Project Gutenberg's Traditional Nursery Songs of England, by Various

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Title: Traditional Nursery Songs of England
With Pictures by Eminent Modern Artists

Author: Various

Editor: Felix Summerly

Release Date: November 7, 2009 [EBook #30418]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NURSERY SONGS ***

Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

[Illustration:
THE KING WAS IN THE PARLOR, COUNTING OUT HIS MONEY;
THE QUEEN WAS IN THE KITCHEN, EATING BREAD & HONEY.
THE MAID WAS IN THE GARDEN, HANGING OUT THE CLOTHES;
THERE CAME A LITTLE BLACKBIRD & PECKED OFF HER NOSE.]

The Home Treasury.

TRADITIONAL NURSERY SONGS

of

ENGLAND.

with

PICTURES BY EMINENT MODERN ARTISTS.

EDITED BY

FELIX SUMMERLY.

LONDON: JOSEPH CUNDALL, 12, OLD BOND STREET.

1843.

_The Copyright of these Works is registered pursuant to Statute 5 and 6
Vic. c. 45._

PREFACE.

So my dear Madam, you think Nursery Songs mere trash, not worth
utterance or remembrance, and beneath the dignity of the "march of mind"
of our days! I would bow to your judgment, but you always talk so loud
in the midst of a song; look grave at a joke--and the leaves of that
copy of Wordsworth's Poems, presented to you on your birthday--I will
not say how many years ago, still remain uncut. Facts like these, and
others constantly occurring, prove that your ear cannot relish melody;
and that poetry does not touch your feelings. Besides, you are still
unmarried, and you say, I record it with regret, "you hate children."
Doubtless you were never born a child yourself.

It is to mothers, sisters, kind-hearted aunts, and even fathers, who are
summoned to become unwilling vocalists at break of day by young
gentlemen and ladies of two years old; and to all having the charge of
children, who are alive to the importance of cultivating their natural
keenness for rhyme, rhythm, melody, and instinctive love for fun, that I
offer this first part of a co