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Background
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The Redstone School, now in Sudbury, Massachusetts, is believed to be the schoolhouse mentioned in the nursery rhyme.
The nursery rhyme was first published as an original poem by Sarah Hale on May 24, 1830, and was inspired by an actual incident.
As a girl, Mary Sawyer (later Mrs. Mary Tyler) kept a pet lamb, which she took to school one day at the suggestion of her brother. A commotion naturally ensued. Mary recalled:
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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/43/Redstone_School_2.jpg/180px-Redstone_School_2.jpg
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Inside the schoolhouse.
"Visiting school that morning was a young man by the name of John Roulstone, a nephew of the Reverend Lemuel Capen, who was then settled in Sterling. It was the custom then for students to prepare for college with ministers, and for this purpose Mr. Roulstone was studying with his uncle. The young man was very much pleased with the incident of the lamb; and the next day he rode across the fields on horseback to the little old schoolhouse and handed me a slip of paper which had written upon it the three original stanzas of the poem..."[1]
There are two competing theories on the origin of this poem. One holds that Roulstone wrote the first four lines and that the final twelve lines, more moralistic and much less childlike than the first, were composed by Sarah Hale; the other is that Hale was responsible for the entire poem.
Until recently, Mary Sawyer's house could still be visited in Sterling, Massachusetts; however, the house was destroyed by fire on August 12, 2007.[2] A statue representing Mary's Little Lamb stands in the town center. The Redstone School, which was built in 1798, was purchased by Henry Ford and relocated to Sudbury, Massachusetts. It now sits on the grounds of Longfellow's Wayside Inn.
[edit] Media
Mary Had a Little Lamb
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http://en.wikipedia.org/w/extensions/OggHandler/play.png
Male singing the first verse of "Mary Had a Little Lamb".
Mary Had a Little Lamb
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