The boys who carried the guy round on the Fifth had many local versions of the rhyme. At Islip in Oxfordshire, Chambers quoted from Ellis’s edition of Brand, they chanted that the day was the one God kept from blowing up king and parliament, then begged a stick and a stake for Victoria’s sake, threatening to take two if refused one. The begging always ended with ‘Please to remember Guy!’ or ‘Please to remember the bonfire!’
The Islip bonfire rhyme
5 November · Islip, Oxfordshire
No longer kept
A stick and a stake, For Victoria's sake; If you won't give me one, I'll take two
From Chambers's Book of Days, vol. 2, p. 550. Read the original
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