Lyr Req: Ride a White Horse to Banberry Cross

Subject: Ride a White Horse to Banberry Cross
From: harpgirl
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 04:42 PM

...my daddy is having a reverie and respectfully requests this song's lyrics. His Lancashire grandma used to sing it. (I even have videos of the dear old woman, a tea drinker, she was)...harpgirl (seel Lanchashire thread)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ride a White Horse to Banberry Cross
From: MMario
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 04:56 PM

Ride a white horse, to Banberry cross
To See a fine lady, upon a fine horse
With Rings on her fingers, and rings on her toes
She shall music wherever she goes

some people claim this refers to Elizabeth I of England as she reviewed her troops just before the Invasion of the Spanish Armada

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ride a White Horse to Banberry Cross
From: Bert
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 04:57 PM

here ya go

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ride a White Horse to Banberry Cross
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 06:49 PM

I seem to remember it being "Ride a cock horse" etc.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ride a White Horse to Banberry Cross
From: alison
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 07:16 PM

I remember

Ride a cock horse, to Banberry cross
To See a fine lady, upon a white horse
With Rings on her fingers, and bells on her toes
She shall music wherever she goes

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ride a White Horse to Banberry Cross
From: Snuffy
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 08:21 PM

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 She shall have music wherever she goes.

Banbury is about 20 miles north of Oxford, and is known for having the largest livestock market in England. The cross is still there - it's a large decorative stone obelisk-type structure.

Wassail! V

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ride a White Horse to Banberry Cross
From: Abby Sale
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 09:15 PM

Snuffy saith sooth. May I mention? I was driving towards it one dusk & picked up a young hitchhiker. Where are you going, says I. Oh, just drop me at the Cross, says he.

Whazzat?

Banbury cross!

Whazzat? You know, Banbury Cross!

Huh? etc., etc. You know - as in the rhyme. And he finally recites it.

Oh yeah. I see. I didn't know there was a town of Banbury, though. Well, talk about your faux pas. Like never having heard of the Statue of Liberty. Here's there's two-bit two-street world-famous town & I never heard of it. I've never seen a hitchhiker in such an indignant snit before. So I dropped him at the cross but it was dark by then & I couldn't see it. One block later I was out in the countryside again.

Thing is, as I understand it, the cross (or obelisk if you say - I couldn't see) was erected fairly recently. I'm not sure what "cross" meant there initially. In Scotland "town cross" just meant the main cross-street of the small town. "Cross." I think that's all it meant in Banbury, too.

Sometimes I have better days, though.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ride a White Horse to Banberry Cross
From: GUEST,johnp
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 09:24 PM

Midlands accent makes the rhyme

Ride a cock 'oss

To Banbury Cross......{the h is not sounded in Middle England and a horse in an oss.

Its an old dandling song ....the baby having a 'ride' on the foot....you sit cross legged, sit the baby on the foot and hold it by the wrists. Rock the leg to simulate a gentle trot and sing in time to the motion. Babies love it but your leg gets tired.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ride a White Horse to Banberry Cross
From: ddw
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 10:11 PM

On a recent trip to England I saw hundreds (at least it seemed like it) of crosses in the middle of towns which my Yorkshire-born wife tells me are "market crosses" — used partially to remind the peasants that the church was everywhere and partly as the focal point from which they alloted stall space on market days. Maybe some of our U.K. Mudcatters can elaborate on it.

cheers,

david

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ride a White Horse to Banberry Cross
From: Barbara
Date: 02 Mar 00 - 12:52 AM

There's also a round to the rhyme, though I doubt it's one your Lancastershire grandma would sing, since I think it's contemporary. (last 50 years) That's the only tune I know. Are there others?
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ride a White Horse to Banberry Cross
From: GUEST,walrus
Date: 02 Mar 00 - 08:38 AM

Just a quick addition to the thread, As I remember the rhyme, it is, as stated, "Ride a COCK horse to Banbury Cross". The "Cock", apparently was (acording to a half remembered radio programme) an inn, possibly a coaching inn, where relays or remounts could be obtained, hence "Cock horse".

