Hey Diddle Diddle (The cat and the Fiddle)

On both sides of the tower sits a carved animal which looks a little like a dog laughing, can you see them? While the truth is lost in the past some say the famous nursery rhyme Hey Diddle Diddle may have originated from Bolton Abbey.

Certainly there was a Prior Moone and a family named Hey here. Legend has it that Prior Moone was “diddled” (robbed) over the sale of some cows by a local family called Hey, and the dog, for which there are two, one sitting on each side of the tower that Prior Moone was having built, are indeed laughing. Do you think the nursery rhyme was written here?