Ride a Cock-horse to Banbury Cross | No.4 |1887 Allen|

Описание: 🐎🔔💍[Lyrics below] I'm singing a nursery rhyme song with words from the Mother Goose Tradition and music composed by Frank J. Allen, published in 1887:2 in "Dainty Ditties or Old nursery rhymes with new tunes" by Frank J Allen (Uni of Rochester: http://hdl.handle.net/1802/14374).

The illustration is from c. 1916, published in "The real Mother Goose" by Wright, Blanche Fisher, illus (https://archive.org/details/realmothe....

The lyrics I sing run like this:

Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross,
To see an old lady ride on a white horse;
Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,
She shall have music wherever she goes.

La, la, la ... repeat

**Notes**
A "cock-horse" is a British-English term which can have several meanings. It can mean an energetic, 'high-spirited' horse, or an extra horse to help pulling a cart or carriage up a hill. It can also mean a horse that's not a gelding. From around the 1600-1700s it could also mean a "fake" hobby-horse, like a stick with a horse's head to go pretend-riding, or an adult's knee/lap / foot for bouncing. There is also an expression expressing a manner of riding: "a-cock-horse", meaning to sit "astride" a horse, for instance as opposed to sitting sideways in an old fashioned lady's saddle.

I have read somewhere a story of how the lady on the white horse in this nursery rhyme was a real English queen who had had a mishap with her carriage, possibly losing a wheel. She was then given a beautiful, white horse to carry on travelling with, visiting Banbury. This might be a myth. In the earliest texts she is old. More modern verses have her being young.

Anyway, there are several variations through time when it comes to both the rhyme text of Ride a Cock-Horse to Banbury Cross and the melodies. You may listen here (present song included):

   • Ride a Cock-Horse to Banbury Cross | No.1 ...  
   • Ride a Cock-Horse to Banbury Cross | No.2 ...  
   • Ride a Cock-Horse to Banbury Cross | No.3 ...  
   • Ride a Cock-horse to Banbury Cross | No.4 ...  

The verses have changed through time. One version runs like this:

Ride a cock-horse,
To Banbury-cross
To see little Johnny
Get on a white horse.

An alternative verse is:
Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross,
To buy little Johnny a galloping horse;
It trots behind and it ambles before,
And Johnny shall ride till he can ride no more.

A version from "Traditional nursery songs of England" by Summerly, Felix, 1808-1882, published in
1846:42, has the horse as black (https://archive.org/details/tradition...

RIDE a cock-horse to Banbury-Cross,
To see an old woman ride on a black horse,
With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,
And she shall have music wherever she goes.

A verse printed in "Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book" (c. 1744), runs like this:

Ride a cock-horse
To Banbury Cross,
To see what Tommy can buy;
A penny white loaf,
A penny white cake,
And a two-penny apple-pie.

The same verse can be found in a print from 1784, in "Gammer Gurton's Garland, or, The nursery Parnassus : a choice collection of pretty songs and verses, for the amusement of all little good children who can neither read nor run", here from an edition by Joseph Ritson (1752-1803); Triphook, Robert, publisher; Harding and Wright, printer, published 1810:21 (https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Xt....

Here we also find another verse:

Ride a cock horse to Banbury cross,
To see an old woman get up on her horse ;
Rings on her fingers, and bells at her toes,
And so she makes music wherever she goes.

It differs from modern versions in that the subject is "an old woman".
The version printed in "Tommy Thumb's Song Book" in America in 1788, may have been in the original (c. 1744) edition. It has the "fine lady".

However, another version in "The Tom Tit's Song Book" (printed in London around 1790), had the following verse:

A ring on her finger,
A bonnet of straw,
The strangest old woman
That ever you saw.


***
Mine norske sangbøker for barn / My Norwegian Song Books for Kids:
Du kan bestille her / You may order here:
1. Ta min hånd https://share.google/vrajSQMLgGzUWm5dT
2. Rundsanger og kanon https://share.google/uWylCjqCN9xZelaQ3

#nurseryrhymesong
#nurseryrhymesongswithraremelodies


#nurseryrhymesfortoddlers
#riddlesong
#nurseryrymesongs