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Dear fishonabike: I'm not taking sides. However, Brewer was obviously a serious scholar,
and being a Brit,would have had no motive to award undeserved fame to any Bostonian.
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Brewer was obviously a serious scholarCouldn't agree more, Bill - as witness all these delightful and informative derivations that you have been passing on from the man (for which we are all very grateful). However, he is only human. He may have made a mistake in this instance, or he may even be  dropping in a little joke. being a Brit,would have had no motive to award undeserved fame to any BostonianI don't think Brits are (or were) invariably anti-US by any means, and especially in pockets there has been (and is) a very close relationship indeed. Tom Paine, friend to Benjamin Franklin, and a man with local connections - and a local brew named after him! - springs to mind: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRpaine.htmNo, I'm only basing my (cross-threadable) skepticism on an intuition that Mother Goose is far older than implied here, as are fairy tales about geese and golden eggs and so forth. Mrs Goose's name was a bit more like serendipity from this viewpoint. I've no evidence whatsoever to support. But then, what's new? 
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Mother Goose contains not stories, but short verses, of the sort grandmothers recite to
small children. Many of them undoubtedly originated in England and were brought by
settlers to New England. I have read that some of them are said to have been satires
on Englidh political events. E.g.:
Little Jack Horner
Sat in the corner,
Eating a Christmas pie;
He put in his thumb,
And pulled out a plum,
And said,
What a good boy am I!
I have read that this is said to refer to an agent of HenryVIII, who when he carried a "pie"
which was a package of deeds to church property the king had seized, he stole a couple
deeds and had them registered in his name.
I am not impressed by alleged difficulties in finding gravestone of Elizabeth Goose. I have
ancestors older than her whose gravestones have disappeared from Copp's Hill.
Edit: I later found this on a different site:
According to legend, Little Jack Horner was actually Thomas Horner, steward to the Abbot of Glastonbury during the reign of King Henry VIII. Rumor had it that the inquisitive king would soon be reaching for some Glastonbury holdings. The nervous Abbot, hoping to appease the royal appetite, sent the king a special gift: a pie containing twelve deeds to manor houses. On his way to London, the not-so-loyal courier Horner stuck his thumb into the pie and extracted the deed for Mells Manor, a plum piece of real estate, where his descendants live to this day.
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The Flashman books by George MacDonald Fraser is a very good source for Victorian history
Have you read these, Rhuby?
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The Flashman books by George MacDonald Fraser is a very good source for Victorian history
Have you read these, Rhuby?
All of them, Jackie. Twice. I highly recommend them for a thumping good read and some incredible insights into 19th century life all over the world. Flashman visited the US several times and they have so far been recorded in Flash for freedom about the slave ships into Nawlins,Flashman and the Redskins about the '49 gold rush and the Sioux wars of '76 and Flashman and the Angel of the Lord about the Harper's Ferry insurrection. He also took part in the US Civil War but this book hasn't been written yet. Mr. MacDonald Fraser had better hurry up because he's pushing past 80 and I would hate to see him give up before the series is complete.
My all-time favourite is Flashman and the Great Game about the Indian mutiny. Oh, and if you want to know a bit about cricket then read Flashman's lady. There's an excellent commentary on a real match played between MCC and the gentlemen of England in 1842. Classic stuff.
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The Flashman books by George MacDonald Fraser is a very good source for Victorian historyI knew the books were popular worldwide, but didn't realise how popular until just now. Here's a link to "The Royal Flashman Society [small print: of Upper Canada ]": http://www.pangloss.ca/flashman/Some people may be interested to know that Flashman first appeared as a (significant) character in Tom Brown's Schooldays.
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