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The language used is not 17th century English, in my opinion. There are also serious problems with the language and structure used in the expanded rhyme. The siege origin has been online for some time ( 1996 in fact, more on that below). But let’s focus on Humpty and Colchester. But as you’ve probably guessed, and as this journalist reports, this story, this part of the book, and perhaps even ALL origin stories for nursery rhymes, are BS. Needless to say, the local press loved it. Mary’s Tower his cannon he fired Humpty-Dumpty was its name Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall… The author evens claims to have discovered a lost verse In Sixteen Hundred and Forty-Eight When England suffered the pains of state The Roundheads lay siege to Colchester town Where the King’s men still fought for the crown There One-Eyed Thompson stood on the wall A gunner of deadliest aim of all From St. This story is being used heavily to promote the book, because it sounds so damn plausible, and specific, just as statements made by a bogus psychic can. The cavalry (“all the King’s Men”) tried to right the cannon, but “couldn’t put Humpty together again”. A lone gunner and his big cannon (“Humpty Dumpty”) mounted on top of a church tower on a Roman wall (“sat on the wall”), caused so much trouble for the attackers that they concentrated fire on his position, blowing the top of the tower clean off (“had a great fall”). In 1648, during the English Civil War, Colchester found itself occupied by Royalist forces and under siege from the Parliamentarian army. The story (reproduced here in detail) goes like this. It’s often ascribed some speculative historical significance or other ( often a king, for obvious reasons) and a popular origin story at the moment, thanks to this new book called “Pop Goes the Weasel – The Secret Meanings of Nursery Rhymes”. Humpty Dumpty is first recorded in 1797 and transformed 70 years later by Lewis Carroll into an anthropomorphic egg. And like backronyms and urban myths, these damn things have a tendency, once staked by the debunker, to rise from the proverbial grave. They’re attempts to understand, satirise, play with words, or even just plain pull the wool over the eyes of the reader. All those cute little origin stories for nursery rhymes? Like “ Ring-a-ring-a-roses” being about the Black Death? BS. In fact, the rhyme doesn’t even have such a specific historical basis. Humpty Dumpty was NOT a Civil War cannon in Colchester.