Beschreibung:

Gammer Girton's Garland: Or, the Nursery Parnassus, a choice collection of pretty songs and verses, for the amusement of all little good children who can neither read nor run, printed for R. Triphook, 1810, [2], 46 pp., in 4 parts, interleaved copy, the text leaves with brief pen and pencil marks and numerals throughout, mostly 'h'[alliwell] and 'pr', occasional corrections and proof marks, the blanks with numerous alternative versions of some of the verses and additional nursery rhymes written in ink in a neat hand to blanks with an initial for each source (usually L. or M.), some browning and old dampstaining marks throughout, tear with loss to upper inner margin of title, ink ownership name of Henry Cole dated 1832 to title upper margin and pencil name Chas. Halliwell to final leaf verso, front endpapers detached, partial title index to front pastedown and facing endpaper, contemporary half calf over marbled boards, some wear and loss, upper cover detached, 8vo A collection of nursery rhymes in four parts, with parts 1 and 2, compiled by Joseph Ritson, originally published in 1784. This edition adds parts 3 and 4, collected by Francis Douce and others. It includes the first appearances in print of Humpty Dumpty and Little Bo-Peep, I Love Sixpence, etc. Sir Henry Cole (1808-1882), civil servant, industrialist and Christmas card inventor. The 'h' and accompanying pencilled numerals that appear throughout the text refer to the verses as they appeared in James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps' 'The Nursery Rhymes of England: Obtained Principally from Oral Tradition' (1844). The additional manuscript verses are in an unidentified hand and would not appear to be that of Henry Cole nor the Shakespearean scholar and nursery rhyme collector James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (1820-1889). Presumably the Charles Halliwell whose name appears at the back of the volume is a later relation who seems to have added one or two pencil lines to the interleaved blanks. Facing Little Bo-Peep on the blank is one verse that begins 'Little Johnny went to Town / Upon a little pony / Stuck a feather in his cap / Looked like a Macaroni'. Opposite 'The Song of the Cat and the Fiddle' is written: 'continuation. The basin stood behind the door, / and bid the dishcloth wash the floor, / The spit stood up like an armed man, / And vowed he'd fight the dripping pan, / The gridiron said gentlemen if you can't agree, / I'm the head constable bring 'em to me'. (1)