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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Pop goes the weasel!
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Popular song of the 1850s, with words (attributed to W.R. Mandale) which have caused endless speculation. The first verse states that the money goes 'Up and down the City Road,/ In and out the Eagle'. This certainly relates to the Eagle Tavern, an early *music hall in London's City Road. The usual explanation is that the money spent at the music hall has come from 'popping' (pawning) the 'weasel' (said to be an obscure tool used by tailors or hatters). It seems more likely that 'pop goes the weasel' was already current as a nonsense phrase (it is the name of a country dance) and that appropriately nonsensical rhymes became attached to it. Certainly the later verses, about a pudding of rice and treacle and a monkey knocked off a table, have little to do with pawnshops or tools of the trade.
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