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From: "Janice Walker" <>
Subject: [FOLKLORE-L] Remember Humpty Dumpty?
Date: Wed, 3 Jun 1998 23:03:15 -0500

Many people don't realize what innocent nursery rhymes
truly relate to: "Humpty Dumpty" related King James IV
of Scotland, who died at Flodden in 1513.

He was a very large man who rode the largest horse in
16th century Scotland nicknamed "The Wall." As he
rode The Wall along a cliffside to join his troops, the horse
slipped and the two fell to their deaths.

And how about Little Jack Horner? Jack Horner was a man
who really lived in 16th century England, and the plum he
pulled out was a fine estate which he got out of land seized
by Henry VIII from the church.

Over the hill
to feed my sheep
Over the hill
to Charley
Over the hill
to feed my sheep
On buckwheat
cakes and barley.

Charley's neat
and Charley's sweet
Charley's he's a dandy;
Every time
he goes to town,
He gets his
girl some candy.

These are a couple of nursery rhymes from the
Kentucky Mountains. Kentucky mountaineer's kept alive
their memory of Bonny Prince Charley. Oppressed in
Scotland for their love of Stuart pretenders to the English
throne, they came to Kentucky and Tennessee in the
18th century.

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• [FOLKLORE-L] Remember Humpty Dumpty? by "Janice Walker" <>