[16] Forster, _Life of Goldsmith_, II, 122. [17] Chappell, loc. cit., p. 569. I have come across a verse sung on Earl Grey and Lord Brougham, written in 1835, which may have been in imitation of this song:-- Mother Bunch shall we visit the moon? Come, mount on your broom, I'll stick on a spoon, Then hey to go, we shall be there soon ... etc. Mother Bunch is a familiar character of British folk-lore, who figures in old chapbooks as a keeper of old-world saws, and gives advice in matters matrimonial. One of the earliest accounts of her is _Pasquill's Jests with the Merriments of Mother Bunch_, extant in several editions, which was reprinted by Hazlitt in _Old English Jestbooks_, 1864, Vol. III. There are also _Mother Bunch's Closet newly broke open_, _Mother Bunch's Golden Fortune Teller_, and _Mother Bunch's Fairy Tales_, published by Harris in 1802. The name also occurs in _Mother Osborne's Letter to the Protestant Dissenters rendered into English Metre by Mother Bunch_, 1733. Mother Bunch, like Mother Goose and Mother Shipton, may be a traditional name, for Mother Bunch has survived in connections which suggest both the wise woman and the witch. Another old song which figures in early nursery collections is as follows:-- What care I how black I be? Twenty pounds will marry me; If twenty won't, forty shall-- I am my mother's bouncing girl. (_c._ 1783, p. 57.) Chappell mentions a song called, _What care I how fair she be_, which goes back to before 1620.[18] The words of these songs seem to have suggested a parody addressed to Zachary Macaulay, the father of the historian, who pleaded the cause of the slaves. The Bill for the abolition of slavery was passed in 1833, and the following quatrain was sung with reference to it:-- What though now opposed I be? Twenty peers will carry me. If twenty won't, thirty will, For I'm His Majesty's bouncing Bill. (_N. & Q._, 8, XII, 48.) [18] Chappell, loc. cit., p. 315. Another so-called nursery rhyme which is no more than a popular song has been traced some way back in history by Halliwell, who gives it in two variations:-- Three blind mice, see how they run! They all run after the farmer's wife, Who cut off their tails with a carving knife, Did you ever see such fools in your life-- Three blind mice! (1846, p. 5.) In _Deuteromalia_ of 1609 this stands as follows:-- Three blind mice, three blind mice! Dame Julian, the miller and his merry old wife She scrapte the tripe, take thow the knife.