The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland Volume I Part 56

Can I [we] get there by candle-light?

Yes, if your legs are long and light.

Open the gate as high as the sky, And let the king and his queen go by.

-Dorsets.h.i.+re (_Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 230, 231).

VIII. How many miles to Banbury?

Three score and ten.

Can I get there by candle-light?

Yes, and back again.

But mind the old witch doesn't catch you.

-London (Miss Dendy).

IX. How many miles to Barley Bridge?

Three score and ten.

Can I get there by candle-light?

Yes, if your legs be long.

A courtesy to you, and a courtesy to you, If you please will you let the king's horses through?

Through and through shall they go, For the king's sake; But the one that is the hindmost Will meet with a great mistake.

-Halliwell's _Popular Rhymes_, p. 217.

X. How many miles to Barney Bridge?

Three score and ten.

Will I be there by Candlema.s.s?

Yes, and back again.

A curtsey to you, another to you, And pray, fair maids, will you let us through?

Thro' and thro' shall you go for the king's sake, But take care the last man does not meet a mistake.

-Dublin (Mrs. Lincoln).

XI. How many miles to Burslem?

Three score and ten.

Can we get there by candle-light?

Yes, and back again.

Open the gates so wide, so wide, And let King George aside, aside; The night is so dark we cannot see, Thread the needle and go through.

-Isle of Man (A. W. Moore).

XII. How many miles to Banbury Cross?

Three score and ten.

Shall we get there by midnight?

Yes, if you run well.

Then open your gates as wide as the sky, And let King George and his men pa.s.s by.

It is so dark we cannot see, so thread the needle Nancy, Thread the needle Nancy.

One, two, three.

-Warwick (from a little girl living near Warwick, through Mr. C. C.

Bell).

XIII. How many miles to London?

Three score ten.

Can I get there by candle-light?

Yes, and back again.

Open the gate and let me through.

Not unless you're black and blue.

Here's my black and here's my blue, Open the gates and let me through.

Dan, Dan, thread the needle; Dan, Dan, sew.

-_Suffolk County Folk-lore_, p. 63.

XIV. How many miles to Babylon?

Three score and ten.

Shall I be there by candle-light?

Yes, there and back again.

Open the gates as wide as high, And let King George and his family pa.s.s by.

-Wales (_Folk-lore Record_, v. 88).

{ Barley Bridge?

XV. How many miles to { Banbury?

{ London?

Four score and ten [_or_, Fifty miles and more].

Shall we be there by candle-light?

Oh, yes, and back again.

[_Or, at Market Drayton._ s.h.i.+ft your feet with nimble light, And you'll be there by candle-light.]

Open the gates as wide as the sky, And let King George and his lady go by.

-Market Drayton, Ellesmere, Whitchurch, (Burne's _Shrops.h.i.+re Folk-lore_, p. 522).

XVI. How many miles to Bethlehem?

Three score and ten.

Shall we get there by candle-light?

Yes, there and back again.

So open the gates and let King George and his family go through.

-Hayton, near York (H. Hardy).

XVII. How far is it to Babylon?

Three score miles and ten.

Can I get there by candle-light?

Yes, there and back again.

-Sporle, Norfolk (Miss Matthews).

XVIII. How many miles to Babylon?

Three score and ten.

Can you get there by candle-light?

O yes, and back again.