They seem innocent enough, but Jack and Jill may have become amorous as they climbed that hill for a pail of water. And instead of a water bird, "Goosey, goosey gander" may refer to a woman of ill ...

Goosey Goosey Gander may be about religious persecution, while Lucy Locket is about 18th Century prostitutes, writes Clemency Burton-Hill. Plague, medieval taxes, religious persecution, prostitution: ...