The mulberry bush,

The mulberry bush.

Here we go round the mulberry bush

On a cold and frosty morning.}}

Score

Origins and meaning

The rhyme was first recorded by James Orchard Halliwell as an English children's game in the mid-19th century.^[1] 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.^[2]

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.^[1]

The song and associated game is traditional, and has parallels in Scandinavia and in the Netherlands (the bush is a juniper in Scandinavia).^[3]

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.^[4]

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." {{Citation needed|date=January 2011}}

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. ^[5] 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.^[1]

A variant of this rhyme is "Nuts in May", sharing the tune as well as the traditional closing line "On a cold and frosty morning".^[6]

Recordings

In 1938, a song called "Stop Beatin' Round the Mulberry Bush", with lyrics by Bickley Reichner and music by Clay Boland and built around the basic melody of the nursery rhyme, was popular with recordings by bands such as Count Basie, Jack Hylton, Nat Gonella, and Joe Loss. That version became popular again in 1953, when it was recorded by Bill Haley & His Comets.

A version was recorded in Western Armenian in the 2017 album, My First Armenian Songbook, arranged by Karenn Presti and sung by Stephanie Betjemann.

The Merry-Go-Round

The Merry-Go-Round is a song with the same tune as "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush", but some notes are removed. The song tells the story of several children on a merry-go-round that—in a sadistic twist—collapses because so many children are riding it. The circle game that accompanies it is similar to the one for Ring Around the Rosie, as described below.