OLD MOTHER HUBBARD.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 259, 24 December 1914, Page 1 (Supplement)

OLD MOTHER HUBBARD.

FAVOURITE NURSERY RHYMES AND THEIR ORIGIN IN REALITY

Quite a number of those nursery rhymes wh'ch delighted our childhood tell us something about real people who actually lived in England. Many of our best-known children's stories have a foreign origin, and are known in different versions all over the world, but some of the favourites are home made.

We have just been hearing, for instance, that Mother Hubbard and her dog hail from Yealhampton, in South Devon. The lady was housekeeper at the manor house of the par'6h, and a lady named Sarah Catherine Martin wrote the rhyme.

At any rate this rhyme appears to liave first appeared in the old comedy •'Gammer Gurton's Needle," which was ncted before Queen Elizabeth. The same play also contained "Little Jack Horner" and "Jack and Jill." Its author is supposed to have been John Still, who afterwards became Bishop of Bath and Wells.

PIE AND ITS PURPOSE. "Little Jack Horner" was also a real person, and Still would know his story, as he married a grandniece of the original. There are two versions of the story, as usually told, but both aro myths. According to them Jack Horner was a scullion at Glastonbury Abbey, and when Henry VIII. dissolved the monasteries he .sent for the title deeds of all the lands belonging to the abbot. One version is that not wanting to give them all up, the abbot had a large pio made, and put some of the deeds into it, which he gave to the scullion. Jack Horner, to take to a trusty friend. Jack became hungry on the way, and thought he would sample the pie. so opened it. Finding the deeds, he abstracted some, and later on brought them forth, and claimed the estate of Mells as his own property. According to the other version, the deeds were sent to the King concealed in the pie so that they should not be stolen on the way. However, the pie is a myth, and Horner's name was Thomas, and, instead of being a scullion, he was a rich man who leased the Mells estate from the abbot and afterwards bought it from the King. It is certainly a desirable possession, and may well be called a plum.

THAT MERRY OLD SOUL. Old King Cole is another gentleman of British parentage, although there is some difference of opinion as to who he really was. Some say he was an ancient British king who had his headquarters at Colchester. Others think he was a certain cloth-maker of Reading who lived in the days 0 f Henry 1., the "fiddlers three" being a miller, weaver, and tailor. Then there were tho two unfortunate Babes in the Wood of East Anglican extraction, who may be heard wading after dark to this day if you go through Wailing or AVayland Wood between Watton and Kimberley in Norfolk. Tho 6tory is set out in full in a popular ballad, and it is satisfactory to know that tho wicked uncle came to a bad end; Ins cattle died, his land would grow nothing, h's sons were drowned, and from beggary lie went to gaol, where he died. It the Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe waa not exactly British, slio was born in the British States of America. Born in 1G65, her name was Elizabeth Foster, and she married a widower, Isaac Goose, who had ten children. As' sho herself was tho mother of 6ix, her family was certainly a large one, and to amuse them she used to toll them tales and make rhymes. . When ono of her daughters married a printer, she went to live with them, and amused her grandchildren in the same way. The printer thought the stories so good that he published them under the title of "Songs for the Nurspit or. Mother Goose s Melodies foi Children." Another famous rhyme also telLs tlie storv of an American damsel. This is little Mary of the lamb fame. It appears that Mary, whose real name was Elizabeth Sawyer, petted a forsaken lamb, and one day a student named Rawlston visited the school, and at once composed the well-known verses.