[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Somewhere about 1830, when
I was a boy of ten or twelve years of age, I used to go sea-fishing with an old boat- man, whom I remember looking upon with great awe on account of his reputed age,—eighty. One day, while waiting or the fish to bite, the old boatman began to croon :—
" Ring-a-ding day, I heard a bird say,
Parliament's soldiers have all ran away. Ring-a-ding ding, I heard a bird sing, Parliament's soldiers have gone to the King."
said What's that you're singing?" "Lor', Sir, it's a ditty my old grandmother used to sing to me when she had me on her knee as a child." I have accounted for seventy years; the boatman and his grandmother may well have accounted for another hundred and forty-five or hundred and fifty between hem, bringing us back to 1685 or 1680, sufficiently near to the time of General Monk for the verses to be in fashion.-1
Previous page
