an old drinking game, now I expect known to but few. Each person in
succession has to drink a glass of beer or spirits, on the top of
which a piece of lighted candle has been put, whilst the others sing--
"Tom Toddy es come hoam, come hoam,
Tom Toddy es come hoam,
Weth es eyes burnt, and his nawse burnt,
And es eye-lids burnt also.
Tom Toddy es," etc.
Specimens of Cornish Provincial Dialect.--Uncle Jan Trenoodle.
Of the old dance "Letterpooch," the name only is remembered.
BALLADS, Etc.
There are a few well-known old Cornish ballads, which have already been
printed and reprinted; my apology for again introducing them here, must
be, that a work of this kind would not be complete without them. "John
Dory," "An old ballad on a Duke of Cornwall's Daughter," "The Stout
Cripple of Cornwall," and "The Baarley Mow," may all be found in
Specimens of Cornish Provincial Dialect, by Uncle Jan Trenoodle
(Sandys); "Tweedily, Tweedily, Twee,"--Through Rev. S. Rundle, in
Transactions Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society, 1887-88;
"Ye sexes give ear to my fancy," T. Q. Couch, Polperro, Cornwall; and
"A fox went forth one moonshining night," Edward Pole, in Notes and
Queries, 1854; "The Long Hundred," a song of Numbers, W. Pengelly,
Notes and Queries, 1873; "When shall we be married?" which I heard
many years ago in Scilly, and of which I only remember three verses,
I have never seen in print.
The Rev. S. Baring Gould, M.A., is now making a collection of the
"Traditional Ballads and Songs of the West of England." Part I. has
been published; it contains "Sweet Nightingale," said to be a favourite
with the miners of Cornwall and Devon; this must be in North Cornwall,
as the nightingale is unknown in the western part of the county,
scared away, according to the country-folk, "by the sweet singing of
its men and women." And "The Hunting of Arscott of Tetcot," of which
as it has been recast, I will only transcribe the first four lines.
"In the month of November, in the year fifty-two (1652),
Three jolly fox-hunters, all sons of the blue,
Came o'er from Pencarrow, not fearing a wet coat,
To have some diversion, with Arscott of Tetcot," etc.
"Trelawny" was for many years supposed to be a genuine old Cornish
ballad, and as such was accepted and admired by several well-known
literary men; but it was written by the late Rev. R. Hawker, Vicar
of Morwenstowe; only the lines--
"And shall Trelawny die?
Here's twenty thousand Cornishmen,
Will know the reason why!"--
being ancient.