nursery rhymes
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No, I’m not picking a fight with Colchester’s claim to Humpty Dumpty, for they did indeed have a huge Royalist cannon called Humpty Dumpty which was destroyed by the Parliamentarians, see http://www.englishcivilwar.org/2012/04/tracing-siege-of-colchester.html and https://lordgreys.weebly.com/articles-and-features/humpty-dumpty-exploded). However, I definitely find fault with any silly notion about Richard’s horse at Bosworth being called Wall (https://murreyandblue.org/2022/01/02/humpty-dumpty-and-his-wall-were-richard-iii-and-his-horse/ and https://murreyandblue.org/2021/08/22/hey-diddle-dumpty/). That’s…
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There have been previous posts on Murrey & Blue about fairy tales, nursery rhymes and so on, from their original meaning to when they first emerged. Some of them are much younger than I’d always thought, so when, in the course of my writing, I wished to allude to The Sleeping Beauty, or at least…
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We all know the Grand Old Duke of York marched his 10,000 men up a hill and then down again. But which Duke of York was it? If you go here you’ll find there are a number of candidates, including the 3rd Duke, father of Edward IV and Richard III. In general, however, my…
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Well, we’ve all heard versions of the true meaning of Humpty-Dumpty, including that it was a reference to a 17th-century cannon used in the Siege of Colchester. Oh and Humpty may also have been a drink of brandy boiled with ale. All nursery rhymes had beginnings somewhere, and also have some wild notions about their…
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THE ORANGE AND LEMON CHURCHES OF OLD LONDON
Blitz, burials, citrus fruits, executions, Great Fire of London, Great Plague, Grinling Gibbons, Hardicanute, Harold I, Hugenots, Hugh Lord Dowding, James Boswell, James Gibbs, John Smith, John Stow, Katherine Howard, London, Lord Mayors of London, Nikolaus Pevsner, nursery rhymes, Pocahontas, rugby, Rugby School, Samuel Johnson, Sir Christopher Wren, Sir Richard Whittington, St. Clement Danes, St. clement Eastcheap, St. Dunstan’s and All Saints Stepney, St. Leonard’s Shoreditch, St. Martin Orgar, St. Mary-le-Bow Cheapside, St. Sepulchre’s Old Bailey, Thomas Culpeper, Will Somers, William Webb-EllisReblogged from A Medieval Potpourri sparkypus.com Old London – City of Churches. Bow Church can be seen to the left. Part of the The Visscher Panorama of London, 1616. Image Peter Harrington Rare Books. Orange and lemons say the bells of Saint Clement’s You owe me five farthings say the bells of St Martin’s…
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Here is a quote from this article: “….Some say Humpty Dumpty is a sly allusion to King Richard III, whose brutal 26-month reign ended with his death in the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. In this speculative version, King Richard III’s horse was supposedly called “Wall,” off of [sic] which he fell during battle.…
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Recently while perusing a book of folklore, I came across this traditional rhyme- I had a little nut tree, Nothing could it bear But a silver nutmeg and a golden pear; The king of Spain’s daughter Came to visit me; And all for the sake of my little nut tree. Apparently, this rhyme is supposed…
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Well, I associate Edward I with many things, but not children’s nursery rhymes. I can imagine him being used to frighten them witless, but not to sing and chant with humour. Anyway, according to this site two of our oldest rhymes are due to old Longshanks. I find it hard to believe the Dr…
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More musical connections?
Archbishop Cranmer, Balliol College, BBC Radio, executions, Gloucester, Hadleigh, heresy, Hugh Latimer, Ian Hislop, John Foxe, John Hooper, Marian persecution, Martyrs’ Memorial, Mary I, Nicholas Ridley, nursery rhymes, Oxford, Patrick Hamilton, Robert Ferrar, Rowland Tayler, Scotland, St. Andrews, St. David’s, Three Blind Mice, WalesThis nursery rhyme, although not mediaeval, is early modern and is supposed to refer to a monarch just a few places after Richard III. Here (left) we have the Martyrs’ Memorial near Balliol College, Oxford, that commemorates three of Mary I’s most prominent victims: Archbishop Cranmer and Bishops Latimer and Ridley. They were not the only…
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Sometime ago I read that the words of the old Hey Diddle Diddle nursery rhyme were in fact a reference to the story of Richard III. There are other theories, of course, including this of Elizabeth I: “The story goes that Elizabeth, was often called a cat for the treatment of her court, the mice.…
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