Where does"lead sb up the garden path" come from?

[Greenfield]

[wendilla]

In this part of the world it is said as "lead DOWN the garden path" and it also means to mislead.

From "Heavens to Betsy" by Charles Earle Funk (Harper & Row, New York, 1955): "to lead one up (or down) the garden (or garden path) - This expression, in frequent use by English writers, has not yet gained much currency in the United States. It is relatively new, dating probably no further back than around the end of World War I. When I wrote to Sir St. Vincent Troubridge, whom I have quoted variously elsewhere, to inquire whether he could suggest a possible origin, I advanced the theory that seduction might have been the aim in the 'leading.' He did not agree with that view, though he was not able to offer anything more plausible. Nevertheless, to quote the 'Supplement (1933) to The English Oxford Dictionary,' the saying means 'to lead on - mislead,' and the earliest printed quotation that is cited in from Ethel Mannin's 'Sounding Brass' (1926): 'They're cheats, that's wot women are! Lead you up the garden and then go snivellin' around 'cos wot's natcheral 'as 'appened to 'em.' If that doesn't imply seduction, then what does it imply? Be that as it may, current usage rarely, if ever, carries other meaning than to bamboozle, to hoax, to blarney, to pull one's leg, to deceive."

[Bbbananas]

Who is sb?

[Naomicorlett]

Some body ?

[Bbbananas]

Ah!
You see when I did shorthand - it was Pitman shorthand (late 70's - before the easier T-line shorthand came in). Now I just use my own version - it's called scrawl.

[Sandy-Wroe]

Tennyson asked Maud to come into the garden. Was he planning to lead her up the garden path?