"Old Woman Tossed Up in a Blanket", also known as "Old Woman Tossed Up in a Basket" is an English Morris dance tune in 6/8 or 2/2 time and D Major (Raven), F Major (Bacon-Bidford, Carlin), G Major (Bacon), G Mixolydian (Bacon) or B Flat Major (Bacon-Bidford). The parts are played AAB (Bacon, Carlin), AABA (Bacon-Bidford), AABB (Raven) or AABCBCBC (Bacon-Headington).
The title "The Old Woman Tossed Up In a Blanket" is taken from the nursery rhyme and song indexed as Roud #1297 (which is perhaps a nonsense song remnant),
There was an old woman tossed up in a basket
Seventy times as high as the moon.
What she did there I could not but ask it
For in each hand she carried a broom.

“Old woman, old woman, old woman,” said I
“Where are you going to up so high?”
“To sweep the cobwebs from the sky
And you may come with me if you can fly.”
"Old Woman Tossed Up" exists in song and dance versions. As a song, the lyric was early set to the tune of "Lillibulero" (an early version of which appears in in Henry Playford's Musick's Hand-Maid (1689) as "An Irish Tune") and was a favorite of Oliver Goldsmith. It is similar to the Scottish "There was a wee wifie rowed up in a blanket").
It is similar to the Irish "Old Woman Tossed Up in a Blanket" tune but has three parts.
The tune was one of the most popular among Cotswold morris dancers, with similar versions collected from the villages of Bidford (Warwickshire), Bledington (Gloucestershire), Longborough (Gloucestershire), Kirtlington (Oxfordshire), Headington (Oxfordshire) and Ilmington (Warwickshire). Some variants of "Old Woman Tossed up" are very similar to strains found in "The Kerry Dance", also known as "St. Patrick's Day" "Patrick's Day", "Love in a Village," and "The Charms of Melody".
It was printed in Bacon's A Handbook of Morris Dances (1974), Carlin's Master Collection (1984), Raven's English Country Dance Tunes (1984) and Trim's Thomas Hardy (1990).
It was recorded by Hutchings et al on Morris On (1983/1972).