The flight of the old woman who was tossed up in a basket

The seven feet vertical "unfolding panorama" was published by D. Bogue , 86 Fleet Street, London, in 1844(...) The history of the Old Woman with a broom tossed up into the sky is as old as that of recorded nursery rhymes: it appears, with no particular reason except for the editor's evident pleasure, in the preface to the earliest antology, Mother Goose's Melody; or Sonnets for the Cradle (compiled about 1765, published 1780).

[...]


(Containing the manner how, & the purpose for whick, she was tossed up together with dangers & difficulties she encountered on her voyage. The whole forming a complete pictorial journal or handbook for the sky.)


There was an old woman tossed up in a basket
Nineteen times as high as the moon.
And where she was going I couldn't but ask it
For in her hand she carried a broom.

'Old woman! old woman!! old woman!!!' quoth I.
'Oh whither Oh whither Oh whither, so high.'
'To sweep the cobwebs off the sky.'
'And I'll be with you again by and bye.'


(ver a imagem de baixo para cima)