Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes Read online

  Beatrix Potter loved the countryside and she spent much of her otherwise conventional Victorian childhood drawing and studying animals. Her passion for the natural world lay behind the creation of her famous series of little books. A particular source of inspiration was the English Lake District where she lived for the last thirty years of her life as a farmer and land conservationist, working with the National Trust.

  Beatrix Potter gathered material for a book of rhymes over many years. In 1917, when her publisher was in financial difficulties and needed her help, she suggested that Appley Dapply’s Nursery Rhymes could be brought out quickly, using her existing collection of rhymes and drawings. The fact that the illustrations were painted at different times explains why the style occasionally varies.

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  Appley Dapply,

  a little brown mouse,

  Goes to the cupboard

  in somebody’s house.

  In somebody’s cupboard

  there’s everything nice,

  Cake, cheese, jam, biscuits,

  — all charming for mice!

  Appley Dapply

  has little sharp eyes,

  And Appley Dapply

  is so fond of pies!

  Now who is this knocking

  at Cotton-tail’s door?

  Tap tappit! Tap tappit!

  She’s heard it before?

  And when she peeps out

  there is nobody there,

  But a present of carrots

  put down on the stair.

  Hark! I hear it again!

  Tap, tap, tappit! Tap tappit!

  Why — I really believe

  it’s a little black rabbit!

  Old Mr. Pricklepin

  has never a cushion

  to stick his pins in,

  His nose is black

  and his beard is gray,

  And he lives in an ash stump

  over the way.

  You know the old woman

  who lived in a shoe?

  And had so many children

  she didn’t know what to do?

  I think if she lived

  in a little shoe-house —

  That little old woman

  was surely a mouse!

  Diggory Diggory Delvet!

  A little old man in black velvet;

  He digs and he delves —

  You can see for yourselves

  The mounds dug by Diggory Delvet.

  Gravy and potatoes

  In a good brown pot —

  Put them in the oven,

  And serve them very hot!

  There once was an amiable

  guinea-pig,

  Who brushed back his hair

  like a periwig —

  He wore a sweet tie,

  As blue as the sky —

  And his whiskers and buttons

  were very big.

  The End

  FREDERICK WARNE

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand,

  London WC2R 0RL, England

  Website: www.peterrabbit.com

  First published by Frederick Warne 1917

  This electronic edition first published 2010

  New reproductions copyright ©Frederick Warne & Co., 2002

  Original copyright in text and illustrations ©Frederick Warne & Co., 1917

  Frederick Warne & Co. is the owner of all rights, copyrights and trademarks in the Beatrix Potter character names and illustrations.

  All rights reserved

  ISBN: 978-0-72-326581-8

 

 

  Beatrix Potter, Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes

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