As I Was Walking O'er Little Moorfields Lyrics
A walk across a London field turns very strange: the great church of St. Paul's goes rolling past on wheels, and the walker decides to head off to France.
As I Was Walking O'er Little Moorfields
As I was walking o'er little Moorfields,
I saw St. Paul's a running on wheels,
With a fee, fo, fum.
Then for further frolics I'll go to France.
While Jack shall sing and his wife shall dance,
With a fee, fo fum.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/as-i-was-walking-oer-little-moorfields/
- Type
- Mother Goose
- Tune
- Spoken or chanted
- Best for ages
- 3 to 8 years
What Does As I Was Walking O'er Little Moorfields Mean?
This is a nonsense rhyme: the fun is in the impossible picture of St. Paul's, one of London's biggest buildings, rolling along on wheels. Moorfields was an open area just outside the old walls of the City of London. The chorus, fee, fo, fum, sounds like the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk, and it gives the rhyme a big, booming finish.
History and Origin
The rhyme comes from James Orchard Halliwell's The Nursery Rhymes of England, first published in 1842. Halliwell gathered many rhymes about London places, and St. Paul's also appears in Upon St. Paul's Steeple.
Learning Activities
- Silly sights: draw St. Paul's, or your own town's biggest building, on wheels.
- Giant voice: say "fee, fo, fum" in your deepest, loudest voice.
- Map it: find St. Paul's Cathedral on a map of London.