Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/53

 12 8. V. FEB., 1919.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

47

" I remember the tune, a very simple one, and I think I could transcribe it if you care to have it.

" The modern boy has in Sheffield, at any rate, forgotten the air, and more of the words. His version of the refrain runs like this : Aar Johnny Wesley aar Johnny Wesley, Luv and joy kum to you and to aar Wesley too, An* God bless you and send you a 'appy Noo Year

" There is a version of this song in ' A Garland of Christmas Carols,' edited by Joshua Sylvester, and published in 1861. This is also given in Chambers's ' Book of Days,' and was printed by ' N. & Q.' in an early number."

The Rev. Carus Vale Collier, of Langton Rectory, Malton, Yorks, writes :

" Your note in 'IS. & Q.' relating to the words spoken by Sheffield children at Christmastime interested me very much, and I am pleased to see that they still keep up the custom. No children in this part seem to come at all at Christmastime with their greetings. I enclose three versions of Sheffield greetings of about 1870. I wrote them down many years ago. One version is spoken, the other two sung to quite nice old tunes. When I was a boy at home in Sheffield tho first boy that came to the house on Christmas morning was asked to come inside, stand at the bottom of the stairs, and shout or sing his greeting as loud as he could. He then was given some piece of money as a Christmas box.

" The words of one song were as follows :

We wish a merrv Christmas, A happy New Year, A pocket full o' money And a cellar full o' beer. Pray God bless you, Pray God bless you, Pray God bless you,

Pray God send you a happy New Year ! We've been awhile a-wandering

Among the leaves so green, But now we've come a-wassailing, A penny to be seen.

Pray God bless you, &c.

We are not daily beggars

That beg from door to door ; We are your neighbours' children

Whom you have seen before. Pray God bless you, &c.

The road is very dirty,

Our shoes are very thin ; We have a little pocket

To put a penny in.

Pray God bless you, &c.

" The other song ran : Our jolly wassail, Our jolly wassail ! Love and joy come to you, And to our wassail bow (or bowl). Pray God bless you, And send you a happy New Year !

A New Year !

A New Year !

I've been a while a-wandering

Among the leaves so green, But now I've come a-wassailing,

A penny to be seen.

Bring us out the table,

Bring us out the cloth, Bring us out the bread and cheese

All for a Christmas box I

I have a little purse

Lined with leather skin, And I want a little sixpence

To line it well within. Our jolly wassail, Our jolly wassail ! Love and joy come to you, And to our wassail bow ! Pray God bless you, And send you a happy New Year.

11 Before I left Sheffield in 1892 Our jolly wassail ' had become ' Our Johnny Wesley.'

" The following greeting was spoken : I wish a merry Christmas, a happy New Year, A pocket full o' money and a cellar full 6' beer, An apple and a pear, a plum and a cherry, A sup o' good ale to make a man merry. God bless the master of this house, the missis also,. Likewise the little children that round the table go- I neither come to your house to beg nor to borrow,. Btit I come to your house to drive away all sorrow., A horse and a gig, and a good fat pig To kill next year.

Sometimes was added :

Ladies and gentlemen, sit down at your ease.

Put your hands in your pockets and give what

you please."

G. C. MOORE SMITH.

Sheffield.

NAPOLEON AND LORD JOHN RUSSELL. (12 S. v. 12). MR. LANDFEAR LUCAS will find a full account of Lord John Russell's visit to Napoleon at Elba in Spencer Walpole's Life of that statesman, published, in 1889. The visit would appear to have been of an entirely private and unofficial character. Lord John was travelling in Italy, and, being at Leghorn, crossed over to Elba and spent a couple of days at Porto Ferrajo. He visited Napoleon's palace ak 8 in the evening of Dec. 24, 1814, and remained about an hour and a half with the- Emperor. He made a long entry in his diary the following day, consisting in the main of a description of the Emperor's personal appearance and manners. More- than fifty years afterwards (viz., in Novem- ber, 1868) Lord John wrote to Mr. Van de Weyer an account (which was privately printed) of his interview with Napoleon. They conversed on many subjects the Russell family, Lord John's own allowance from the Duke of Bedford, the state of Spain, and Italy, the character of the Duke of Wellington, and. the arrangements likely to- be made at Vienna for the pacification of Europe. Lord John in his old age u&ed to* say that as the Emperor became interested