Papist Symbol

Ride a cock-horse^1 to Banbury Cross,

To see a fine lady upon a white horse;

Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,

She shall have music wherever she goes.

For centuries the town of Banbury in Oxfordshire has been famed for its Cross, its Puritan,^2 its tinkers,^3 its cheese paring^4, and its cakes^5. Last week the Associated Press brought news:

^1Banbury Cross, to which many an American youngster has ridden a cockhorse, will be sacrificed to progress.

It stands, a heavily ornamental obstacle to traffic even to such privileged characters as fine ladies who ride white horses and who have rings on their fingers and bells on their toes. Therefore it will be removed.

The cross was erected in honor of the marriage of Victoria, the Princess Royal of England, the Kaiser's mother, to Frederick, the Crown Prince of Prussia.

U. S. and British mothers were widely vexed at the thought that they had taught their children a rhyme about a cross put up to honor the onetime Kaiser's mother. Well posted fathers might have explained: "The original Banbury Cross was torn down by the Banbury Puritans in 1610 as a detested Papist symbol."

^1A hobbyhorse.

^2 To Banbery came I, O prophane one!

Where I saw a Puritane one,

Hanging of his Cat on Monday

For killing of a Mouse on Sonday.

--Braithwaite in Drunken Barnabee's Journal (1638).

^3"Banbury tinkers mend one hole and make three."--Old Saying.

^4"You are like a Banbury cheese, nothing but paring," cries a character in Marston's Jack Drum's Entertainment (1600).

^5The pastrycooks of Banbury still wax prosperous in the preparation of the famed mincemeat-filled "Banbury Tart."