This is still practised in the Wirral peninsula, and the rime sung by
the children was as follows:--
“Please, Mr. Whiteleg,
Please give us an Easter egg;
If you do not give us one,
Your hen shall lay an addled one,
Your cock shall lay a stone.”
Sometimes with the addition from “Souling” of:
“One for Peter, two for Paul,
And three for the One who made us all.”
“In Birkenhead, for some years after the Park was laid out, there were
several grassy mounds inside the railings ... which went by the name
of ‘The Bouks’ (Banks).... Every Easter Monday the children would
bring baskets of coloured eggs. Then a game was played. First, wickets
were fixed at intervals at the foot of the ‘Bouks,’ the children took
their eggs to the top of the hills and rolled them down, aiming to
pass them unbroken through the wickets.”[66]
[66] Gamlin’s _Memories of Birkenhead_.
By degrees “Pace-Egging” became grafted on to the old mumming play
which is found in nearly every county of England, and the following was
sung at Thurstaston some thirty years ago. Two verses are omitted:--