Just as the woman and her children are supposed to be out of hearing the mistress says:
“She shall ramble, she shall trot,
She shall carry the mustard pot.”
This is gone through again until the mistress has engaged all the children as her servants, when she is supposed to let them all out to play with the mustard pots, which are represented by sticks or stones, in their hands.
(xii.)—Queen Anne.
A large party of children form themselves into two ranks; to one of these parties is given a ball. The rank to whom the ball is entrusted all hold their hands behind their backs, so that the opposite party should not know who has the ball in her possession.
The first rank advances and retires, saying:
“Queen Anne, Queen Anne,
She sot in the sun;
So fair as a lily,
So white as a nun;
She had a white glove on,
She drew it off, she drew it on.”
Those in the second rank, who have nothing in their hands, say:
“Turn, ladies, turn.”
The opposite party turns round, saying:
“The more we turn, the more we may,
Queen Anne was born on Midsummer Day;
We have brought dree letters from the Queen,
Wone of these only by thee must be seen.”
The other party replies:
“We can’t rëade wone, we must rëade all,
Please (naming some one), deliver the ball.”
If they guess the right person, they change sides and go through the game as before.[1]
- ↑ See Folkore Record, vol. v. p. 87, for a variant from a Surrey source. Conf. also Halliwell’s Nursery Rhymes (ed. 1846), No. ccxxxvi.
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