Jill sent this rhyme with this note: "I am a Londoner from Camberwell, and this little rhyme (Not Last Night But the Night Before) was told to me by my parents along with "Nobody Loves Me, Everybody Hates Me, Think I'll go and eat worms" etc. which I am sure most people know. We also loved..."

Little Fly Upon the Wall - English Children's Songs - England - Mama Lisa's World: Children's Songs and Rhymes from Around the World - Intro Image

Notes

Emma Ives wrote:

"Another version of 'Little Fly' taught to me by my mum in the 60s and passed down from her Mum (in the thirties):

Little fly upon the wall
Ain't you got no friends at all?
Ain't you got no father, mother?
Ain't you got no sister, brother?
Ain't you got no shabby shirt?
Ain't you got no petticoat?
Little fly, d'you want to die?
Squishy squashy - bye bye!

(And then you'd pretend to squish the fly on the wall)."

*****

Pat wrote: "My mother came from Kennington in London and my Dad from Lambeth in London... My Mum used to tell us the rhyme..."

Little fly upon the wall,
Aint you got no clothes at all?
What not even a shimmy shirt?
Coo, aint you rude!

Thanks and Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Jill for contributing this rhyme and to Emma Ives and Pat for their mums' versions!

Image from "A First[-fifth] Reader, Book 1" (1888) by Jenny H. Stickney, Robert Irving Fulton, Thomas Clarkson Trueblood (graphically edited by Mama Lisa).