Tanner of Tamworth

Edward IV. was hunting in Drayton Basset when a tanner met him. The king asked him several questions, and the tanner, taking him for a highway robber, was very chary. At last they swopped horses, the tanner gave the king his gentle mare Brocke, which cost 4s., and the king gave the tanner his hunter, which soon threw him. Upon this the tanner paid dearly for changing back again. Edward now blew his horn, and when his courtiers came up in obedience to the summons, the tanner, in great alarm, cried out, “I hope I shall be hanged tomorrow” (i.e. I expect), but the king gave him the manor of Plumpton Park, with 300 marks a year. (Percy Reliques, etc.)

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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.