“Luddington poor people
Built a brick church to a stone steeple.”
A question is put and answered thus:—
“Boston! Boston!
What hast thou to boast on?
High steeple, proud people,
And shoals that souls are lost on.”
The village of Ugley, Essex, supplies a satirical couplet:—
“Ugley church, Ugley steeple,
Ugley parson, Ugley people.”
An old triplet describes the characteristics of three church spires thus:—
“Bloxham for length,
Adderbury for strength,
King-Sutton for beauty.”
Almost every district furnishes examples of bell rhymes. We give one example, and it is from Derbyshire:—
“Crich two roller-boulders,
Winfield ting-tangs,
Alfreton kettles,
And Pentrich pans,
Kirk-Hallam candlesticks,
Cossall cow-bells,
Denby cracked puncheons,
And Horsley merry bells.”
It is very generally believed in Derbyshire that the town of Alfreton was once the stake at a game of cards—“put,” and that the loser exclaimed on the cards being dealt out:—