Other variants include "down the mouse ran"[2] or "down the mouse run"[3] or "and down he ran" or "and down he run" in place of "the mouse ran down". Other variants have non-sequential numbers, for example starting with "The clock struck ten, The mouse ran down" instead of the traditional "one".[citation needed]
Score
Origins and meaning
The earliest recorded version of the rhyme is in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, published in London in May 1744, which uses the opening line: 'Hickere, Dickere Dock'.[1] The next recorded version in Mother Goose's Melody (c. 1765), uses 'Dickery, Dickery Dock'.[1]
The rhyme is thought by some commentators to have originated as a counting-out rhyme.[1] Westmorland shepherds in the nineteenth century used the numbers Hevera (8), Devera (9) and Dick (10) which are from the language Cumbric.[1]
The rhyme is thought to have been based on the astronomical clock at Exeter Cathedral. The clock has a small hole in the door below the face for the resident cat to hunt mice.[4]