A cocked horse

[Jenny Tools]

Does anyone know why and where the term a cocked horse comes from, as in the nursery rhyme 'ride a cocked horse to Banberry fair' I also know a pub called The cocked horse. (wait for the nudge, nudge, wink, wink answers)

[ulrika]

Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross
To see a fine lady upon a white horse.
Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,
She shall have music wherever she goes.
These are the correct words, but I'll have to leave it to someone else to explain their history.

[drochit]

Some info:-
The Daily Mail reports this rhyme was first printed in 1784, was well known before then, though it's author remains anonymous. The Fine Lady is Elizabeth I, Lady Fines or a sack of flour. The latter the name of a sack shaped like an hourglass, to carry flour on the back of a pack horse. The horse would be white from the flour and the rings and bells would have acted as warning signals in a market place.

[drochit]

And some more:-
It is not certain who the lady in question was. The three main possibilities are Elizabeth I, Lady Godiva and Celia Fiennes, a 17th century noblewoman whose family lived at Broughton castle near Banbury. She was known for making many horseback rides through the English countryside after 1697. There was indeed a big cross at Banbury but was destroyed in 1601 in a fit of Puritan zeal. The bells on her toes refers to the 15th century fashion of attaching bells to the end of the pointed toes of each shoe.

[Jenny Tools]

Thank you for the answers but I was asking about the term "cocked horse" perhaps I should have anticipated the nurery rhyme swerve and no I dont wish to know what strange pub names you are aware of !

[FTVS]

I always thought a "cock horse" was one of those wooden ones, basically a wooden head of horse on a stick. I found this definition but origins unknown!

[FTVS]

http://www.bartleby.com/61/57/C0445700.html whoop
s didn't paste the link!

[sddsddean]

You need to go to Stony Stratford, just north of Milton Keynes. The Cock Inn still stands on the old Watling Street(what became the A5), but was bypassed when MK was built. It was a coaching inn and you could also hire horses. If you were riding from, say, London to Banbury, you would swap horses every few hours so you had a fresh mount. So you would get a Cock horse to ride on to Banbury.

[andy hughes]

I always understood a 'cock horse' to be th stick with papier mache horse's head on - I learned that watching 'Rainbow' with my youngest years ago - and they are no straners to skating on the thin ice of the inuendo pool, so I don't think they'd mess about with young minds. Then again, a pink hippo with eyelashes to die for, called George .....

[norcom]

I believe a cocked horse is one sporting a cockade or ribbon. The termed was also used for hats. Napoleon wore a cocked hat, etc.

[Squareski]

A 'Cock Horse' is indeed a horse that was hired from the Cock Inn, Stony Stratford. Incidentally, there is an Inn (or hotel now) next door called the Bull Inn. The fantastic stories that were swapped between these two establishments gave rise to the saying 'A Cock and Bull story'.