If you've got no apples, pears will do.
Up with your kettle, and down with your pan;
Give me a good big one, and I'll be gone.
Soul! soul! for a soul-cake;
Pray, good mistress, a soul-cake, &c.
An apple or pear, a plum or a cherry,
Is a very good thing to make us merry.
Soul! soul! &c.
The soul-cake referred to in the verses is a sort of bun, which until lately it was an almost general custom for persons to make, and to give to one another on the 2nd of November. Perhaps some of your readers can state whether this custom prevails in other counties in England. It seems to be a remnant of the practice of collecting alms, to be applied to the benefit of the souls of the departed, for which especial masses and services were formerly sung on All Souls' Day.
W. FRASER.