Have you heard the rhyme about the chimes of the London church bells?
@magicalmerlin (1623)
April 22, 2007 9:07am CST
'Oranges and lemons' say the bells of St. Clements.
'I owe you five farthings' say the bells of St. Martins.
'When will you pay pay me' say the bells of Old Bailey.
'When I grow rich' say the bells of Shoreditch.
'When will that be' say the bells of Stepney.
'I do no know' says the great bell of Bow.
Here comes a candle to light you to bed
And here comes a chopper to chop off your head.
Not a very pleasant ending but to do with the Tower of London another great place to visit. Perhaps you could visit all of these churches on your visit to London.
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2 responses
@honeyangel (1991)
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22 Apr 07
i remember that rhyme from school,not heard it for ages and forgot what the rest of the rhyme was
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@honeyangel (1991)
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22 Apr 07
heres another one we used to sing,im sure there was hand actions to go with this aswell but cant remember
london`s burning
london`s burning
fetch the engines
fetch the engines
fire fire
throw some water
throw some water
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@magicalmerlin (1623)
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22 Apr 07
I am not sure about the hand actions but we used to sing London's burning as a round with different sets of people starting at the end of each line. Thank you for adding to this discussion.
@beaniegdi (1963)
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23 May 07
I used to love singing that when I was a child and I know it is based on some real history.
In fact I found this out about the last lines:
The reason for the sinister last three lines of the lyrics of "Oranges and lemons" are easily explained, they were added to the original rhyme, probably by children! This addition dates to some time before 1783 when the infamous public execution gallows (the Tyburn-tree) was moved from Tyburn-gate (Marble Arch) to Newgate, a notorious prison for both criminals and debtors hence "When will you pay me"?". This move was necessary to reduce problems caused by the crowds, often exceeding 100,000, gathered along the execution procession route. This stretched along a three mile route from Newgate Prison to Tyburn and around the Tyburn tree itself.
I found it on this website and they have the meaning of other nursery rhymes if you are interested.
http://www.rhymes.org.uk/oranges_and_lemons.htm
