Sur le twinkle d'Umpty

(or Pardon my French)


“Sur le pont d’Avignon . . .”

The tune was ringing in my head as I visited Colchester this afternoon looking for any visual evidence of the ‘twinning’ of The UK’s oldest recorded town with France’s famous Papal residence. “Well, it is mentioned on the road signs as you enter the town,” the lady in the Tourist Information Centre told me, “and we have a garden dedicated to Wetzlar, our German twin town, if you‘re interested.”

Wetzlar. Yes, that rang a bell. It was famous before the second world war as the home of the Leitz company, makers of Leica cameras. I have a pre-war Leica, as it happens, with the excellent Elmar lens and my current camera, a digital Panasonic Lumix, has a Leica Elmarit lens.

But I digress: I didn't come here today to talk about cameras, so I continued my walk in search of souvenirs d’Avignon and by chance was introduced to another French folk song, "Ah! Vous dirai-je, Maman" set to a melody by Mozart which was immediately recognizable as that adopted for the English nursery rhyme “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”.

I was standing in West Stockwell Street, outside Nos 11 & 12, which bear a plaque marking the one-time home of Jane and Ann Taylor, authors of children’s rhymes, including “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” published in 1806, which was remembered in a bicentenary celebration last year in the Castle grounds. Colchester was also the supposed inspiration for another nursery rhyme: Humpty Dumpty was a giant Royalist cannon atop St Mary at Wall Church during the English Civil War and “had a big fall” when hit by Parliamentarian cannon fire. The rhyme appears in Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass”.

Lovers of the Alice books may also recall the parody, “Twinkle twinkle little bat,” sung at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party in Alice in Wonderland.

Phew! That was a bit of a ramble. It's amazing what can crop up when you let your mind wander as well as your feet, isn’t it?