Saw Ye Aught of My Love a Coming from Ye Market Lyrics
Someone asks whether anyone has seen their sweetheart coming home from the market, carrying a peck of meal and a babby in a basket.
Saw Ye Aught of My Love a Coming from Ye Market
Saw ye aught of my love a coming from ye market!
A peck of meal upon her back,
A babby in her basket;
Saw ye aught of my love a coming from the market?
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/saw-ye-aught-of-my-love-a-coming-from-ye-market/
- Type
- Mother Goose
- Tune
- Spoken or sung as a question, the same line at start and end
- Best for ages
- 3 to 7 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| Saw ye aught of my love | Shade your eyes with one hand and look into the distance. |
| A peck of meal upon her back | Pretend to carry a heavy sack on your back. |
| A babby in her basket | Cradle an imaginary basket on your arm and peep inside. |
What Does Saw Ye Aught of My Love a Coming from Ye Market Mean?
The rhyme is one question asked twice. Aught is an old word for anything, so the first line asks whether you saw anything of the speaker's sweetheart coming from the market. Ye is an old way of writing the. A peck was a measure for dry goods such as meal, and babby is a baby.
The middle two lines are the picture: a peck of meal on her back and a babby in her basket. The repeated first and last lines wrap the picture in the question, so it works well as a call-and-answer game.
History and Origin
James Orchard Halliwell prints the verse in his collection The Nursery Rhymes of England.
Learning Activities
- Market watch: one child stands as the shopper in the distance, carrying a basket, while the others ask the question.
- Pretend market: fill a basket with real items and name each one you carry home.
- Measure it: fill a bag with dry rice or oats and feel how heavy a measure of meal can be.
- Old and new words: swap 'aught' and 'babby' for words we use now and say the rhyme again.