Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush

The most common modern version of the rhyme is: :Here we go round the mulberry bush, :The mulberry bush, the mulberry bush. :Here we go round the mulberry bush :On a cold and frosty morning. '' from 1901 :This is the way we wash our face, :Wash our face, wash our face. :This is the way we wash our face :On a cold and frosty morning. :This is the way we comb our hair, :Comb our hair, comb our hair. :This is the way we comb our hair :On a cold and frosty morning. :This is the way we brush our teeth, :Brush our teeth, brush our teeth. :This is the way we brush our teeth :On a cold and frosty morning. :This is the way we put on our clothes, :Put on our clothes, put on our clothes. :This is the way we put on our clothes :On a cold and frosty morning. :Here we go round the mulberry bush, :The mulberry bush, the mulberry bush. :Here we go round the mulberry bush :On a cold and frosty morning. Other versions of the song tend to say "so early in the morning" or just "early in the morning" in place of "on a cold and frosty morning". The verse "This is the way we go to school" is used sometimes. ==Score==

{ \key g \major \time 6/8 g'8 g' g' g'4 b'8 | d''4 b'8 g'4 g'8 | a'4 a'8 a'4 g'8 | fis'4 e'8 d'4. | g'8 g' g' g'4 b'8 | d''4 b'8 g'4 g'8 | a'4 a'8 d'4 d'8 | g'4. g' | \bar "|." } \addlyrics { Here we go round the mul -- b'ry bush, The mul -- b'ry bush, The mul -- b'ry bush. Here we go round the mul -- b'ry bush So ear -- ly in the mor -- ning. } ==Origins and meaning==

The rhyme was first recorded by James Orchard Halliwell as an English children's game in the mid-nineteenth century. He noted that there was a similar game with the lyrics "Here we go round the bramble bush". The bramble bush may be an earlier version, possibly changed because of the difficulty of the alliteration, since mulberries do not grow on bushes. Halliwell said subsequent verses included: "This is the way we wash our clothes", "This is the way we dry our clothes", "This is the way we mend our shoes", "This is the way the gentlemen walk" and "This is the way the ladies walk". Local historian R. S. Duncan suggests that the song originated with female prisoners at HMP Wakefield. A sprig was taken from Hatfeild Hall (Normanton Golf Club) in Stanley, Wakefield, and grew into a fully mature mulberry tree around which prisoners exercised in the moonlight. The mulberry tree died during 2017 and was cut down and removed on 19 May 2019. Cuttings were taken during the 1980s and have grown into mature trees. Further cuttings taken from these trees will be replanted at HMP Wakefield to replace the mulberry tree. The Christmas carol, "As I Sat on a Sunny Bank", collected by Cecil Sharp in Worcestershire, has a very similar melody; as does the related "I Saw Three Ships." Another possible interpretation of the rhyme is that it references Britain's struggles to produce silk, mulberry trees being a key habitat for the cultivation of silkworms. As Bill Bryson explains, Britain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries tried to emulate the success of the Chinese in silk production but the industry was held back by periodic harsh winters and mulberry trees proved too sensitive to frost to thrive. The traditional lyrics "Here we go round the mulberry bush / On a cold and frosty morning" may therefore be a joke about the problems faced by the industry. ==Game and song==

The simple game involves holding hands in a circle and moving around to the first verse, which is alternated with the specific verse, where the players break up to imitate various appropriate actions. ==See also==