Popular Music, ii., 42-43.
The first stanza of the song as it appeared in Choyce Ayres etc., 1676, runs:
There was a jovial beggar,
He had a wooden leg,
Lame from his cradle and forced for to beg.
And a begging we will go, we’ll go, we’ll go,
And a begging we will go.
Other songs for which the early song became the prototype were ‘A Bowling We Will Go’, ‘A Fishing We Will Go’, ‘A Hawking We Will Go’ and ‘A Hunting We Will Go.’
No. 3
[REVEREND JAMES AXLEY’S SONG], OL 369
Hexatonic, mode 4 A (I II — IV V VI 7)