Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 14, 1903.djvu/183

 COLLECTANEA.

Stray Notes on Oxfordshire Folklore. (Continued from p. 74.)

V. — Seasonal Festivals.

Shrovetide.- — At Shrovetide, on the Tuesday, the children at Baldon go round the village begging pence, and singing the following song :

Pit-a-pat, the pan's hot,

I be come a Shroving. Catch a fish afore the net,

That's better than nothing.

Eggs, lard, and flour's dear.

This makes me come a-Shroving here.

If the singers do not get any money given them, they go on as follows :

Pit-a-pat, the pan's hot,

I be come a Shroving, A bit of bread and a bit of cheese,

That's better than nothing.

For eggs, lard, and flour's dear.

So I be come a Shroving here. (1895-)

The following is from Oakley and Ickford, on the Buckingham- shire border of Oxfordshire :

Pit-a-pat ! the pan's hot, I be come a-Shroving ; A bit of bread, a bit of cheese Or a cold apple dumpling.

Up with the kettle ! Down with the pan !

Give me a penny, and I'll be on. (^Circa 1897.)