PORINGLAND WOMEN’S INSTITUTE
We welcomed Carolyn Williams to our July meeting. Her talk was on the origins of Nursery Rhymes. Some rhymes were to help children count and have good morals ie ding dong bell, pussy’s in the well, or to entertain ie pat a cake, pat a cake.
Humpty Dumpty is thought to refer to a big cannon called a boulder, which was used in the civil war and aimed at the opposite force’s wall until it fell down. During the uncertain times between Catholics and Protestants, in Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I times, there was a lot of resentment, but nobody could speak their minds on pain of death, so some nursery rhymes were composed to reflect their feelings without being prosecuted.
