The Tailor and the Mouse

       There was a tailor had a mouse, Hi diddle unkum feedle
       They lived to-gether in one house, Hi diddle unkum feedle.
       Hi diddle unkum tarum tantum, through the town of Ramsey.
       Hi diddle unkum, over the les, Hi diddle unkum feedle.

I wonder if the hi-diddle-dees are the result of the oral/aural tradition forgetting the words?

Oh dear, I almost gave up today; didn't leave the house. But I did read Eva Figes' Light  to the end which led me to read about Claude Monet's life to help me understand the family relationships. I was reminded of a Tavernier film from 1984 Un dimanche à la campange (A Sunday in the Country.  The indefinite article is important as there is another film of the same title without it) which is based on a novel by Pierre Bost Monsieur Ladmiral Va Bientôt Mourir (1945) the main fictional character being a failed artist.

Well . . . the peculiar American social disease malady flared up again today . . .