No. 111 Defence of the Castle
After the battle of Dunbar, Oliver Cromwell sent Colonel Fenwick with two regiments to reduce Hume Castle. The governor, Cockburn, when ordered to surrender, replied by quoting the following lines, which must have belonged to a boys’ game of his day:
I, William of the Wastle,
Am now in my castle,
And a’ the dogs in the town
Winna gae me gang down.
The rhyme, with small change, is still familiar in Scotland, and the game well known in Pennsylvania, where the defiance runs, less chivalrously,
Hally, hally, hastle,
Come into my new castle!
Or, with a change of usage,
Hally, hally, hastle,
Get off of my new castle!
In the first case the defender maintains his post against assailants; in the latter, he endeavors to capture one of a group who have established themselves in his castle, represented usually by a cellar-door.