The genesis of this rhyme can only be the events of the year 1660, when General Monk, having crossed the Tweed at Coldstream, marched to London, transmuted the long discredited "Rump" into a more representative body by recalling some of the old members of Charles I.'s reign, and in the name of this Parliament welcomed Charles II. back to London.
The rhyme seems to breathe not only thankfulness but secrecy, and thus it accurately expresses the political conditions obtaining at the time.
Cromwell's rule was a despotism of the Executive which soon came to be profoundly disliked by all classes of society. Quarter Session records show the extent to which the liberty of the subject was restrained. People were sent to gaol for "driving of horses upon the Lord's Day"; for swearing such mild oaths as "upon my life" and "God is my witness" they were fined six and eightpence. As for liberty of conscience it was a thing undreamed of, and Quakers were no better off than Papists. Colonel Hutchinson's Memoirs contain many glimpses of the discontent smouldering under a despotism worse than that of the Stuarts. Provincial Major-Generals were appointed, who pushed the local J. P. from his position of dignity and "behaved like bashaws" in their enforcement of an exaggerated moral code. They set all the people "muttering." Notice Hutchinson's choice of a word. Of open manifestations of joy at the prospect of the return of the Monarchy we are to understand that there were but few. One reason was that a very strict censorship prevailed to check the circulation of broadsheets, pamphlets, and newspapers. I lay stress upon these circumstances, because they show the historical interest of this jingle. It was only in obscure tracts and chimney-corner and alehouse ditties such as this that the smouldering discontent could find articulate expression. This rhyme is not confined to North Staffordshire. A member of the North Staffordshire Field Club
