E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Grey Mare.
The Grey Mare is the better horse. The woman is paramount. It is said that a man wished to buy a horse, but his wife took a fancy to a grey mare, and so pertinaciously insisted that the grey mare was the better horse, that the man was obliged to yield the point.
1
Macaulay says: “I suspect [the proverb] originated in the preference generally given to the grey mares of Flanders over the finest coach-horses of England.”
2
The French say, when the woman is paramount, C’est le mariage d’epervier (’Tis a hawk’s marriage), because the female hawk is both larger and stronger than the male bird.
Macaulay says: “I suspect [the proverb] originated in the preference generally given to the grey mares of Flanders over the finest coach-horses of England.”
