How many miles is it to Babylon?"-

"Threescore miles and ten."

"Can I get there by candle-light?"-

"Yes, and back again!

If your heels are nimble and light,

You may get there by candle-light."

The Nursery Rhyme Book. Lang, Andrew, Ed. Illus. by L. Leslie Brooke. London, England: Frederick Warne, 1897, p. 183.

"How many miles to Wimbledon?

Three score and ten.

Can I get there by candle-light?

Yes! And back again.

Then open the gates and let me go.

Not without a beck and a bow.

Here's a beck and there's a bow;

Now open the gates and we'll all pass thro'."

Green, Percy B. A History of Nursery Rhymes. London, England: Greening and Co., 1899, pp. 78-79. [ reissued by Singing Tree Press, Detroit MI, 1968.]

How many miles to Babylon? 

Three score miles and ten. 

Can I get there by candle-light? 

Yes, and back again. 

If your heels are nimble and light, 

You may get there by candle-light.

The Annotated Mother Goose: Nursery Rhymes Old and New. Baring-Gould, Willam S. and Ceil Baring-Gold, Comps. New York: Bramhall House, 1962, p. 115. No. 146

How many miles to Glasgow Lea?

Sixty, seventy, eighty-three.



Will I be there by candlelight?

Just if your legs be long and tight.



Open your gates and let me through!

Not without a beck and a bow.



There's your beck and there's your bow, 

Open your gates and let me through!

A Book of Scottish Nursery Rhymes. Norah and William Montgomerie, Eds. Illus. by T. Richie and N. Montgomerie. New York: Oxford University Press, 1965, p. 68. No. 81 [The illustration accompanying this rhyme shows two children playing this as a game.]