Lavender's Blue: A Book of Nursery Rhymes

I know that nursery rhymes can be fun and sing songy and weird. I thought I knew most of the nursery rhymes that would be in a children's book. I was wrong. And as most people know, there are some rhymes that just don't make sense. There are words in rhymes that I had to look up such as; cockhorse: something used as a toy horse, such as the knee of an adult or a rocking horse. And dicky bird: small bird.

Did you know that Rock-a-bye baby isn't how the original rhyme starts? The rhyme goes like this:

Rock-a-bye, baby,
Thy cradle is green,
Father's a nobleman,
Mother's a queen;
And Betty's a lady,
And wears a gold ring;
And Johnny's a drummer,
And drums for the king.

Hush-a-bye, baby,
on the tree top,
When the wind blows,
the cradle will rock;
When the bough breaks,
the cradle will fall,
Down will come baby,
bough, cradle and all.

Also the rhyme we know as Buckle My Shoe goes up to twenty. I did not know that. Another rhyme that I'm certain has other meanings than today's meaning ends with:

But they that was on Saturday,
Oh! they're sluts indeed.

The illustrations are very British; lots of King and Queens, men with ponytails riding on horses, women with gowns, children in breeches. I learned a lot about rhymes!