Mary Mary quite contrary....


The Mary alluded to in this traditional English nursery rhyme is reputed to be Mary Tudor, or Bloody Mary, who was the daughter of King Henry VIII. Queen Mary was a staunch Catholic and the garden referred to is an allusion to graveyards which were increasing in size with those who dared to continue to adhere to the Protestant faith - Protestant martyrs.

The silver bells and cockle shells referred to in the Nursery Rhyme were colloquialisms for instruments of torture. The 'silver bells' were thumbscrews which crushed the thumb between two hard surfaces by the tightening of a screw. The 'cockleshells' were believed to be instruments of torture which were attached to the genitals!

The " Maids" or Maiden was the original guillotine!
The 'maids' were a device to behead people called the Maiden. Beheading a victim was fraught with problems. It could take up to 11 blows to actually sever the head, the victim often resisted and had to be chased around the scaffold. Margaret Pole (1473 - 1541), Countess of Salisbury did not go willingly to her death and had to be chased and hacked at by the Executioner. These problems led to the invention of a mechanical instrument (now known as the guillotine) called the Maiden - shortened to Maids in the Mary Mary Nursery Rhyme. The Maiden had long been in use in England before Lord Morton, regent of Scotland during the minority of James VI, had a copy constructed from the Maiden which had been used in Halifax in Yorkshire. Ironically, Lord Morton fell from favour and was the first to experience the Maiden in Scotland!

Mary Mary quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row.

I love our old rhymes, they tell us a lot of times past ( - such as ring o' roses from plague times, Humpty Dumpty was a canon, and it was Elizabeth 1 who rode a horse to Banbury Cross etc ) - they almost all have a 'darker' history than our p.c society likes to admit ^-^ One day I'll illustrate the true versions of these rhymes, as well as making the child friendly versions! Some of them are eyewatering!

<sub>..... Sorry if the history side of this journo sends you to sleep, I have a soft spot for this stuff - I've been researching medieval history for about 12 years as well as 3 years learning about the true ' plague ' ( - don't believe the Samuel Pepys diaries to much if you like this subject, much was 'neglected' in them information wise ,like governments still do today - read the book by Daniel De Foe who wrote Robinson Crusoe - he lived through it and kept extensive records, it is sometimes referred to as the ' plague year - dog eared diary '.)

Oh my I've shown my nerdy side today *-* .....</sub>