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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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nursery rhymes
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Verses for singing or reciting with young children. The first collection of English rhymes was Tommy Thumb's Song Book) (1744), but the most influential was Mother Goose's Melody (1780 or earlier); *Mother Goose was already famous for her fairy stories. Some of the best-known traditional rhymes, such as *Jack and Jill, appeared in these early collections; others (for example *Mary had a little lamb) have been written since. It is often held that nursery rhymes (e.g. *Ring a ring o' roses or *Little Jack Horner) relate to specific events in the past, but there is rarely any evidence for this.
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