Seligor's Castle                  

Sandy Bramblefield

SANDY BRAMBLEFIELD, HAVING SETTLED DOWN IN NOTTINGHAM AFTER MEETING UP WITH HIS FAMILY WHO JUST HAPPENED TO BE THERE  FOR THE GOOSE FAIR, FOUND THIS SMALL RHYME THAT HE THOUGHT WAS REALLY GOOD. AND SO AT HIS REQUEST HERE IT IS, I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT.

THE PEDLAR'S CARAVAN.

by William Brighty Rands

I wish I lived in a caravan ,
With a horse to drive, like the pedlar man !
Where he comes from nobody knows ,
Or where he goes to, but on he goes !

His caravan has windows, two ,
And a chimney of tin, that the smoke comes through ;
He has a wife, with a baby brown ,
And they go riding from town to town !

" Chairs to mend and delf to sell! "
He clashes the basins like a bell ;
Tea-trays, baskets, ranged in order ,
Plates with the alphabet round the border !

The roads are brown and the sea is green ,
But his house is just like a bathing machine ;
The world is round and he can ride ,
Rumble and splash to the other side !

With the pedlar-man I should like to roam ,
And write a book when I came home ;
All the people would read my book ,
Just like the Travels of Captain Cook .

British writer William Brighty Rands anonymously published several volumes of children's literature and contributed to various periodicals for and about children, under pseudonyms, among them Matthew Browne, Henry Holbeach, and T. Talker. Despite resulting obscurity with broad public, he earned the title of "the laureate of the nursery" among literati. For most of his career, he worked as a reporter in the House of Commons in London, and wrote his works for children when the Parliament was not sitting. He was for some time a preacher, and composed several popular hymns.