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    _The big book of_ NURSERY RHYMES


    _DEDICATION_

    _To the_
    =Youngest Baby of All=
    _with the_
    Love
    _of the_
    Compiler
    _and the_
    Artist.


    _Printed in Great Britain by Blackie & Son, Ltd., Glasgow_


    BLACKIE & SON LTD.,
    50 OLD BAILEY, LONDON, AND 17 STANHOPE STREET, GLASGOW

    BLACKIE & SON (INDIA) LTD.,
    BOMBAY; BLACKIE & SON (CANADA) LTD., TORONTO


    CURLY LOCKS

    Thou shalt sit on a
    cushion and sew a
    fine seam. And feed
    upon strawberries
    sugar and cream.


    The big book of Nursery Rhymes

    _Edited by_ Walter Jerrold

    _Illustrated by_ Charles Robinson

    _Published by_ Blackie and Son, Ltd London




_INTRODUCTION_


The very title, Nursery Rhymes, which has come to
be associated with a great body of familiar verse, is in itself
sufficient indication of the manner in which that verse has been
passed down from generation to generation. Who composed the little
pieces it is, save in a few cases, impossible to say: some are
certainly very old and were doubtless repeated thousands of times
before their first appearance in print. References to certain
favourites may be found in the pages of the dramatists of Elizabeth's
time.

Attempts are sometimes made to read into these Rhymes a deeper
significance than the obvious and simple one which has accounted for
their enduring popularity in the Nursery, but this volume has no
concern with such profound interpretations, any more than have the
little people who love the old jingles best.

The earliest known collection of Nursery Rhymes was published about
1760 by John Newbery, the first publisher who devoted his attention to
very young readers. In his book, which included songs from the plays
of Shakespeare, some of the Rhymes appeared with titles which sound
strange to our ears; thus "Ding, Dong, Bell" was called "Plato's
Song", while "There were Two Birds sat on a Stone" was "Aristotle's
Song". To each Rhyme was appended a moral maxim, as for example, to
"Is John Smith within?" is added "Knowledge is a treasure, but
practice is the key to it". Most of the Rhymes in this little Newbery
collection, amongst them "There was a little Man and he wooed a little
Maid" and "The Wise Men of Gotham", are repeated in the present volume
so far as may be in accordance with that early text. Others have been
compared with early versions in chap-books issued late in the
eighteenth century or early in the nineteenth.

Students divide our rhymes into narrative pieces, historical,
folk-lore, game rhymes, counting-out rhymes, jingles, fragments, and
so forth, but for the children for whom and by whom they are
remembered, and for whose sake they are here collected and pictured
anew, they are just--Nursery Rhymes.




    _CONTENTS_


    A AND B AND SEE
    A APPLE PIE
    A, B, C
    A CARRION CROW
    A DIFFICULT RHYME
    A DILLER, A DOLLAR
    A FALLING OUT
    A FROG HE WOULD A-WOOING GO
    ALL FOR WANT OF A NAIL
    A MEDLEY
    ANDREW
    A NICK AND A NOCK
    ANOTHER FALLING OUT
    A PIE SAT ON A PEAR-TREE
    A STRANGE SIGHT
    A SWARM OF BEES
    A VARIED SONG
    A WARNING
    A WAS AN ARCHER
    A WONDERFUL THING
    BAA, BAA, BLACK SHEEP
    BABY BUNTING
    BANDY-LEGS
    BAT, BAT
    BESSIE BELL AND MARY GRAY
    BETTY WINKLE'S PIG
    BILLY, BILLY
    BIRDS OF A FEATHER
    BLOW, WIND, BLOW!
    BLUE BELL BOY
    BOBBY SHAFT
    BOBBY SNOOKS
    BOW-WOW, SAYS THE DOG
    BOYS AND GIRLS
    BRIAN O'LIN
    BUTTONS
    BUY ME A MILKING-PAIL
    BUZ AND HUM
    CAESAR'S SONG
    CAT AND DOG
    CHARLEY, CHARLEY
    CHRISTMAS
    CLAP HANDIES
    COCK-A-DOODLE-DO
    COCK-A-DOODLE-DO
    COCK-CROW
    COCK ROBIN'S COURTING
    COFFEE AND TEA
    COMICAL FOLK
    CROSS-PATCH
    CURLY LOCKS
    CUSHY COW
    DAFFY-DOWN-DILLY
   