Mr. Newell (p. 72) gives versions of this game which are fuller and more complete than those given here. He thinks it bears traces of ancient origin, and may be the last echo of a mediæval song, in which an imprisoned knight is saved from approaching death by the daughter of the king, or soldan, who keeps him in confinement.
I. Up the streets and down the streets, The windows made of glass; Is not [naming one of the children] a nice young lass? She can dance, she can sing, She can show her wedding-ring. Fie, for shame! fie, for shame! Turn your back behind you.
II. Up streets, down streets, Windows made of glass; Isn't "Jenny Jenkins" a handsome young lass? Isn't "Johnny Johnson" as handsome as she? They shall be married, When they can agree.
--Monton, Lancashire, Colleyhurst, Manchester (Miss Dendy).
III. Up street and down street, Each window's made of glass; If you go to Tommy Tickler's house You'll find a pretty lass.
--Halliwell's _Nursery Rhymes_, cccclxxx.
(_b_) In the Liverpool version the children stand in a ring and sing the words. At "Fie, for shame," the child named ceases to sing, and the others address her particularly. When the verse is ended she turns her back to the inside of the ring. All do this in turn. The Monton game is played the same as "kiss-in-the-ring" games.
(_c_) Northall (_English Popular Rhymes_, p. 549), gives a version almost the same as the Monton version. He also quotes some verses from a paper by Miss Tennant in the _English Illustrated Magazine_, June 1885, which she gives as a song of the slums of London. In _Gammer Gurton's Garland_ (1783, reprint 1810, p. 34), is a verse which is the same as Halliwell's, with two additional lines--
Hug her, and kiss her, and take her on your knee, And whisper very close, Darling girl, do you love me?
Mactaggart, in describing this, says it is one of the most celebrated amusements of the Ingle ring. To begin it, one in the ring speaks as follows:--
I hae been awa at the wadds and the wears These seven lang years; And come hame a puir broken ploughman, What will ye gie me to help me to my trade?
He may either say he's a "puir broken ploughman" or any other trade, but since he has chosen that trade some of the articles belonging to it must always be given or offered to recruit it. But the article he most wants he privately tells one of the party, who is not allowed to offer him anything, as he knows the thing, which will throw the offerer in a wadd, and must be avoided as much as possible, for to be in a wadd is a very serious matter. Now, the one on the left hand of the "poor ploughman" makes the first offer by way of answer to what above was said--"I'll gie ye the coulter to help ye to your trade." The ploughman answers, "I don't thank ye for the coulter; I hae ane already." Then another offers him another article belonging to the ploughman's business, such as the moolbred, but this also is refused: another gives the sock, another the stilts, another the spattle, another the naigs, and so on until one gives the soam, which was the article he most wanted, and was the thing secretly told to the one player. This throws the giver into a wadd, out of which he is relieved in the following manner:--