The fifth of November
Gunpowder treason and plot,
When the King and his train
Had nearly been slain,
Therefore it shall not be forgot."

The Berkshire boys, as they carried their Guy and collected wood for
their bonfires, used to add the words--

"Our king's a valiant soldier,
With his blunderbuss on his shoulder,
Cocks his pistol, draws his rapier;
Pray give us something for his sake here.
A stick and a stake, for our good king's sake:
If ye won't give one, I'll take two,
The better for me, and the worse for you.

CHORUS--
"Hollow, boys, hollow, boys, make the bells ring,
Hollow, boys, hollow, boys, God save the King."

Some of the rhymes tell us about the nefarious deeds of wicked Guy
Fawkes, who

"... with his companions did contrive
To blow the House of Parliament up alive,
With three score barrels of powder down below,
To prove Old England's wicked overthrow;
But by God's mercy all of them got catched,
With their dark lantern, and their lighted match.
Ladies and gentlemen sitting by the fire,
Please put hands in pockets and give us our desire:
While you can drink one glass, we can drink two,
The better for we, and none the worse for you."

This rhyme was concluded with the following strange jingle--

"Rumour, rumour, pump a derry,
Prick his heart and burn his body,
And send his soul to Purgatory."[17]

The streets of Oxford used to be the scenes of great encounters
between the townsmen and gownsmen (or college students) on this
night, who, on any other night in the year, never thought of
fighting. Happily in recent years these fights have ceased, but even
now the gownsmen are "gated" on the night of the Fifth of November,
_i.e._ are confined to their colleges, lest there should be a
renewal of these encounters. So severe were the battles in ancient
times, that the tower of Carfax Church was lowered because the
townsfolk used to ascend thither and shoot their arrows at the
undergraduates; and the butchers were obliged to ply their trade
beyond the city walls, because they had used their knives and
cleavers in their annual fight.

At Martinmas, or the Feast of St. Martin, it was the custom to lay
in a stock of winter provisions, and many cows, oxen, and swine were
killed at this time, their flesh being salted and hung up for the
winter, when fresh provisions w