Three Blind Mice: The Dark History of Nursery Rhymes

by Albert Jack

From the Author of the Internationally Bestselling Red Herrings & White Elephants, Pop Goes the Weasel, What Caesar did for My Salad, Shaggy Dogs, They Laughed at Galileo:

The historical significance of children’s rhymes is often lost on most adults, let alone the children who learn them by heart almost as soon as they learn to say anything at all. For all of us, the first things we are taught, after learning how to talk, are nursery rhymes. Hence by the time we are adults, we will know the words to hundreds of them without ever being aware of their meaning or real importance. And they are important, in my view, because many of them tell the true tale of some of history’s darkest or most tragic events. Knowing the origins of a rhyme will help to preserve that piece of history, or the layers of history that accrue around a centuries-old rhyme. It also provides a fascinating insight into how news of historical events was transmitted around the land long before the days of instant communication by telephone, radio, television or the internet.

For example, would you expect Humpty Dumpty to be the name of one of King Charles I’s cannons located on top of a church tower at the Siege of Colchester in 1648 during the English Civil War? Operated by One-Eyed Thompson, a Royalist gunner, it successfully kept Cromwell’s forces at bay until the Parliamentarians managed to blow it off the tower, allowing them to take over the town. An important battle was lost (or won, depending on your viewpoint) and a turning point in history then marked by a rhyme, soon repeated in every village and every hamlet as news of Cromwell’s victory spread throughout the land.

Or would you imagine for a moment that the three blind mice could be the Oxford Martyrs Latimer, Ridley and Cranmer, all burned at the stake for their faith, by the Farmer’s Wife, Mary I? Or what about my personal favourite – the story of the steward to the Dean of Glastonbury, Thomas Horner, who was sent to see Henry VIII with a bowl full of property deeds disguised as a pie in an attempt to bribe the king? On the way to London, Horner, it is said, reached into the pie and a stole a plum piece of real estate for himself at Mells Manor.

So sit back and enjoy our morbid history, as told, for generations, to our children.

81 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 2, 2014

About the author

Albert Jack, pen name for Graham Willmott, is an international best-selling author and historian. He is an expert in explaining the unexplained and has appeared on live television shows and has made thousands of radio appearances worldwide.

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This actually isn't bad. If you have read Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind the Rhyme it covers much of the same material, though it is NOT a summery of the older book. Jack has done his work, and he includes some lesser known rhymes. I particularly enjoyed the discussion about the various theories.

[Chris Shockey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, but not long enough.

Very well researched and informative, but the book could've been longer. There are many more rhymes I would've been interested in, but the author wrote like he had to do a 1,000 word essay and was keeping count. Just when it was getting interesting it was over. Fun while it lasted, however.

[Jennifer M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a repeat of tidbits found elsewhere.

[Chris The Story Reading Ape · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and entertaining read about 20 well known nursery rhymes and their origins.

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[Wendy Unsworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a super little book that trawls through the history behind some of our most well known nursery rhymes to discover their meanings and origins.

I knew the stories behind some of them but Albert Jack seems to have really done his homework to offer alternative origins and sometimes more than one possible meaning.

A lot of the rhymes go back to Tudor times and earlier; The Dissolution of the Monastaries, The Black Death, The Gunpowder Plot. Bloody Mary is the 'farmer's wife' who cuts of the tails of her dissenters.

It's always difficult with books such as this to know how accurately dates etc are, unless you at willing to cross-reference but neverthess a fascinating, short read for anyone who wants an interesting break from longer books. And, incidentally, if you like horror you would be hard pushed to find anything much worse than the things we English did to those who opposed the monarch in days of olde!