Mary Mary....

The oldest known version was first published in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book (1744) with the following lyrics:

Mistress Mary, Quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With Silver Bells, And Cockle Shells,
And so my garden grows.

The most common version of the rhyme, and the one used still to this day is:

Mary Mary quite contrary
How does your garden grow
With silver bells and cockle shells

And pretty maids all in a row.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Mn2mJUYYOns

'Mary Mary' refers to Mary Tudor, daughter of King Henry VIII. She was also nicknamed 'Bloody Mary' due to her mass torture and murder of protestants during her reign as queen.
The growing 'garden' refers to the increasing number of graves with the graveyard, occupied by the protestants she had sent to their deaths.

Definition of contrary:

• being the opposite one of two: I will make the contrary choice.
• unfavorable or adverse.
• perverse; stubbornly opposed or willful.

The use of the word contrary to describe Mary suggests that Mary was unfavorable; people didn't agree with her actions, and felt she was only enforcing her power as queen to make everybody obey her simply because she could. She was stubborn with her choice in lifestyle and she was determined to ensure everybody else followed her religion.

The silver bells and cockle shells were instruments of torture used during this period. The silver bells were thumbscrews which were used to crush the thumbs between two hard surfaces by the tightening of a screw. The cockleshells are believed to have been instruments of torture which would be attached to the genitals.

Thumb screws

The 'maids' is short for maiden, which was the original guillotine. It was used as a device to behead people. It could take up to 11 blows to actually sever the head and so the victim would often resist and would have to be chased around the scaffold, Margaret Pole being the most famous for this.

The problems that occurred led to the production of the guillotine known today. The idea came from the maidens which had been used in Halifax Yorkshire.