As I Was Going by Charing Cross

DESCRIPTION: 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."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell); probably first found in an Ashmole ms. of c. 1660 (source: Opei-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: royalty horse execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1625-1649 - Reign of Charles I
Jan 30, 1649 - Execution of Charles I (who was deposed and executed for being too much of an absolute monarch) near Whitehall and Charing Cross
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 93, "As I Was Going to Charing Cross" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #214, p. 145, "(As I was going by Charing Cross)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 4, "As I Was Going by Charing Cross" (1 text)
Roud #20564
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Banbury Cross" (lyrics)
NOTES [43 words]: The incredible Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 216, combines this with "Daffy-Down-Dilly," but offers no explanation for why that fragment about a flower has anything to do with Charles I. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: OO2093

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