The Doctor Foster nursery rhyme has an interesting history. It has a line that rhymes middle with puddle and that makes some believe that the nursery rhyme was written sometime in the 13th century. It was recorded for the first time in 1810 but the version with the words middle and puddle was published in 1844.
Common Theories
The first theory of Doctor Foster’s history is that it was based off of King Edward and his visit a town called Gloucester. While he was there he fell off of his horse in front of people. When he fell off of his horse he was so embarrassed that this was the last time that he would ever visit Gloucester. There are two other theories about what else this meant. It’s also thought to mean that it was about the play that was written by Christopher Marlowe titled Doctor Faustus. In the story, the protagonist is called Doctor Faustus as in insult by someone who he caused to fall into water because they were riding on a straw that he had turned into a horse. While they were riding on the horse, he caused it to turn back into a straw while they were in the middle of the river. The third theory is that Doctor Foster was an emissary of the Archbishop of Canterbury and that he visited Gloucester with instructions that the communion table should be changed around from the center of the chancel to the east end of the church, but this never happened because there was a flood. This was a warning that when you think something is shallow you should still proceed with caution because it could end up being much more deep than you had assumed and you could end up at the bottom of the puddle as well.