1894 Brewer’s / H / Horse-milliner
Properly, one who makes up and supplies decorations for horses.
A horse-soldier more fit for the toilet than the battle-field. The expression was first used by Rowley in his Ballads of Charitie, but Sir Walter Scott revived it.
“One comes in foreign trashery
Of tinkling chain and spur,
A walking haberdashery
Of feathers, lace, and fur;
In Rowley’s antiquated phrase,
Horse milliner of modern days.”
Bridal of Triermain, ii. 3.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.