Banbury Cross

DESCRIPTION: "Ride a cock horse to Banbury cross To see a fine lady upon a white horse. Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, And she shall have music wherever she goes."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Gammar Gurton's Garland, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad music horse
FOUND IN: US(SE) Britain(England) Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 140, "Banbury Cross" (1 text, a composite of "Banbury Cross," "Ring Around the Rosie," and an item about learning to ride (?))
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 143, "As I was going by Banbury Cross" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 29, "Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #619, p. 247, "(Ride a cock-horse to Banbury cross)"; cf. #617, "(Ride a Cock Horse)"; #618, "(Ride a cock-horse)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 176, "Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 144, "Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross" (1 text)
Roud #21143
RECORDINGS:
Alessandra Delia-Lôbo, "Ride a Cock-Horse" (Piotr-Archive #393, recorded 12/18/2022)
NOTES [243 words]: This little item has prompted the usual wild speculation: That the lady is Lady Godiva, or Elizabeth I, or one Celia Fiennes (fl. 1697). The inimitable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, pp. 160-161, for instance, seems to say that it is about a trip Elizabeth I took to Banbury in 1558, her accession year. For documentation, see the Opies -- but note that their #28 and #30 are similar rhymes with different endings. If the piece is about any particular person, it has clearly been much modified.
To be sure, there are versions that are truly about an actual person. See "As I Was Going by Charing Cross": "As I was going by Charing Cross, I saw a black man upon a black horse, They told me it was King Charles the First, Oh dear, my heart was ready to burst" (because Charles was on his way to trial or execution).
I am tempted to list this song as having been found in Antarctica (which would be a first for the Index, I believe). Reportedly the crew of Robert Scott's fatal 1910-1912 edition sang the song there -- to the penguins. Allegedly the penguins approached to listen to "Banbury Cross" but moved away when they heard "God Save the King" (see Peter Fitzsimons, Mawson and the Ice Men of the Heroic Age: Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen, William Heinemann, 2011, p. 255). Believe as much of that as you like, but it would appear that the song was sung there as a traditional song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Br3140

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