I gather a change of topic is in order. Here's a try: In "The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes" by the Opies, "Can I get there by candle-light?" was according to the Opies a common Tudor expression:- "How many miles to Babylon? Three score and ten. Can I get there by candle-light? Yes and back again..." The 'three score and ten' being usually thought of as years to paradise - the commonly alloted span of man. But may it perhaps be a reference to the duration of the Babylonian Captivity caused by Nebuchadnezzar holding the Jews captive in Babylon till released after 70 years in 536 BC.? Or the term "Babylonian Captivity" applied jocularly to the Avignon Papacy of 1309 to 1377 (actually therefore only 69 years), during which the Popes were 'captive' in France. They danced 'back again' to Rome from the Papal Palace by the bridge of Avignon, which was newly paved in 1377, toutes en rouge. Brewer (Dict. of Fact and Fable) gives: "Babylonish Garment - babylonica vestis, a garment woven with divers colour)". The bridge is too narrow for dancing 'tous en rond'. This second 'Babylonian Captivity' ended largely due to the death of Simon Langham on 22nd July 1376 whilst Cardinal of Avignon. As Archbishop of Canterbury, he had in 1368 driven the secular clergy from their college of Canterbury Hall, Oxford, and filled their places with monks - headed by Wyclif. Then incurring the displeasure of Edward III the same year by accepting from Pope Urban V the appointment of Cardinal of Avignon without having obtained Royal permission. In retaliation, Edward took the extraordinary step of pronouncing the see of Canterbury void, and seizing the revenues; i.e. he declined to pay him for ridding the town of 'protestant rats'. When Robert Browning wrote his famous poem on the Pied Piper, he consulted the first printed account - Verstegan's "A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence...", 1605. Aware perhaps, that it was published by a recusant Catholic, but quite unaware that it had been carefully falsified. Verstegan together with other innovations, had, cheekily, completely altered the date of the event from 26 June 1284 (as on record at Hamelin) to that of the death of his hero, 22 July 1376. Surely impossible to assign to a journalistic error. Which date Browning blithely immortalised, resulting in the commemoration of Simon's death being now accepted by most of the world as 'Pied Piper Day'. The 13 cardinals who left Avignon, never to return there again, became 130 children; the renowned musicians of the Papal Chapel at Avignon who returned home, became the flautist; and Simon's varicoloured garb (robes of Archbishop and Cardinal 'combined') became 'pied'. Presumably they left at night, with candle-lanterns, back again to Rome. Curious how events too hot to talk about got whispered into childrens' ears! There may even be a connection with "Copped Hat" FitzAlan, as the 3rd Earl of Arundel is generally known, who lived from 1306 to 24 Jan 1375/6. His 3rd gt grandfather being Hamelin Plantagenet, born 1130, son of the first Latin King of Jerusalem, and natural brother to Henry II. He married Isabel de Warrenne in April 1164. Not that a cardinal's scarlet hat is 'copped', but an archbishop's mitre certainly is. John Barton