my cowly
Was softer than silk,
And three times a-day
My poor cow would give milk.
Sing, oh poor Colly, &c.

She every year
A fine calf did me bring,
Which fetcht me a pound,
For it came in the spring.
Sing, oh poor Colly, &c.

But now I have kill'd her,
I can't her recall;
I will sell my poor Colly,
Hide, horns, and all.
Sing, oh poor Colly, &c.

The butcher shall have her,
Though he gives but a pound,
And he knows in his heart
That my Colly was sound.
Sing, oh poor Colly, &c.

And when he has bought her
Let him sell all together,
The flesh for to eat,
And the hide for leather.
Sing, oh poor Colly, &c.[*]

[Footnote *: A different version of the above, commencing,
My Billy Aroms, is current in the nurseries of Cornwall. One
verse runs as follows:

In comes the horner,
Who roguery scorns,
And gives me three farthings
For poor cowly's horns.

This is better than our reading, and it concludes thus:

There's an end to my cowly,
Now she's dead and gone;
For the loss of my cowly,
I sob and I mourn.]

CXXXV.

[A north-country song.]

Says t'auld man tit oak tree,
Young and lusty was I when I kenn'd thee;
I was young and lusty, I was fair and clear,
Young and lusty was I mony a lang year;
But sair fail'd am I, sair fail'd now,
Sair fail'd am I sen I kenn'd thou.

CXXXVI.

You shall have an apple,
You shall have a plum,
You shall have a rattle-basket,
When your dad comes home.

CXXXVII.

Up at Piccadilly oh!
The coachman takes his stand,
And when he meets a pretty girl,
He takes her by the hand;
Whip away for ever oh!
Drive away so clever oh!
All the way to Bristol oh!
He drives her four-in-hand.

[Illustration]

CXXXVIII.

[The first line of this nursery rhyme is quoted in Beaumont
and Fletcher's _Bonduca_, Act v, sc. 2. It is probable also
that Sir Toby alludes to this song in _Twelfth Night_, Act
ii, sc. 2, when he says, "Come on; there is sixpence for you;
let's have a song." In _Epulario, or the Italian banquet_,
1589, is a receipt "to make pies so that the birds may be
alive in them and flie out when it is cut up," a mere device,
live birds being introduced after the pie is made. This may be
the original subject of the following song