Regards

Walrus

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ride a White Horse to Banberry Cross
From: GUEST,raj
Date: 02 Mar 00 - 11:14 AM

I remember it as "ride a cock 'oss to Banbury cross" . I also recall someone, sometime, mentioning that it had to do with Lady Godiva (she of the hair). It was apparently her way of demonstrating her displeasure at her husband for increasing the local peasants taxes.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ride a White Horse to Banberry Cross
From: The_one_and_only_Dai
Date: 02 Mar 00 - 11:17 AM

The "Cock" is in Stony Stratford. Yes, it was a coaching inn, and yes, on the main route to Banbury. It's also the origin of 'Cock and Bull story' - check out the website for more...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ride a White Horse to Banberry Cross
From: Bert
Date: 02 Mar 00 - 11:37 AM

A 'cock' horse, despite later Bowdlerised definitions, is a toy horse. It's a stick with a horses head on one end and a couple of wheels on the other. The kid sticks it between his legs and 'rides' it. It sticks up in just the right place and at just the right angle to get it's name. In earlier times, people weren't so bloody finicky about things like that. It stuck out like a cock so they called it a cock horse.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ride a White Horse to Banberry Cross
From: GUEST,RHD, Harpgirl's daddy
Date: 02 Mar 00 - 12:06 PM

Bert, you got it exactly right. Brings back many memories. Thanks a million

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ride a White Horse to Banberry Cross
From: Rex
Date: 02 Mar 00 - 12:56 PM

And I just figured it meant a male horse. As in "cock pheasant".

Rex

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ride a White Horse to Banberry Cross
From: Grab
Date: 02 Mar 00 - 01:52 PM

Source is the folk legend of Lady Godiva. Supposedly her husband was dumping on the peasants with the taxes, and she complained. He said he'd let them off if she rode naked through the town. So she did.

Whether it actually happened like that (or even happened at all) is anyone's guess.

The addendum to the story (probably pure folk-myth) is that all the villagers heard she was doing this for them, so none of them looked, so they wouldn't shame her. Except one bloke called Tom who looked at her, and was blinded for it (either by her husband or by the villagers, can't remember). Hence "Peeping Tom".

Grab.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ride a White Horse to Banberry Cross
From: Bert
Date: 02 Mar 00 - 02:14 PM

Lady Godiva took her legendary ride through the streets of Coventry, not Banbury.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ride a White Horse to Banberry Cross
From: wildlone
Date: 02 Mar 00 - 02:40 PM

An interesting slant on this discussion
Near Banbury is Broughton castle home of Lord and lady Saye and Sele, the family name is Fiennes.
As I have heard it {from the family}
Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross,
To see a Fiennes Lady upon a white horse,
Rings on her fingers, Bells on her toes,
She shall have music wherever she goes.
Although the family supported Parliament in the war of rebellion/english civil war they were not puritan's and did not support the ban on jollity.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ride a White Horse to Banberry Cross
From: kendall
Date: 02 Mar 00 - 02:54 PM

I learned this as Ride a CORK horse. Cork, of course, being a type of wood, of the oak family.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ride a White Horse to Banberry Cross
From: Bert
Date: 02 Mar 00 - 02:55 PM

Did you learn it at SCHOOL Kendal?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ride a White Horse to Banberry Cross
From: kendall
Date: 03 Mar 00 - 01:46 PM

I dont remember. Too long ago. Hell, when I went to school we didnt even study history...there wasn't any..

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ride a White Horse to Banberry Cross
From: Metchosin
Date: 03 Mar 00 - 02:06 PM

Kendall, maybe whoever taught it to you came from Lancaster. When I was young, I had a friend from there, who insisted on pronouncing the word "llamas" as "larmas", which used to strike me as funny. The fact that I pronounced it as "lamas" was lost upon me at the time.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ride a White Horse to Banberry Cross
From: kendall
Date: 03 Mar 00 - 04:15 PM

cork horse makes more sense to me than cock horse. I always thought it referred to a hobby horse, which, of course, was made of wood