As I was going to St. Ives
I met a man with seven wives.
Every wife had seven sacks,
Every sack had seven cats,
Every cat had seven kits.
Kits, cats, sacks, and wives,
How many were going to St. Ives?
Notes
See answer below...
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Answer: One, for "I" was going to St. Ives (the others were going in the other direction).
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Here's a variation on this riddle from A History of Nursery Rhymes by Percy B. Green:
As I was going down Sandy Lane
I met a man who had seven wives;
Each wife had a bag, each bag held a cat, each cat a kit.
Now riddle-me-ree, how many were going down Sandy Lane?
See answer below...
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Answer: One was going down Sandy Lane; the others were going up.
(Meaning: The person talking was going down the lane all the others were going up the lane.)
Comments
The first version of this rhyme can be found in The Real Mother Goose (1916), illustrated by Blanche Fisher Wright. The illustration can be found in The Big Book of Nursery Rhymes (circa 1920) edited by Walter Jerrold (1865 - 1929) and illustrated by Charles Robinson (with some graphical editing of the above image by Lisa Yannucci).
Many thanks to Moon Rose for the correct answer!
Thanks and Acknowledgements
Recited by Ruth Golding.
