J. F. Campbell Collection > Popular rhymes of Scotland

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RHYMES APPROPRIATE TO CHILDREN'S
AMUSEMENTS.
Said by boys, when enjoying" the amusement of riding
upon each other's backs —
Cripple Dick upon a stick,
Sandy on a sow,
Eide away to Galloway,
To buy a pund o' woo.
Sung" to their hobby-horses, or to walking-canes exalted
to an equestrian capacity —
I bad a little hobby-horse,
His mane was dapple-gray,
His head was made o' pease-strae,
His tail was made o' hay,
A boy standing- upon a hillock or other eminence, from
which he defies the eiforts of his companions to dislodge
him, exclaims, by way of challenge —
I, Willie Wastle,
Stand on my castle ;
And a' the dogs o' your toon
"Will no drive Willie Wastle doon.
When Oliver Cromwell lay at Haddington, he sent to re-
quire the governor of Home Castle in Berwickshire to
surrender. There is an unvarying tradition that the go-
vernor replied in the above quatrain of juvenile celebrity,
but was soon compelled to change his tune by the victor of
Dunbar. ' 1651, Feb. 13. One Jhone Cockburne, being
governor of the castle of Hume, after that a breach was
made in the wall, did yield the same to Cromuell and his
forces.' — Lamonfs Diary.
Stottie ba', liinnie ba', tell to me,
How mony bairns am I to liae ?
Ane to live, and ane to dee,
And ane to sit on the nurse's knee !
— Addressed to a hand-ball by girls, who suppose that they
will have as many children as the times they succeed in
catching it.