It certainly is a weird little ditty, and I can easily imagine how readily it passed from one generation to another as a nonsense song. But I cannot imagine leading it today unless I changed it to something like "Once in Scarsdale there lived a rich man..."

Once upon a time there was a little poetry book called, I believe, THE INNER CITY GOOSE which processed familiar nursery rhymes. The only one that comes readily to mind is:

There was a crooked man,
And he done quite well!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble