"If wishes were horses, beggars would ride" is a

proverb A proverb (from la, proverbium) is a simple and insightful, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and use formulaic speech, formulaic language. A proverbial phra ...

and

nursery rhyme A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes. From t ...

, first recorded about 1628 in a collection of

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

proverbs, which suggests if wishing could make things happen, then even the most destitute people would have everything they wanted. It has a

Roud Folk Song Index The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud (born 1949), a former librarian in the London ...

number of 20004.

Lyrics

Common newer versions include: :If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. :If turnips were watches, I'd wear one by my side. :If "ifs" and "ands" were pots and pans, :There'd be no work for

tinker Tinker or tinkerer is an archaic term for an itinerant tinsmith who mends household utensils. Description ''Tinker'' for metal-worker is attested from the thirteenth century as ''tyckner'' or ''tinkler''. Some travelling groups and Romani p ...

s' hands. And also: :If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride. :If turnips were swords, I'd have one at my side. :If "ifs" and "ands" were pots and pans, :There'd be no work for tinkers' hands. A shorter variant: :If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. :If turnips were bayonets, I'd wear one by my side.I. Opie and P. Opie, ''The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes'' (Oxford:

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 427. A funny variant: :If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride. :If horse turds were biscuits, they'd eat 'til they died.

Origin

The first recognizable ancestor of the rhyme was recorded in

William Camden William Camden (2 May 1551 – 9 November 1623) was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and herald, best known as author of ''Britannia'', the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, and the ''Annal ...

's (1551–1623) ''Remaines of a Greater Worke, Concerning Britaine'', printed in 1605, which contained the lines: "If wishes were thrushes beggars would eat birds".G. L. Apperson and M. Manser, ''Wordsworth Dictionary of Proverbs'' (Wordsworth, 2003), p. 637. The reference to horses was first in James Carmichael's ''Proverbs in Scots'' printed in 1628, which included the lines: "And wishes were horses, pure

oor ''OOR'' is the oldest currently published music magazine in the Netherlands. ''Oor'' is the Dutch word for ear. Until 1984 it was published as ''Muziekkrant Oor''. History The magazine was first published on 1 April 1971, being founded by Ba ...

men wald ride". The first mention of beggars is in

John Ray John Ray FRS (29 November 1627 – 17 January 1705) was a Christian English naturalist widely regarded as one of the earliest of the English parson-naturalists. Until 1670, he wrote his name as John Wray. From then on, he used 'Ray', after ...

's ''Collection of English Proverbs'' in 1670, in the form "If wishes would bide, beggars would ride". The first versions with close to today's wording was in James Kelly's ''Scottish Proverbs, Collected and Arranged'' in 1721, with the wording "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride". The rhyme above was probably the combination of two of many versions and was collected by

James Orchard Halliwell James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (born James Orchard Halliwell; 21 June 1820 – 3 January 1889) was an English Shakespearean scholar, antiquarian, and a collector of English nursery rhymes and fairy tales. Life The son of Thomas Halliwell, he ...

in the 1840s. The last line was sometimes used to stop children from questioning and get to work: "If if's and and's were pots and pans, there'd surely be dishes to do."

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:If Wishes Were Horses, Beggars Would Ride English proverbs English nursery rhymes English folk songs English children's songs Traditional children's songs 16th-century songs Year of song unknown Songwriter unknown Phill Jubb used this as the title of his 1996 progressive house record.