1814 W. Scott p. ii Children..cannot endure that a nursery story should be repeated to them differently from the manner in which it was first told.
1847 W. M. Thackeray (1848) xxv. 219 It was as in the old nursery-story, when the stick forgot to beat the dog.
1966 B. Ireson (title) The Faber book of nursery stories.