A pie sat on a pear tree

A correspondent wrote to Hone on 3 May 1826 about a drinking game at Yarmouth dinners once the cloth was drawn and the ladies had gone. One man sang three times over that a pie, or magpie, sat on a pear tree, and while his neighbour sang the next line about how merrily she hopped, he had to drain a bumper. If his glass was not empty by the last line he had to begin again, so the song went round the table until most of the company were knocked up.