An earlier poem[2] by Thomas Campion (1567–1620) used the same title Cherry Ripe, and has other similarities. It is thought that the refrain originated as a trader's street cry.
The song's title has been used in other contexts on a number of occasions since and its tune has also been appropriated for other uses. The song was popular in the 19th century and at the time of World War I.
During the late 1800s, an alternative version of the song briefly appeared. The lyrics were as follows
Cherry Ripe, Cherry Ripe
Ripe I cry
Full and fair ones
Till I die
Cherry ripe, Cherry ripe
Mouse and I
River's where we're
Till you die
In popular culture
The song is mentioned in the 1889 farcical novel The Wrong Box, written by Robert Louis Stevenson and his stepson Lloyd Osbourne, in a passage discussing the ubiquity of the penny whistle in late 19th century England, as one of two songs every player of that instrument invariably blows.
The song "Cherry Ripe" is a recurring theme in John Buchan's World War I spy novel Mr Standfast (1919). It identifies Mary Lamington, a young intelligence officer, who falls in love, mutually, with the hero of the novel, General Richard Hannay.
In the classic 1957 British horror film Night of the Demon (released as Curse of the Demon in North America) the medium uses this song to attain a trance.
In 1879 it was adopted by John Everett Millais as the title of his immensely popular painting depicting a young girl with cherries. It was based loosely on Joshua Reynolds's portrait of Penelope Boothby. Millais had his niece Lucinda Ruby pose for the portrait only a matter of days before the girl was killed under the arches of London Bridge station. The painting was reproduced in colour as a chromolithograph by the newspaper The Graphic as a gift with its Christmas edition. The image vastly increased the newspaper's sales.
A painting by Walter Osborne (1859–1903) of a cherry seller in Ulster also used the title.[3]
