So where/ when did the phrase originate? Oxford Dictionary of Quotations has no entry; Google comes up with references to it being well known in America in the 1850s, but no details; Q referred to it in Troy Town in 1888 as a cliche in middle- class England. You'd think that such a commonplace, vaguely literary, phrase would have a book origin. But no, and no one seems to know where/ how it arose. Can the Cat do better?