Rings on her fingers, bells on her toes

[Bruce Dykes]

-----Original Message-----
From: Bapopik at AOL.COM <Bapopik at AOL.COM>
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Date: Sunday, February 20, 2000 1:33 PM
Subject: Rings on her fingers, bells on her toes


>    Someone asked me about this.  Here goes.
>    The RHHDAS has "with bells on" from 1899.  The phrase is placed in no
>context whatsoever.  I first heard the full phrase in a Tony Orlando song,
>"Sweet Gypsy Rose."


That calls to mind a line I read in a Discworld novel (Terry Pratchett).

A working class character in the novel wasn't believing  what somebody was
telling him, so he said: "pull the other one, it's got bells on it,"
referring to pulling his leg.

Is this a classic Briticism, or did Terry create this one out of whole
cloth?

bkd