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LONDON BRIDGE |
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Then we must build it up again. What shall we build it up withal ? Build it up with iron and steel, Iron and steel will bend and break. Build it up with wood and stone, Wood and stone will fall away. Build it up with silver and gold, Silver and gold will be stolen away. Then we must set a man to watch, Suppose the man should fall asleep ? Then we must put a pipe in his mouth, Suppose the pipje should fall and break ? Then we must set a dog to watch, Suppose the dog should run away ? Then we must chain him to a post. The two lines in italic are all regularly repeated after each line.—M. Green.
Another correspondent to this magazine, in the same volume, p. 507, observes that the ballad concerning London Bridge u formed, in my remembrance, part of a Christmas Carol, and commenced thus—
Dame, get up and bake your pies, On Christmas-day in the morning. The requisition goes on to the dame to prepare for the feast, and her answer is—
London Bridge is fallen down, On Christ-mas day in the morning, &c. The inference always was, that until the bridge was rebuilt some stop would be put to the Dame's Christmas operations; but why the falling of London Bridge should form part of a Christmas Carol at Newcastle-upon-Tyne I am at a loss to know." Some fragments were also printed in the Mirror for November 1823; and a version is also given by Ritson, Gammer Gurtorfs Garland. The Heimskringla (Laing, ii. 260, 261) gives an animated description of the Battle of London Bridge, when Ethelred, after the death of Sweyn, was assisted by Olaf in retaking and entering London, and it is curious that the first line of the game-rhyme appears— |
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