Little Jack Horner
Little Jack Horner Sat in a corner, Eating a mincemeat pie. He stuck in his thumb And pulled out a plum, And said, "What a good boy am I!" 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. Source: The Great American Baby Almanac Mince pies are indelibly associated with Christmas. Indeed, until the mid-17th Century, they were known exclusively as Christmas Pies. The Christmas Pie of Little Jack Horner was a mince pie, though in his case it contained something more than meat and fruit. Sir John Horner was responsible for the delivery of a Christmas Pie to Henry VIII; and the plum he pulled out was the deed to a piece of confiscated church property, one of several hidden beneath the crust. Source: janeausten.co.uk
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