In _Carols of Cockayne_ (London, Chatto & Windus, 1874) the late Mr. Henry S. Leigh gave some poetical versions of Nursery Rhymes, which he termed “Chivalry for the Cradle.” The stories selected were “Humpty-Dumpty,” “Ride a Cock-horse to Banbury Cross,” and “Babie Bunting.” THE ROMAUNT OF HUMPTY-DUMPTY. ’Tis midnight, and the moonbeam sleeps Upon the garden sward: My lady in yon turret keeps Her tearful watch and ward. “Beshrew me!” mutters, turning pale, The stalwart seneschal; “What’s he that sitteth, clad in mail, Upon our castle wall?” “Arouse thee, friar of orders gray; What, ho! bring book and bell! Ban yonder ghastly thing, I say; And, look ye, ban it well. By cock and pye, the Humpty’s face!”―― The form turn’d quickly round; Then totter’d from its resting-place―― * * * * * That night the corse was found. The king, with hosts of fighting men, Rode forth at break of day; Ah! never gleam’d the sun till then On such a proud array. But all that army, horse and foot, Attempted, quite in vain, Upon the castle wall to put The Humpty up again. THE BALLAD OF BABYE BUNTING. The Knight is away in the merry green wood, Where he hunts the wild rabbit and roe: He is fleet in the chase as the late Robin Hood―― He is fleeter in quest of the foe. The nurse is at home in the castle, and sings To the babe that she rocks at her breast: She is crooning of love and of manifold things, And is bidding the little one rest. “Oh, slumber, my darling! oh, slumber apace! For thy father will shortly be here; And the skin of some rabbit that falls in the chase Shall be thine for a tippet, my dear.” ―――― H. DUMPTEII TRISTIS HISTORIA. Humptius Dumpteius Sedebat stulte muro: Humptius, heu, decidit Nec fatum in obscuro. Non omnes equi regii, Non viri potuere Pristinam rectitudinem Dumpteio præbere. AD INFANTEM BUNTINII. Buntincule beate! Pater venatur catè. Pellem feret cuniculi, Ut vestis sit Buntinculi. _The Hornet._ ――――:o:―――― THE MONTHS. Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November; February has twenty-eight alone, All the rest have thirty-one, Excepting leap-year, that’s the time, When February’s days are twenty-nine. These lines occur in an old play, “The Return from Parnassus,” printed in London in 1606, they may have been derived from the following old poem _De Computo_, written in the thirteenth century:―― “En avril, en juing, en septembre A .xxx. jours et en novembre: Tout li autre ont .xxxj jour, Fors fevriers qi est li plus cour, En soi que .xxviij. jors n’a, Ne plus ne meins n’i avra ja Fors en l’an qe bissextres vient, Adont en a, einsi avient, .xxix., de tant est creüs, L’an que bixestres est cheüs.”