Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Ride A Cock-Horse
The playful jockey scours the room,
Briskly, astride upon the parlour broom.
Cowper.—Tirocinium, Line 366.
Bring me the bells, the rattle bring,
And bring the hobby I bestrode,
When pleased, in many a sportive ring,
Around the room I jovial rode.
Shenstone.—Ode to Memory, Verse 8.
We set them a cock-horse and made them play.
Bridal Song.—Appendix to General Preface to Scott’s Novels, Chap. V. end of No. 2; and see Burton’s Anat. of Melanc. 271. ed. 1849, citing Valerius Maximus, Chap. VIII. Book 8.
Unthought-of frailties cheat us in the wise.
Pope.—Moral Essays, Epi. I. To Temple, Line 69.
[Dr. Samuel Clarke (ob. 1729) frequently amused himself in a private room of his house, in leaping over the tables and chairs.—Dr. Warton on the line in Pope, supra.
To be capable of deriving amusement from trivial circumstances, indicates a heart at ease, and may generally be regarded as the concomitant of virtue.—Encycl. Brit., Title “Clarke.”]