Stewie:

"
They suggest the sense of 'bumble' as 'bandage for blindfolding' (OED).
"

Of course -- that's it!! Dunno how I missed that -- OED bumble n5: A bandage for blindfolding. 'A kind of blinkers. North.' (Halliw.)
   1623 Lisle Ælfric on O. & N.T. Pref. 14 Hood-winked with his implicite faith, as with a bumble on his head.

One problem solved.

Lyr. Add:UNFORTUNATE LAD -- As I was walking down by the ---- Hospital,

I posted a transcription from another Bodleian text a day or so ago -- click here

Bodleian has seven printings of "The Unfortunate Lad". One is not yet scanned, and with another, the thumbnail doesn't expand. Of the five copies I've read, all but one read "Lock Hospital". (And there's a Lock-sized gap in the remaining text!)

The Bodleian catalogue gives (on what authority I don't know) the date-range 1863-1885 for the two Such printings. No dates given for the other five, but I'd guess they fall into the same time-span.

For what it's worth, all five texts read "handsful [sic] of lavender" (which I misremembered as "laurel" earlier in this thread). Dunno whether the odd spelling of "handfuls" is significant, but it's consistent across the whole range of printings, which are pretty-much identical apart from occasional spelling variants, and The Lost Lock in one.

One last question -- anyone have a primary source for "The Unfortunate Rake"? It's in the database, but only generally referenced (with the comments taken from Goldstein's sleevenotes to the Folkways "The Unfortunate Rake" CD). Goldstein simply says, "This 19th century broadside text ..."

Robin