FOURTH CLASS--PROVERBS 68 FIFTH CLASS--SCHOLASTIC 76 SIXTH CLASS--SONGS 82 SEVENTH CLASS--RIDDLES 119 EIGHTH CLASS--CHARMS 135 NINTH CLASS--GAFFERS AND GAMMERS 141 TENTH CLASS--GAMES 154 ELEVENTH CLASS--PARADOXES 196 TWELFTH CLASS--LULLABIES 205 THIRTEENTH CLASS--JINGLES 213 FOURTEENTH CLASS--LOVE AND MATRIMONY 224 FIFTEENTH CLASS--NATURAL HISTORY 251 SIXTEENTH CLASS--ACCUMULATIVE STORIES 282 SEVENTEENTH CLASS--LOCAL 299 EIGHTEENTH CLASS--RELICS 303 INDEX 317 [Illustration] [Illustration] FIRST CLASS--HISTORICAL. I. Old King Cole Was a merry old soul, And a merry old soul was he; He called for his pipe, And he called for his bowl, And he called for his fiddlers three. Every fiddler, he had a fiddle, And a very fine fiddle had he; Twee tweedle dee, tweedle dee, went the fiddlers. Oh, there's none so rare, As can compare With King Cole and his fiddlers three! [The traditional Nursery Rhymes of England commence with a legendary satire on King Cole, who reigned in Britain, as the old chroniclers inform us, in the third century after Christ. According to Robert of Gloucester, he was the father of St. Helena, and if so, Butler must be wrong in ascribing an obscure origin to the celebrated mother of Constantine. King Cole was a brave and popular man in his day, and ascended the throne of Britain on the death of Asclepiod, amidst the acclamations of the people, or, as Robert of Gloucester expresses himself, the "fole was tho of this lond y-paid wel y-nou." At Colchester there is a large earthwork, supposed to have been a Roman amphitheatre, which goes popularly by the name of "King Cole's kitchen." According to Jeffrey of Monmouth, King Cole's daughter was well skilled in music, but we unfortunately have no evidence to show that her father was attached to that science, further than what is contained in the foregoing lines, which are of doubtful antiquity. The following version of the song is of the seventeenth century, the one given above being probably a modernization:--