It's fascinating to find out that most nursery rhymes were based on fact in one way or another. Today is about Hickory Dickory Dock, the mouse problem was real! Most people believe this rhyme was merely a counting aid but there was a big mouse problem at the Exeter Cathedral because the clock parts were lubricated with animal fat which attracted the mice. Finally the presiding bishop hired a carpenter to cut a hole in the clock room door big enough for the bishop's cat to get in and out making the rodent problem more manageable. The hole remains in the door to this day. This was in the 1600s yet Isaac Newton is credited with inventing the first cat door but maybe it was really this unnamed bishop?
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