24 MARCH 1923, Page 40

PULL DEVIL, PULL BAKER.

[To. the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

have tried for some time, without success, to discover what is the origin of an old apophthegm, " Pull devil, pull baker," quoted in a recent essay by the Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Can any of your readers kindly supply me with the exact meaning and origin of this saying ?—I am, •

Sir, &c., A. C. H. Rim Wolferton Rectory, King's Lynn.

(Rector of Wolferton).