Alphabe Thursday D is for Ding, Dong Bell

Ding, dong, bell,

Pussy’s in the well.

Who put her in?

Little Tommy Green.

Who pulled her out?

Little Tommy Stout.

What a naughty boy was that,

To try to drown poor pussy cat.

Who never did him any harm,

And killed the mice in his father’s barn.

 Very common in my generation; not so sure now though, but it does have a long history. In 1580 John Gant, an organist of Winchester Cathedral ,

Cathedral, collected;

Jacke boy, ho boy newes,

the cat is in the well,

let us ring now for her knell,

ding dong ding dong bell.

This cannon was later printed in Pammelia, Musiks miscellanie, 1609, and appears to have been alluded to in the Taming of the shrew, while ‘Ding Dong Bell is the burden of songs in the Merchant of Venice and the Tempest.  

Alternative names for the malevolent Johnny Green are Tommy O’Linne (1797) and Tommy Quin (1840)

Nursery Rhyme reformers have recently taken particular objection to Ding dong bell, claiming that children have been known to throw cats into ponds after being influenced by the rhyme.