Talk:Little Bo Peep

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An interesting one! I live in Brighton, Sussex, England and it is KNOWN around here what the origins of this rhyme are (especially if you travel further East to Hastings and talk to the fisherman0, but I'm damned if I can find any VERIFICATION to put it in the main article. About a year ago it was on the Hastings tourist site but it's gone!

Little Bo-Peep isn't a tale about a shepherdess at all, it's about Sussex smugglers and is set in St. Leonards (just west of Hastings). The Bo Peep public house was a popular watering hole for smugglers in the 18th and 19th centuries (the pub is still there and still has the same name), the nearby Martello Tower, nicknamed Bo Peep was used by the customs men (Update: Found an 1874 newspaper article [from the "St Leonards and Hastings News" http://www.movable-type.co.uk/veness/hicks/hicksInventions.pdf page 11] naming tower 39 as Bopeep). (There is also now a Bo Peep railway junction nearby, presumable named after the pub or tower).

Little Bo Peep refers to the customs men, the sheep are the smugglers themselves and the tails are the contraband. When they new the customs men were onto them, the smugglers often abandoned the contraband, knowing this makes the extra verses make a lot more sense than if they were really about sheep.

If I can ever find any verification for this I'll add it to the main article, in the meantime, if anyone else can find any verification, feel free to do it yourself!

Jason [[[User:Fork me|Fork me]] 14:17, 26 March 2006 (UTC)]

[edit] Contradictions

The history section opens by mentioning the rhyme's alleged origins in the Great Depression, while the image posted is from 1901, predating the Great Depression by thirty years. Is there a notable source for the statement to validate it not being edited out?

I think the actual existance of the bookmark shown proves conclusively that it predates the depression so I have editied it out. I hadn't even noticed this one! Fork me 14:36, 29 September 2006 (UTC)