Letter: Hunting the lobster

Sir: I have just picked up a second-hand copy of Boosey and Hawkes' New National Song Book, revised edition 1958. It was in use at a primary school in Surrey in the 1960s. How times they are a-changin'.

The little mites were gathered round teacher's piano lisping "A-Hunting We Will Go", "Hunting the Hare", "The Hunt is Up", "John Peel" and "Now, Robin, Lend Me Thy Bow" which includes the lines, "For honest hunting never was accounted sin/Nor never shall for me."

RALPH WALKER

Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex