WANTED, THE ORIGIN OF A NURSERY-RHYME.
[To TEIII EDITOR OF THE " STEOTATOR."2 Snt,—I shall be very glad if any of your correspondents can. give me information as to the history and date of the following verse, which was current in our nursery some sixty years ago, Whenever we children were so happy as to be tearing about in a high wind, we shouted or sang as we ran :— "Arthur o' Bower has broken his band ; He comes roaring up the land. King of Scots, with all his power, Cannot stop Arthur of the Bower."
In fact, it was an understood necessary accompaniment to the wind, and was sometimes performed Swinging with the waving, branches of a tree-top. There was an indescribable delight in it, especially in the second line. From the position held by the "King of Scots," the lines cannot be much less than three hundred years old; indeed, they would rather suggest an earlier and more warlike King than James am, Sir,.
M.
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