And threw him down the stairs

There's a scene in Busman's Honeymoon where Peter and Harriet are speculating as to where old Noakes had actually been hit in the head, since he subsequently got up and fell down the stairs. Peter starts quoting the way he does, "Upstairs and downstairs and in my lady's chamber," and then hurriedly backs off - "No, no, not in my lady's chamber."

I never quite understood why he was in such a hurry to backtrack, besides obviously preferring their bedroom not be the scene of the crime. But then last night I was reciting the full nursery rhyme.

Goosey, goosey, gander, whither dost thou wander?
Upstairs and downstairs and in my lady's chamber.
There I met an old man who wouldn't say his prayers,
I took him by the left leg and threw him down the stairs.

The goose was in my lady's chamber when he met the old man. Well, Noakes was pretty much the old man who wouldn't say his prayers, and someone definitely sent him down the stairs. Peter had stumbled into a quote more applicable than he meant, and that was why he was so anxious to dissociate it from their story.

I just love figuring out Sayers references.