Jennifer Bohnhoff
  • Home
  • Upcoming Events, Presentations, and Classroom Visits
  • In the Shadow of Sunrise
  • Summer of the Bombers
  • Rebels Along the Rio Grande Series
  • A Blaze of Poppies
  • On Fledgling Wings
  • The Bent Reed
  • Code: Elephants on the Moon
  • The Anderson Chronicles
  • The Last Song of the Swan
  • Raven Quest
  • Thin Air: My Blog About Writing and My Books
  • Store

Quite the Plum

12/14/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog about wasailling and figgy pudding and I mentioned that  the word plum didn’t necessarily mean a purple tree fruit. It's time to elaborate on that!

You probably know the old nursery rhyme about Jack Horner, a boy eating his Christmas pie. If you don't, here it is: 


PictureWilliam Wallace Denslow’s illustration of the rhyme, 1902
​
Little Jack Horner
Sat in the corner,
Eating his Christmas pie;
He put in his thumb,
And pulled out a plum,
And said,
​"What a good boy am I!"


Recognize the style of the illustration? Denslow illustrated the Wizard of Oz books!


The nursery rhyme is a fun little ditty, but it may have more behind it than you'd think. 

Webster's Dictionary says that, in addition to being the fruit of the prunus tree, a plum can be defined as 
something superior or very desirable, especially : something desirable given in return for a favor, and that may be what the nursery rhyme is really about.

No one knows just how old this nursery rhyme is. It was first published in Mother Goose's melody, or, Sonnets for the cradle, which may have first been published in 1765, but is mentioned in a 1725 satire and may be much older than that. ​

Picture
In the 19th century, it was suggested that the poem is related to the period from 1536-1541, when the monastic system in England was being destroyed by Henry VIII after Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy, which made him the supreme head of the church in England, separating England from papal authority.  Henry then expropriated the incomes of the monasteries and convents, increasing the regular income of the Crown. Much of the former monastic properties were sold off to fund Henry's military campaigns in the 1540s.

By January 1539, Glastonbury Monastery was the last remaining religious property in Somerset that had not been dissolved. Glastonbury abbey was one of the richest and most influential in all England, with one hundred monks living in it. Many of the sons of the nobility and gentry were educated there before going on to university.

​
The story is that Richard Whiting, the abbot, sent his steward, Thomas Horner, to London with a huge Christmas pie, into which he had placed the deeds to a dozen manors which the Monastery owned. The Abbot's hope was that by giving away such valuable lands, the King would allow the monastery to remain intact. 
During the journey Horner opened the pie and extracted the deeds of Mells Manor, which he kept for himself. While a manor would indeed be the something superior or very desirable, meant to be given to the Kind in return for the favor of the monastery's continued existence, there may be another wrinkle to the use of the word plum. Mells Manor, which is in the Mendip Hills, had several lead mines on it, and the word plum might be a pun on the Latin plumbum, or lead.

Is this story true? While records exist that prove Thomas Horner became the owner of the manor, later owners assert that he didn't steal the deed, but purchased it from the abbey.
Picture
Regardless of whether Horner bought or stole the deed, the Christmas pie did not produce the intended result. On November 15, 1539, (aged 77 - 78, the king had the 78 year old abbot convicted of treason for remaining loyal to Rome. He was dragged to the top of Glastonbury Tor, where he was hanged, drawn and quartered. Whiting's head was hung over the west gate[ of his deserted abbey,  and his limbs were displayed on the townwalls of Wells, Bath, Ilchester, and Bridgwater.

Whiting was beatified by the Catholic Church in 1895. 


Jennifer Bohnhoff is the author of several works of historical fiction, none of which have a Christmas pie or plum pudding in them. You can read more about her and her books here. 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    ABout Jennifer Bohnhoff

    I am a former middle school teacher who loves travel and history, so it should come as no surprise that many of my books are middle grade historical novels set in beautiful or interesting places.  But not all of them.  I hope there's one title here that will speak to you personally and deeply.

    What I love most: that "ah hah" moment when a reader suddenly understands the connections between himself, the past, and the world around him.  Those moments are rarified, mountain-top experiences.



    Can't get enough of Jennifer Bohnhoff's blogs?  She's also on Mad About MG History.  

    ​
    Looking for more books for middle grade readers? Greg Pattridge hosts MMGM, where you can find loads of recommendations.

    Picture

    Categories

    All
    A Blaze Of Poppies
    Ambrose Bierce
    Animal Stories
    Baking
    Baking Mixes
    Baltimore
    Baseball
    Beowulf
    Biography
    Bobbed Hair
    Cemeteries
    Chocolate
    Christmas
    Civil War
    Classic Western Writer
    Code Talkers
    Cookies
    Cowgirls
    D Day
    Dickens
    Drummer Boy
    Educators
    Exclusion
    Famous Americans
    Famous Women
    Fathers Day
    Feisty Women
    Fiction
    Folsom
    Fort Craig
    France
    Gabriel Rene Paul
    George McJunkin
    Gettysburg
    Ghost Story
    Glorieta
    Graphic Novels
    Great Depression
    Hampton Sides
    Hiking
    Historical Fiction
    Historical Novels
    History
    Horses
    Howitzer
    Isle Royale
    Jean Baptiste Charbonneau
    Juvenile Novels
    Karen Cushman
    Kit Carson
    Lewis And Clark
    Lindenmeier
    Middle Ages
    Middle Grade
    Middle Grade Fiction
    Middle Grade Novels
    Mother's Day
    Muffins
    Mules
    Museums
    Nanowrimo
    Native Americans
    Nazi
    Neanderthal
    New Mexico
    New Mexico History
    Normandy
    Paddy Graydon
    Pancho Villa
    Poetry
    Poets Corner
    Pony Express
    Poppies
    Prejudice
    Presidents
    Pumpkin Bread
    Punitive Expedition
    Race
    Rebels Along The Rio Grande
    Religious Persecution
    Sacajawea
    Scottish Americans
    Sleepy Hollow
    Song Writers
    Southwest
    Sports
    Spur Award
    St. Bernard Pass
    Swiss Alps
    The Last Song Of The Swan
    The Worst Enemy
    Travel
    Valentines Day
    Valverde
    Vichy Regime
    Western Writers Of America
    Where Duty Calls
    Wildfires
    World War 1
    World War Ii
    World War Two
    Writing
    Ya
    YA Fiction

    Archives

    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014


Web Hosting by iPage