People are only just realising what Little Bo-Peep is really about – and it’s not sheep
PEOPLE are just finding out what the nursery rhyme 'Little Bo-Peep' is really about and it's blowing their minds.
Most people will have sung along to the famous nursery rhyme, about Little Bo-Peep losing her sheep, many times before.
But it turns out that the popular nursery rhyme isn't even about sheep.
Nursery Rhyme expert, Tim Devlin, has revealed the hidden meaning behind the rhyme in his new book titled Cracking Humpty Dumpty.
He told the Daily Mail: "Almost everyone in the English speaking world knows a nursery rhyme. But they don't know what they mean.
"Some are nonsense. Some are scurrilous and some are dark. But they help young children to speak and read and have become part of the fabric of life and our social history."
The nursery rhyme says: "Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep, and doesn't know where to find them.
"Leave them alone, And they'll come home, bringing their tails behind them."
While it does seem the rhyme is in fact about lost sleep, with a little historical context the illusion is banished.
Tim revealed that Little Bo-peep was once the name of a customs house in St Leonards-on-Sea in East Sussex, which is now a pub.
The custom house was popular with smugglers to trade their contraband.
The custom officers were called Bo-Peep, and the sheep depicted in the rhyme were actually smugglers.
The nursery rhyme expert added: "They lost their sheep (smugglers) and some local wag joked: "Leave them alone and they'll come home, bringing their tails (loot) behind them"."
A Twitter user revealed the origin of the nursery rhyme on Twitter, leaving people stunned.
One was aghast, writing: WOW."
Another added: "Used to walk up here as a child, there were no sheep there then, just a little cottage."
The Sun recently covered that people are realising Humpty Dumpty isn't an egg, bringing a whole new meaning to the popular nursery rhyme.