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An Enchanting Book of Nursery Rhymes Illustrated by Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone. Copyright Dean & Son Ltd, 1971, 1972. This edition published 1980. ISBN 0 603 00198 X A number of the illustrations in this book previously appeared in Dean's New Gift Book of Nursery Rhymes Dean's Gift Book of Pussy and Puppy Nursery Rhymes |
This big hardcover book of nursery rhymes illustrated by Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone has a cover featuring the illustration for 'I'll tell you a story of Jack-a-Nory' (inside the collection) on both sides. Its frontispiece notes that a number of the illustrations in this book previously appeared in Dean's New Gift Book of Nursery Rhymes and Dean's Gift Book of Pussy and Puppy Nursery Rhymes. The endpapers are perhaps a direct copy from the latter, as they feature silhouetted cats on the left side and silhouetted dogs on the right.
The frontispiece shows Mary eating cherries off a plate (accompanied by the rhyme), and that illustration carries over to the title page, where a cat paws at some cherries. From what I've seen of Dean's Mother Goose Book of Rhymes online, that book also has a title page with the picture of the pussycat with the cherries, and it contains at least some of the rhymes in An Enchanting Book of Nursery Rhymes (including 'Millions of massive raindrops' and 'Wynken, Blynken, and Nod') so that is clearly a precursor to this book too. As I don't own copies of any of those earlier books, I can't clarify at this stage which illustrations in An Enchanting Book of Nursery Rhymes are new (if any).
There is no contents page or index of first lines, so I have compiled one below. There are 90 rhymes (91 if we include the frontispiece), across 114 pages (including the frontispiece and title page) (unpaginated). Some of the rhymes seemed quite new to me, so to be poetry rather than nursery rhyme, including 'Millions of massive raindrops', 'A pillow shaken in the sky', and 'Swing high, swing low'. 'I often sit and wish that I' turns out to be a poem by Frank Dempster Sherman (1860-1916), so the other rhymes that seem newer may be poetry as well.
Given its sources, this collection is heavy on cat and dog-related nursery rhymes, and introduced me to a Scottish variant of 'Pussycat, pussycat, where have you been?': 'Poussie, poussie baudrons'. Another Scottish variant appears in 'William of the Wastle', which the BBC suggests is the original version of 'I'm the king of the castle'. See History Extra.
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| Illustration for 'Poussie, poussie baudrons' |
I was surprised to discover three rhymes about Jack Sprat and two rhymes about Dame Trot, as I've only ever seen the most common version for each of those, with Jack Sprat and his wife, and Dame Trot and her cat having a chat about catching a rat. As well as those two familiar rhymes, we discover "Little Jack Sprat" and his grunter pig, Jack Sprat and his cat (buying him butter), and Dame Trot discovering her cat has already got into the cold fish she'd been saving for him. We also get two identical rhymes about Dame Trot and her cat having a chat in this collection, with two different illustrations. I liked the symmetry in this double page spread of Jack Sprat and his cat and Dame Trot and hers:
As always with a Grahame Johnstone collection, we have some wonderful images of children n period costume, dancing, and my favourite illustration was for the double-page spread of 'Ring-a-ring o' roses'.
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| Illustration for 'Ring-a-ring o' roses' |
I also really enjoyed the colourful costumes of the two double-page spreads capturing the story of 'Sing a song of sixpence' (but note the gruesome detail of the maid's nose, being taken to the nest!).
The illustration with its healthy, well-dressed children perhaps doesn't evoke hardship quite so much as some of the other illustrations speckled throughout this collection featuring bedraggled and dirty urchins, as in 'I'll sing you a song', 'See-saw scaradown', and 'There was a little boy and a little girl'.
Most of the illustrations feature figures in period costume; a significant outlier was the illustration of 'Little Tommy Tucker', who in this case sings for his supper while wearing blue jeans and strumming an electric guitar. In the background is a loaf of bread marked as "Brovis". I'm curious as to whether this was a nod to "Hovis" bread (some kind of play on words by adding 'Br' for 'Bread'?), or some other modern reference?
The end rhyme was the most unusual illustration I've yet seen from the Grahame Johnstone sisters – a rhyme on a ceramic plate:
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| Illustration for 'Hey Diddle Diddle' |
This book also exists with a different cover. I'd seen that cover around and thought it must be a different book entirely because the artwork doesn't look at all like the usual Grahame Johnstone illustrations – however, it is indeed their work, as it's an illustration for 'There was a crooked man' included in my collection. But of all the possible artworks in this collection, many of them very beautiful and 'enchanting', I can't imagine why the publisher chose that one for the other cover!
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| Photo credit: My Children's Books |
An Enchanting Book of Nursery Rhymes – Contents
- One, two, three, four (frontispiece)
- O all you little blackey-tops
- Little Jack Sprat
- The Man in the moon came tumbling down
- Jenny Wren fell sick
- Sing a song of sixpence
- The man in the wilderness asked of me
- Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man!
- Jack Sprat could eat no fat
- There was an old woman who lived under a hill
- Go to bed first, A Golden Purse
- Here I am, little Jumping Joan
- Please to remember
- Dame Trot and her cat
- Little Tommy Tucker
- Who Goes There?
- Molly, my sister, and I fell out
- O, I am His Highness's dog
- The Robin and the Wren
- Here's Sulky Sue!
- I'll sing you a song
- Millions of massive raindrops
- A nick and a nock
- Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater
- Two little dicky birds
- See-saw, scaradown
- Cobbler, cobbler, mend my shoe
- Lucy Locket lost her pocket
- There was a little boy and a little girl
- Hot cross buns
- Rock-a-bye baby, thy cradle is green
- Punch and Judy
- A wise owl lived in an oak
- Ring-a-ring o' roses
- I'll tell you a story of Jack-a-Nory
- Warm hands, warm the men are gone to plough
- Girls and boys come out to play
- Pretty maid, pretty maid
- Pease pudding hot, pease pudding cold
- Baby shall have an apple
- A man of words and not of deeds
- Young lambs to sell
- A pie sat on a pear tree
- Jingle bells, Jingle bells
- There was an old woman and what do you think?
- Now we dance looby looby
- Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
- Dribble, dribble, trickle, trickle
- I often sit and wish that I
- A frog he would a-wooing go
- The gossips of the village
- Charley Parley stole the barley
- A pillow shaken in the sky
- Swing high, swing low, away we go
- I love little pussy
- Pussy cat Mole jumped over a coal
- Great a, little a
- Sing, sing, what shall I sing
- Ding, dong bell
- Pussicoat, wussicat
- Who is that ringing at my door bell?
- Jack Sprat had a cat
- Dame Trot and her cat
- Three little kittens they lost their mittens
- Diddlety diddlety, dumpty
- Six little mice sat down to spin
- Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been?
- Pussy cat at the dumplings
- There was a crooked man
- As Pussy sat on the step
- Little Blue Ben, who lives in the glen
- A cat came dancing out of a barn
- Old Mother Shuttle
- Hie, hie, says Anthony
- Ride away, ride away
- Poussie, poussie, baudrons
- Pussie sat upon the wall
- Pussy cat, pussy cat
- Hey, my kitten, my kitten
- Old Dame Trot, some cold fish had got
- I William of the Wastle
- Hey, didle dout
- This one man, he went one
- Old Farmer Giles
- I had a little dog, and his name was Blue Bell
- Hark, hark
- Oh where, oh where
- Tell tale tit
- Hoddley, poddley, puddle and frogs
- There was once a nice little dog Trim
- Hey diddle diddle
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