"Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross" is an English language nursery rhyme connected with the English town Banbury in Oxfordshire. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 21143.
The statue of the "fine lady" at Banbury Cross
William Wallace Denslow's illustrations, 1901
The old lady on her white horse, according to Denslow
Hobby horse (toy)
Videos
A hobby horse is a child's toy horse. Children play at riding a horse made of a straight stick with a head, and perhaps reins, attached to one end. The bottom end of the stick sometimes had a small wh
Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross
…assist pulling a cart or carriage up a hill. It can also mean an entire or uncastrated horse. From the mid-sixteenth century it also meant a pretend hobby horse or an adult's knee. There is also an expression "a-cock-horse", meaning "astride". The Cock Hotel, Stony Stratford, of "cock and bull" fame might also…
In The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, the characters' hobby-horses, or particular obsessions, are discussed in detail. Here, Uncle Toby's obsession with the military leads him and Trim - who gets caught up in Toby's enthusiasm - to begin acting out military actions. Illustration by George Cruikshank.
A stick horse in the parisian manuscript Horae ad usum Parisiense, circa 1480.
Woodcut illustration from Dryander, Der Arzney gemeiner Inhalt, 1542