Correspondence. 387
(2) Cf. p. S2. — This I had from my nurse's daughter, about 1888. We were then living in Brantford, Ontario, where she was at school and got the rhyme from some of her schoolmates. Naturally there are no Cromwell legends in Ontario, so the name has become changed :
" Old Grumble is dead and in his grave,
H'm, ha, in his grave ; There grew an old appletree over his head
H'm, ha, over his head ; The apples grew ripe and ready to fall,
H'm, ha, etc.. There came an old woman and gathered them all ; Up jumped old Grumble and hit her a knock And made the old woman go hippity-hop ; And then she sat down on a strawberry hill. And while she sat there she made her will ; And all her effects they lay on the shelf. If you want any more you can sing it yourself."
" A strawberry hill " is, of course, nonsense ; it would appear to be the place-name, Strawberry Hill, made into a common noun by persons whose knowledge of English geography is, like that of most Canadians, not very perfect.
(3) An interesting example of the transference of a festival is the occasional use of a modification of the rhyme for May 29. Among Ontario school children it sometimes became :
" The twenty-fourth of May Is the Queen's birthday. If you don't give us a holiday We'll all run away."
Royal Oak Day is completely forgotten, indeed popular senti- ment would most likely be against, not for, Charles II. But the immense popularity of Queen Victoria and the fact of her birth- day coming near the right time filled the gap.
H. J. Rose.
