| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
books of favourite songs. It is not to be found in the "Universal Songster/' 1825, nor "The Book of English Songs/' 1854, nor Dr. Mackay's "Thousand and One Gems of Song/' 1886, nor in that curious collection, " The Thousand Best Songs in the World/' selected by S. W. Cole, of Melbourne, and published some half-a-dozen years ago. Now and again one meets it in an old school book, but rarely in any new volume of good old English songs. The history and origin of the words and music are enveloped in a maze of uncertainty, though variations by the dozen have appeared from time to time. In " Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes" there is a version slightly different from what has been generally accepted as the original. The first verse runs:
" 'Oh, where are you going,
My pretty maiden fair, With your red rosy cheeks,
And your coal black hair?' * I'm going a-milking,
Kind sir,' says she; 'And it's dabbling in the dew
"Where you511 find me.'''
" Mother Goose" was a native of Boston, in Massachusetts, and the authoress of many quaint nursery rhymes. Mother Goose's
8 |
||