These names Sally Sander, Polly Sanders, etc., must be derived from the same source as Saunderson and Sanders of the Cushion Dance. A host of other rhymes current in the nursery deal with the same theme, and are formed on the same model. There is one step only from little Sally Sander of Penzance, little Polly Sanders of Liverpool, and little Alice Sander who sat upon a cinder, to the following rhymes which are included in different nursery collections. All these rhymes describe a person sitting and waiting, and most of them dwell on the idea of a seat or a cushion, while the allusion to matters matrimonial, being unsuitable to children, is altogether dropped.
Little Polly Flinders sat among the cinders,
Warming her pretty toes;
Her mother came and caught her, and scolded her little daughter,
For spoiling her nice new clothes.
(1846, p. 212.)
Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet,
Eating of curds and whey,
There came a great spider and sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet away.[31]
Little Mary Ester sat upon a tester
Eating of curds and whey;
There came a little spider and sat down beside her,
And frightened Mary Ester away.
(1842, p. 61.)
Tuffet and tester are words for a footstool.
Little Miss Mopsey sat in the shopsey,
Eating of curds and whey;
There came a great spider who sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Mopsey away.
(1842, p. 37.)
Little Tom Tacket sits upon his cracket,
Half a yard of cloth will make him a jacket,
Make him a jacket and breeches to the knee,
And if you will not have him, you may let him be.
(1842, p. 199.)
[Pg 65] Little Tom Tucker sings for his supper,
What shall he eat, but white bread and butter;
How will he cut it, without e're a knife
And how will he be married without e're a wife.
(1744, p. 10; c. 1783, p. 56.)
Little Jack Horner sat in the corner,
Eating a [of] Christmas pie;
He put in his thumb, and he took [pulled] out a plum,
And said [cried] "What a good boy am I!"
Chorus: And what a good boy am I!
(c. 1783, p. 55.)