<P> London Bridge is broken down: Now he courts the gay Ladee Dancing o'er The Lady - Lee . </P> <P> The oldest extant version could be that recalled by a correspondent to the Gentleman's Magazine in 1823, which he claimed to have heard from a woman who was a child in the reign of Charles II (r . 1660--85) and had the lyrics: </P> <P> London Bridge is broken down, Dance over the Lady Lea; London Bridge is broken down, With a gay lady (la - dee). </P> <P> The earliest printed English version is in the oldest extant collection of nursery rhymes, Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, printed by John Newbery in London (c. 1744), beginning with the following text: </P>

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