Oxfordshire
Aubrey, in MS. Lansd., 231, gives the following: It is the custom for the boys and girls in country schools in several parts of Oxfordshire, at their breaking up in the week before Easter, to go in a gang from house to house, with little clacks of wood, and when they come to any door, there they fall a-beating their clacks, and singing this song:
“Herrings, herrings, white and red,
Ten a penny, Lent’s dead;
Rise, dame, and give an egg,
Or else a piece of bacon.
One for Peter, two for Paul,
Three for Jack a Lent’s all.
Away, Lent, away!”
They expect from every house some eggs, or a piece of bacon, which they carry baskets to receive, and feast upon at the week’s end. At first coming to the door, they all strike up very loud, “Herrings, herrings,” &c., often repeated. As soon as they receive any largess, they begin the chorus—
“Here sits a good wife,
Pray God save her life;
Set her upon a hod,
And drive her to God.”
But if they lose their expectation and must goe away empty, then, with a full cry,—
“Here sits a bad wife,
The devil take her life;
Set her upon a swivell,
And send her to the devil.”
And, in further indignation, they commonly cut the latch of the door, or stop the key-hole with dirt, or leave some more nasty token of displeasure.—Thom’s Anecdotes and Traditions, 1839, p. 113.