ID: 424
Date: 1950s - 2002
Title: Beg your pardon
Gender: Male 
Classification: Fun 
Rhyme: 

Beg your pardon, Mrs Arden,
There's a chicken in your garden.

(Auckland, 2001, Nelson, 2002)

--

Beg your pardon, Mrs Arden,
There's a crocodile  in your garden.

(NZ, 2000)

--

Beg your pardon, Mrs Harden,
There's a rooster in your garden.

(Mt Maunganui, 1950)

--

Beg your pardon, Mrs Varden,
There's a pig digging up your garden.

(Te Awamutu, 1970s)

--

I beg your pardon, Mrs Harding,
But your cat is in my garden.

(NZ ex UK, 1950s)

--
 
Background Info: Referred to by Sutton-Smith, 1959:98 (1950s):

Beg your pardon, Mrs Arden,
There's a nigger in your garden.

Beg your pardon, grouchy Grace,
Hope the cat will spit in your face

==

Recorded as a form of mock apology in Opie, 1967:  50:

Beg your pardon, grant your grace,
I hope the cows will spit in your face.

==

Features in adult novel by Shena Mackay, "The Orchard Road", about a 1950s Kent childhood, as an old Geordie rhyme:

Pardon Mrs Arden,
Me chicken's in your garden.
If it wasn't for his liver,
I'd drown him in the river.
(p 106)

==
 
Location: Various NZ 
Group size: 1 
Incidence: 6