The Diverting History of John Gilpin

The Diverting History of John Gilpin is a comic ballad by William Cowper about John Gilpin, written in 1782. The ballad concerns a draper called John Gilpin who rides a runaway horse. Cowper heard the story from Lady Anna Austen at a time of severe depression, and it cheered him up so much that he put it into verse. [1] The poem was published anonymously in the Public Advertiser in 1782, and then published with the Task in 1785. [2] It was very popular, to the extent that "pirate copies were being sold all across the country, together with Gilpin books and toys.