Sunday Times 4244

[MCC]

19 across - This plant the ultimate reason, the rhymester said, for visit by Spanish princess (3,4).
I have N?T ?R?E and assume the answer's NUT TREE, but can't think why. Is there some obscure (to me!) literary allusion?
Also, the clue actually refers to a 'rhymster', which Google says is a "site for cool poetry", but I assume, in the clue, this is a misprint! Or am I wrong again?

[Aquagility]

Prince Arthur was reputed to have deformed genitals and his' little nut tree' would gain these by marriage of the Spanish Princess to the English prince,

[mac44]

Also I Had A Little Nut Tree is a nursery rhyme that refers to the King of Spain's daughter.

[MCC]

Well, what can I say? How can I have lived so long and remained so naive and innocent? Thank you both very much.

[kettledrum]

Aquagility - I love your explanation, which I've never heard before. All that the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes has to say about it is:

Edith Sitwell in Fanfare for Elizabeth (1946) pictures Lady Bryane, governess-in-ordinary to the young Princess Mary and then to Elizabeth,singing this song to her charges, and remembering a black and terrible shadow, the shadow of Juana of Castile the mad 'King of Spain's daughter', who visited the court of Henry VII in 1506. This picture was probably inspired by J O Halliwell's suggestion that Juana of Castile is here celebrated. Whether there are grounds for the theory is not clear.

The rhyme is said to be the favourite recitation of the Shakespearean actress Dame Sybil Thorndike.

[Aquagility]

Look up Nutmeg in Wikipedia -

The nursery rhyme is believed to refer to the 1506 visit of the Royal House of Spain to King Henry VII's English court. The 'King of Spain's daughter' refers to the daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. The princess is probably Katherine of Aragon who was betrothed to Prince Arthur, the heir to the English throne. He died, thus Katherine married King Henry VIII. Prince Arthur was reputed to have deformed genitals (his little nut tree would bear nothing) and the 'silver nutmeg' refers to England's spice trade with the East, while the 'golden pear' refers to trade with the West (the golden pear is the ancient Greek Symbol for the Hesperides or West). The Spanish were hoping to gain these by marriage of the Spanish Princess to the English prince, though they were aware there would be no children from the marriage. The last verse is therefore ironic.

[kettledrum]

Thank you Aquagility.....much more informative than what I have previously considered to be the authoritive source on the origins of nursery rhymes.

[MCC]

Has anyone noticed 14 across in Saturday's Times cryptic Jumbo 720?
Topless brunette's bust: Hazel's one (3-4)
Much more my intellectual level!
But thanks to kettledrum and Aquagility for all the additional info.

[kettledrum]

Yes, MCC! I had noticed.

You obviously had a very deprived childhood, not being familiar with this nursery rhyme!

I had a little nut-tree -
Nothing would it bear,
But a silver nutmeg
And a golden pear.

The King of Spain's daughter
Came to visit me,
All for the sake of
My little nutmeg tree.