They ratted an’ they ranted, an’ the next thing they did find Was a bull calf in a Tory fold, an’ that they left behind. Look ye there! One said it was a bull calf, an’ another he said, “Nay, It’s just a little jackass that has never learnt to bray.” Look ye there! (_Lord R. Churchill_). They ratted an’ they ranted, an’ the next thing they did find Was a two-three children leaving school, an’ these they left behind. Look ye there! One said they were children, but another he said, “Nay, They’re no’ but little Radicals, so we’ll leave ’em to their play.” Look ye there! They ratted an’ they ranted, an’ the next thing they did find, Was a poet singing in a ditch, an’ him they left behind. Look ye there! One said it was a poet, an’ another he said, “Nay; It’s only just a poor young man whose wits are stole away.” Look ye there! (_A. C. Swinburne._) They ratted an’ they ranted, an’ the next thing they did find, Was two young lovers in a lane, an’ these they left behind. Look ye there! One said that they were lovers, but another he said “Nay; They’re two poor wandering lunatics: come, let us go away.” Look ye there! (_Erin and John Morley._) So they ratted an’ they ranted till, the setting of the sun, And they’d naught to bring away at last when election time was done. Look ye there! Then one unto the other said, “This rattin’ doesn’t pay; But we’n powler’t up an’ down a bit, an’ had a rattlin’ day.” Look ye there! _Pall Mall Gazette._ July 7, 1886. Mr. Randolph Caldecott must have founded his well known children’s ballad upon the following very old nursery rhyme:―― There were three jovial Welshmen, As I have heard them say, And they would go a hunting Upon St. David’s day. All the day they hunted, And nothing could they find, But a ship a-sailing, A-sailing with the wind. One said it was a ship, The other he said, nay; The third said it was a house, With the chimney blown away. And all the night they hunted, And nothing could they find But the moon a-gliding, A-gliding with the wind. One said it was the moon, The other he said, nay; The third said it was a cheese, And half o’t cut away. ――――:o:―――― The following old rhyme was sung to the tune of Chevy Chace. It was taken from a poetical tale in the “Choyce Poems” printed in London in 1662. John Poole introduced the song in his _Hamlet Travestie_ in 1810, without any acknowledgment, perhaps thinking it was too well known to require mention. Three children sliding on the ice Upon a summer’s day, It so fell out they all fell in, The rest they ran away.