In the nursery rhyme, Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water.
The rhyme is supposedly based upon the executions of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, with alterations to give a happy ending. Therefore in the original context the hill is not relevant.
In the case of the nursery rhyme, all the accompanying pictures I have seen show the well at the top of a hill. I have checked various websites which discuss well construction (non-Artesian) and some advise siting the well ‘on the up slope’, presumably to protect the water from contamination.
That said, is it feasible to build a well at the very top of a hill, or are there too many variables to take into consideration? I am referring to factors such as the height of the hill, the composition of the underlying soil, the depth of the aquifer and other issues of which I am probably unaware.
I believe it’s more likely that illustrators didn’t understand wells and springs. It’s not unusual to find a spring on the side of a hill. If there’s no better water source around, you can build a little catch basin where the spring comes out of the ground. So, assuming :dubious: that a nursery rhyme was based on reality, I’d say that J&J were headed to a catch basin “to fetch a pail of water.” Just before getting there, they slipped on the mossy rocks where the water runs out onto the hill. “Jack fell down,” etc.
The standard reference work on nursery rhymes is The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes edited by Iona and Peter Opie. They are the experts with everything as documented as you could want.
This nursery rhyme is first noted in 1765 in MOther Goose’s Melody, a compilation of nursery stories that were classics at the time. It was done as “Jack and Gill” (with two boys) at the time.
The next appearance is in 1784 as “Jack and Jill went up a Hill.” At this point there was only the first verse that we are familiar with today. The other verses seemed to have been added in the first decade of the 1800’s.
References to “Jack and Jill” go back at least to Shakespeare, Jack shall have Jill, and none shall go ill.
That said, is it feasible to build a well at the very top of a hill, or are there too many variables to take into consideration? I am referring to factors such as the height of the hill, the composition of the underlying soil, the depth of the aquifer and other issues of which I am probably unaware.
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Yes it’s feasible; last summer I was at a relative’s home and did a minor repair of their tank on the top of a hill. The well was next to the tank.
btw. The squire who owns the property was fairly insistent that “proper” wells be built on top of hills and to put one in a valley or ravine was foolish. I don’t know his feelings about putting one on the side of a hill.
> It didn’t work because you put the closing url tag inside the close paren.
Actually, no, I didn’t. The posting software here decide on its own to put the url tag inside the close paren. Is there something in the posting software that doesn’t like a final parenthesis in a URL?