Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/434

This page needs to be proofread.

356 NOTES AND QUERIES. " [i2s.vm.AP R iL3o,i92i. RAINING IN THE SUNSHINE (12 S. viii. 307). A similar saying to that of the Normans but in a highly" particularized form may be seen in Swift: Colonel Atwit. It rain'd, and the Sun shone at the same time. Neverout. -Why, then the Devil was beating his Wife behind the Door, with a Shoulder of Mutton. ' Polite Conversation,' Dialogue I. EDWARD BENSLY. The French fancy was, " C'est le diable qui bat sa femme et qui marie sa fille, quand il pleut et fait soleil a la fois." ST. SWTTHIN. PATRICIUS WALKER : " JUAN DE VEGA" (12 S. viii. 308). "Patricius Walker" was j the " pen-name " of Mr. William Allingham, I the delightful poet, the accomplished writer [ and magazine editor, and the friend ofj Carlyle. He died in 1889. Mrs. Allingham, | the well-known and admired artist, is still | alive. There is a capital portrait of William [ Allingham, by C. F. Murray, in the Fitz- william Museum, Cambridge. G. BUCKSTON BROWNE. 80, Wimpole Street, W.I. Patricius Walker was William Allingham (1824 - 89) the well - known poet. The ' Rambles ' were reprinted from Fraser's Magazine, to which he was a contributor and sub -editor. Juan de Vega was Charles Cochrane (the ! natural son of the Hon. Basil Cochrane, Lieut.- i Colonel 36th Foot). He traversed the United j Kingdom dressed in Hungarian costume and j sang songs while playing the guitar, 1825-6. ; The farce of ' The Wandering Minstrel,' by Henry Mayhew, produced at the Fitzroy j Theatre, London, Jan. 16, 1834, was founded | on his eccentricities. He died, aged 48, on June 13, 1855. ARCHIBALD SPARKE. "SOURCE OF LINES WANTED" (12 S. viii. 310). The lines asked about are of course a version of those sung universally on the 5th of November, when around the bonfires in commemoration of " Guy Faux Day " ; but the version we sang as boys sixty odd years ago was : A rope, a rope to hang the Pope, A penn'orth of cheese to choke him, A pint of beer to wash it down. And a bundle of faggots to burn him. D. K. T. The doggerel verse about which MR. THURSTAN MATTHEWS inquires was formerly chanted by boys on November 5, when begging for coppers to purchase fireworks, with which they celebrated the burning of the effigy of Guy Fawkes after they had carried it through the streets in the earlier part of that day. As a boy, living in the south of London, the words were very familiar to me at that season, but I can vouch for it that the use of them was not confined to any one district. The " No Popery " cry is not nearly so popular as it was thirty or forty years ago, and Guy Fawkes' Day is not anything like the festi- val it used to be with the London gamin. Last Noverrfber, in the vicinity of the Buckingham Palace Road, I noticed some boys were carrying a " Guy " and were repeating some verses which seemed to be the old familiar ones, though I did not stay to identify them. I may add that, while I agree with our editor that " A jolly good fire to smoke him " would make a better rhyme, I feel almost certain that " roast him " were the words that I used to hear. F. A. RUSSELL. 116, Arran Road, S.E.6. Readers of ' Father and Son ' will re- member that in 1857, or thereabouts, a tall and bony Jersey Protestant with a raucous voice used to perambulate the streets of Islington carrying a yoke across his shoulders, from the ends of which hung ropes of onions. He used to shout at abrupt intervals, in a tone which might wake the dead : Here's your rope . . . To hang the Pope . . . And a penn'orth of cheese to choke him. " My Father," adds Mr. Gosse, " did not eat onions, but he encouraged this terrible fellow, with his wild eyes and long strip of hair, because of his ' godly attitude towards the Papacy,' and I used to watch him dart out of the front door, present his penny, and retire, graciously waving back the proffered onion." BENJAMIN WALKER. Langstone, Erdington. A loaf of bread to feed the Pope. From personal knowledge, for I joined in the fun on many occasions, the lines almost as quoted by MR. THURSTAN MATTHEWS, but commencing " A ha'penny loaf," &c., were, between forty and fifty years ago, sung, or chanted, or shouted by the boys of St. Peter's School, Upper Ken- nington Lane, S.E., particularly as the 5th of November approached. DUDLEY WRIGHT. Beaumont Buildings, Oxford.