Nursery Rhyme. CCXLVIII. Charms.

My grandmother sent me a new-fashioned three cornered cambric country cut handkerchief. Not an old-fashioned three cornered cambric country cut handkerchief, but a new-fashioned three cornered cambric country cut handkerchief.

        [The following, with a very slight variation, is found in Ben    Jonson's 'Masque of Queen's,' and it is singular to account for its introduction into the modern nursery.]

    I went to the toad that lies under the wall,
    I charmed him out, and he came at my call;
    I scratch'd out the eyes of the owl before,
    I tore the bat's wing, what would you have more.

    Robert Rowley rolled a round roll round,
    A round roll Robert Rowley rolled round;
    Where rolled the round roll Robert Rowley rolled round?

    Hickup, hickup, go away!
    Come again another day;
    Hickup, hickup, when I bake,
    I'll give to you a butter-cake.

    A Thatcher of Thatchwood went to Thatchet a thatching;
    Did a thatcher of Thatchwood go to Thatchet a thatching?
    If a thatcher of Thatchwood went to Thatchet a thatching,
    Where's the thatching the thatcher of Thatchwood has thatch'd?

        [A charm somewhat similar to the following may be seen in the 'Townley Mysteries,' p. 91. See a paper in the 'Archæologia,' vol. xxvii, p. 253, by the Rev. Lancelot Sharpe, M.A. See also MS. Lansd. 231, fol. 114, and Ady's 'Candle in the Dark,' 4to, London, 1650, p. 58.]

    Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
    Guard the bed that I lay on!
        Four corners to my bed,
        Four angels round my head;
    One to watch, one to pray,
    And two to bear my soul away!