Nursery rhymes

NURSERY rhymes that we have known all our lives were explained at a meeting of Kegworth WI by Danny Wells in his talk on the Golden Age of Children’s Picture Books.

“Little Bo-Peep” represents the customs men looking for the smugglers (sheep) and the “tails they left behind them” are the smuggled goods - we learned that Humpty Dumpty was the name of a cannon in the civil war which fell from a tower and was broken -and “all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again”.

He introduced us to three Victorian illustrators of children’s books; Walter Crane , who was an arts and crafts designer of stained glass, wallpaper and costume and drew very detailed pictures for the stories; Randolph Caldecott whose illustrations are of an idealised countryside and happy children - no sign of the poverty and despair of those working in factories and living in hovels. He made a fortune by taking a commission of 1d. for every book - and over 800,000 copies of “The House that Jack Built” were sold.

The third was Kate Greenaway whose pictures were influenced by the pre-raphaelite movement and although drawn to delight children some rhymes had underlying menace - “Mary, Mary quite contrary” is about Queen Mary I and her persecution of protestants; the garden is a graveyard, “silver bells “represent tortures and the “maids all in a row” are executed prisoners.

The Easter Market stall raised nearly £180 for funds and the President thanked all those who had generously made goods for sale and given their time.

To celebrate our ninety-fifth year we are planning to plant a tree in Kegworth in the autumn and plans are going ahead for an outing in july.

The next meeting will be on May 17 at 2.15pm at the village hyall when we will be discussing and voting on the resolutions for the AGM at Liverpool. Visitors and new members welcome.