Chapter Many Men, Many Minds to Mare's Nest of M by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

mare or lose the halter- i.e. to play double or quits.
   The grey mare is the better horse. (See Grey Mare.)
   The two-legged mare. The gallows.
   Shanks's mare. One's legs or shanks.
   Money will make the mare to go.

“ `Will you lend me your mare to go a mile?'
`No, she is lame leaping over a stile.'
`But if you will her to me spare,
You shall have money for your mare,'
`Oh, ho! say you so?
Money will make the mare to go.' ”
Old Glees and Catches.

   Whose mare's dead? What's the matter? Thus, in 2 Henry IV., when Sir John Falstaff sees Mistress Quickly with the sheriff's officers, evidently in a state of great discomposure, he cries,

“How now? Whose mare's dead? What's the matter?”- Act ii. 1.

Mare's Nest To find a mare's nest is to make what you suppose to be a great discovery, but which turns out to be all moonshine.

“Why dost thou laugh?
What mare's nest hast thou found?”
Beaumont and Fletcher: Bonduca, v. 2.

“Are we to believe that the governor, executive council, the officers, and merchants have been finding mare's nests only?”- The Times.

   N.B. In some parts of Scotland they use instead a skate's nest. In Gloucestershire a long-winded tale is called a Horse-nest. In Cornwall they say You have found a wee's nest, and are laughing over the eggs. In Devon, nonsense is called a blind mare's nest. Holinshed calls a gallows a foul's nest (iii.). In French the corresponding phrase is “Nid de lapin; Nid d'une souris dans l'oreille d'un chat. ” (See Chat.)