Things that go bump

Posted by ESC May 19, 2003In reply to Things that go bump posted by Rand on May 18, 2003

I have seen two versions of the location of origin of the phrase: "Things that go bump in the night."

Both attribute it to a traditional prayer but one source calls it a Scottish prayer, another calls it a Cornish prayer.

So, which is it? Can anyone help me out.

Bartlett's says Cornish.

From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggety beasties
And things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!

Cornish prayer (Anonymous). From Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, by John Barlett and Justin Kaplan, general editor (Little, Brown and Co., Boston, 2002).