Nursery Rhyme. CLXXXIII. Riddles.

There was a man rode through our town,
    Gray Grizzle was his name;
His saddle-bow was gilt with gold,
    Three times I've named his name.

        [A Cinder-sifter.]

    A riddle, a riddle, as I suppose,
    A hundred eyes, and never a nose.

        [Snuff.]

    As I look'd out o' my chamber window
        I heard something fall;
    I sent my maid to pick it up,
        But she couldn't pick it all.

        [From MS. Sloane, 1489, fol. 16, written in the time of Charles I.]

There were three sisters in a hall,
There came a knight amongst them all;
Good morrow, aunt, to the one,
Good morrow, aunt, to the other,
Good morrow, gentlewoman, to the third,
    If you were my aunt,
        As the other two be,
    I would say good morrow,
        Then, aunts, all three.

        [A needle and thread.]

    Old mother Twitchett had but one eye,
    And a long tail which she let fly;
    And every time she went over a gap,
    She left a bit of her tail in a trap.

        [A pen.]

    When I was taken from the fair body,
        They then cut off my head,
        And thus my shape was altered;
    It's I that make peace between king and king,
        And many a true lover glad:
    All this I do and ten times more,
        And more I could do still,
    But nothing can I do,
        Without my guider's will.