Who’s Riding to Which Cross?
Tell someone you live in Banbury & they’ll start reciting:
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.
Considering how well-known that little ditty is you’d think we’d know a lot about its origins but we don’t. We don’t know:
- which cross they are talking about,
- who is riding to that cross,
- how many versions of the rhyme there are,
- when the rhyme first showed up,
- what they meant by cock-horse,
- how the frog fits in.
There are quite likely people who have studied this whole thing in depth and can talk for hours about the origins and meaning of it all. To normal, everyday people (like me and I suspect, you) the information seems inconsistent and like many questions involving oral traditions of this type -definitive answers are lost in time. So what do we have? Thanks to those people who did all the studying – we have informed guesses. So let’s get to guessing. Continue reading “Who’s Riding to Which Cross?”