Oranges and Lemons
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"Oranges and Lemons" is a traditional English nursery rhyme, folksong, and singing game which refers to the bells of several churches, all within or close to the City of London. It is listed in the Roud Folk Song Index as No 13190. The earliest known printed version appeared c. 1744.
1902 machine print
Panorama of London in 1543 from a 19th-century engraving by Nathaniel Whittock from a drawing by Antony van den Wyngaerde (c. 1543–50), showing the towers and spires of many of the churches mentioned in the rhyme
Playing Oranges and Lemons. Picture by Agnes Rose Bouvier Nicholl, 1874
Statue of the game in Surrey, England
Nursery rhyme
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A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes.
Illustration of "Hey Diddle Diddle", a well-known nursery rhyme
Popular Nursery Tales and Rhymes, Warner & Routledge, London, c. 1859
"Baa, Baa, Black Sheep", from a 1901 illustration by William Wallace Denslow