Nursery Rhymes

Hickory Dickory Dock

Where the rhyme comes from

Hickory Dickory Dock first appeared in print in Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book, published in London in 1744 — the earliest surviving collection of English nursery rhymes. There the opening line is spelled “Hickere, Dickere Dock”. A second early version turns up in Mother Goose’s Melody (about 1765), which begins “Dickery, Dickery Dock”.

The modern spelling settled down during the nineteenth century, and the rhyme is catalogued in the Roud Folk Song Index as number 6489. Two tunes are commonly sung, one favoured in Britain and one in America, both of which climb and fall with the mouse.

What does it mean?

Nobody knows for certain, and the honest answer is that the rhyme may mean very little at all — the opening line is playful nonsense that imitates the tick and chime of a clock. Three theories are often repeated:

A counting rhyme. The most widely supported idea is that “hickory, dickory, dock” descends from shepherds’ counting scores once used in northern England, in which numbers resembling hevera, devera, dick stood for eight, nine and ten. It is a plausible echo rather than a proven descent, but it fits the way children have long used the words to count each other out for games.

The Exeter Cathedral clock. A popular story links the rhyme to the medieval astronomical clock at Exeter Cathedral, which has a small hole cut in the door beneath the face so the cathedral cat could hunt mice. Cathedral records do show payments connected with keeping cats to control vermin. It is a charming theory, first put forward in modern times, and there is no evidence tying it to the rhyme — treat it as folklore.

A rhyme for telling the time. Whatever its origin, the rhyme has been used for generations as a first lesson in clocks and hours, which is why so many extended versions count upwards from one to twelve.

Sharing it with children

This is a lovely lap rhyme. Sit a child on your knees and “run” two fingers up their arm from wrist to shoulder as the mouse runs up the clock, clap once on “the clock struck one”, then scurry your fingers back down for a tickle. Older children enjoy standing tall as the clock, arms swinging like a pendulum on the “hickory, dickory” lines. Because the rhyme names an hour, it is also a natural moment to point at a real clock face and count the chimes together.

Extra verses to sing

These verses aren’t traditional — they’re ours. Sing them when one small hour isn’t enough.

More rhymes to explore

• Three Blind Mice — more mice in a hurry
• Ding Dong Bell — another rhyme that chimes
• Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat — the cat that chased a mouse