Clifton.
_Nursery Rhymes_ (Vol. viii., p. 455.).--I would suggest to L. that a
consideration of _rhymes_ may sometimes indicate, by the change in the
pronunciation, the antiquity of the verse e.g.,
"Hush aby, baby, on the green _bough_,
When the wind blows the cradle will _rock_,
And when the bough breaks," &c.
Here, according to modern pronunciation, the rhymes of the first couplet
are imperfect, so that it was probably composed in the Saxon era, or while
the word _bough_ was still pronounced _bog_ or _bock_.