Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1881-09-06
Origin Of Some Nursery Rhymes.

cinderella; or, the Glass Slipper" !"
is very old srory. Thousands Of years
ago It was told to boys and girls. The
original read that an eagle stole the Slip
per Of very pretty Egyptian lady and
bore 1t OH. The eagle dropped 1t, and
some one carried 1t to the king, who
made 1T known all over his kingdom
that he would marry the lady whose
tiny foot it should fit. And so Cind-
erella, the cinder-girl, became queen
In France, Germany, and this country
the story has taken several shapes, and
has always been q favorite.
Little Jack Horneru has the follow.
ing history: In England, in the reign
of Henry WILL, there lived a Mr.. Horn
er: Henry, the king, wished to tear
down. ali the fine monasteries and alb
beys sf England. sell their lands and
pocket the money. This Horner was
butler, or something, to an old abbot,
who thought he would gain favor with
Henry by giving him twelve of his very
best and richest monasteries. 80 the
abbot sent deeds of them to the king by
this John Horner. But Horner thoua ht,
as he "sat in the cOrnerp of the carriage
on his way to the king, that he would
see what all those great papers which
he was carrying should mean. "He
put in his thumb and pulled out q PLUMP
ii. g., he opened and read the deeds,
put the one for the largest piece of land
in his own pocket, gave the rest to the
king at London, and came home and
told his master that Henry Will, for
his fidelity, had made him present of
one of the large tracts of land.
"Blue Beard, too, is very old He is
supposed to be Giles Delaval, Lord of
Rails, and was Marshal of France in
1923.
"Jack, the Giant. Killer" came from
India. He breaks forth in all sorts of
doings all over the story-books' of the
young. And SO Of "Jack and the Bean
stalk.n A,s
"Babes in the Wood" is a very touch
ing story. I think the origin of this
may be considered very, very old bal |
lad, which tells of Richard III. murder |
ing his own dear little nephewe.
The story of Little Red Riding |
Hood" is found in the German, but not |
exactly as we tell it in England.
The Germans have a great variety of |
young folk lore, or stories for little ones. |
Mother Goose" was real person.
She lived in Boston. Her daughter |
Elizabeth married the printer, Tom
Fleet, who gathered up the nursery
melodies of his mother.in law and pub. |
lished them.
must now tell you of the meaning of
an old nursery rhyme: -Four and |
twenty black birds made into a pie :"
these are the four-and- twenty hours of
the day; the "pie" is the space between |
the earth and the sky, the fiat. looking |
ground being the bottom crust, the |
birds in between, and the sky being the
the concave top crust.
'When the pie was opened" i. e.,
when day began to break. "The birds
began to brek. '..The birds began to
sing" i. e., the hours too begin merrily.
'"The king in the parlor counting out
money )" the liking" is the sun, the
of the day. There he is en-
shfonedine the sky. He Is said to be
counting out money, because the sun
shine Is gold-color. See how he counts
it out" filings it about him, the beauti-
full golden sunshine. "The queen up
stairs eating bread and honey" OF
OF course, if the king is the sun, the
queen is the moon. 1.-THE maid in the
garden, hanging out Clothes" This
"maid" is Aurora, the goddess, not of
the day, but of the dawn. Now, "up
jumped little bird and nipped off her
nose" The little bird who did this very
thing is, of course, the first
hour of the day, for Aurora, or dawn,
as soon as the king, or sun,
arises.