Evergreen

80 EVERGREEN Autumn
Hey Diddle Diddle! (continued)
Oranges and lemons,
Say the bells of St. Clement’s.
You owe me five farthings,
Say the bells of St. Martin’s.
When will you pay me?
Say the bells of Old Bailey.
When I grow rich,
Say the bells of Shoreditch.
When will that be?
Say the bells of Stepney.
I do not know,
Says the great bell of
Bow.
Here comes a candle
to light you to bed,
And here comes a
chopper to chop off
your head!
There are several variations of
this rhyme but the one above
is the most common version
used in children’s games, when two
youngsters secretly decide which is
an orange and which is a lemon. The
others then file underneath the arch
made by the couple joining hands,
who move them up and down while
chanting the rhyme. They finish
with a loud “chop” and bring down
their arms on another child who has
to secretly choose to be an orange
or lemon, then stand behind their
leader. When everyone has been
chopped, the two teams hold a tug of
war. Simple but fun!
The churches still exist, except
for one which was destroyed in the
Great Fire of London. There are
two rivals for St. Clement’s, though,
A colourful display of fruit, but was
“Oranges and Lemons” a sinister rhyme?
CHRISTOPHER NICHOLSON
Oranges and
Lemons
namely Eastcheap and the more
well-known St. Clement Danes in
Westminster. Both have a claim
because they lie close to the old
Thames quayside where wooden
boats unloaded their cargoes of
Mediterranean fruit. When each ship
arrived the church rang its bells, with
Charles Dickens suggesting porters
paid a toll for using the grounds as a
short cut to transport
their oranges and
lemons to market.
St. Martin’s was
St. Martin Orgar,
most of which succumbed to the
flames in 1666 after which the parish
amalgamated with St. Clement,
Eastcheap, suggesting this may
have been the original church in
the rhyme. However, St. Clement
Danes still rings the chimes on its
bells every day and holds an annual
Oranges and Lemons service.