This ditty has come down to us as a nursery rhyme, having been printed in several such collections, but it obviously had a life of its own outside the nursery. It is not common and has only been noted in oral tradition in Gloucestershire, but popular versions have been passed on within families in England and Ireland, including:

There was a little man and he had a little gun and up the chimney he did run
with a belly full of fat and a long tall hat, with a pancake stuck to his bum.

For a Gloucestershire version with a tune, see http://glostrad.com/there-was-a-little-man-2/.

Notes by Gwilym Davies 19 April 2015