Not All Nonsense.

King Country Chronicle, Volume X, Issue 909, 23 September 1916, Page 6

Not All Nonsense.

We are apt to talk of nonsense verses and nursery rhymes in the same breath, and, as a matter of fact, such a jingle as "Little Jack Horner" does not seem to have a great deal of sense in it. Yet this rhyme is in the Bodleian Library, and. has been learnedly discussed by professors and critics and archaeologists from time immemorial. Evidence has been adduced to show that Horner the Imn/ortal, one of the heroes of nurseryland, was a bit of a villain. He was, according to these wiseacres, the steward of the Abbot of Glastonbury, and the plum he extracted from the Christmas pie was the title deeds of the Manor of Wells ! If you were to go to the Tower, you would see the original of one of the best-known nursery rhymes. It is Queen Elizabeth on a white horse, in the actual finery in which she was wont to make her Royal progresses. All the countryside went to certain points to see her pass, some on "shank's pony," some in carts, and some in coaches and on horseback. They w r ere all intent on seeing "a fine lady ride on a white horse, with rings on her fingers," at least, although "bells on her toes" may have been a bit of an exaggeration. And what about Jack and Jill" ? Talk of immortality ! Nothing that Shakespeare or Milton, or Tennyson ever wrote has a tithe of the popularity of this little ditty. Who wrote it ? Nobody knows. But it is of undoubted antiquity. It is said to refer to the union of the Saxon and the Norman into the virile British race.

You see, there is no doubt that Jack—Saxton John—"fell down" at the Battle of Hastings, and "broke his. crown." Jill, the French Julienne, quite expected that he would come back again to her, but.he did no such thing. He stuck stolidly to his own manners and customs and speech, and instead of climbing the Norman hill again, Jill came tumbling after Jack, and became a Saxon, too. It sounds all right, doesn't it ?