Hell in a basket

[China Doll]

Afternoon,

Bit weird but I had a dream about my nan last night and this morning I recall the phrase 'hell in a handbasket' (or possibly just basket). Is this an actual phrase? And if so, where does it come from and what does it mean?

Cheers
China

(PS: When I hit subnit I saw that this has been asked before and I can see it's an alliteration which is nice to know but not entirely helpful to my questions).

[yon]

If this has been asked before then it's quite likely that you'd already read the phrase and that's why you dreamt about it - nothing to do with your nan at all!
If it has been answered before you'll get grief from somebody who'll tell you just that!
The phrase i'm familiar with is 'head in a handbasket', presumably from the French Revolution.

[Hellyon]

Yes there is a phrase 'Went to Hell in a handbasket' and also 'Went to Hell in a hand cart' I don't know it's origin but I know it was in use in the 17th and 18th century.
If something 'goes to Hell in a hand basket' it means it's all going wrong.
I know this China as I sometime uses Helena Hande-Basquet as a user name!!!

[China Doll]

Thank you Helly, can you tell me what it actually means? I can usually see the logic in most phrases but I'm stumped by this one.

[China Doll]

Ignore me, I didn't read properly and I'm a tit!

I guess handbasket or cart would come from the french revolution aspect mentioned by Yon.

[Clanad]

Actually, the question has been asked... and answered before, but you'll get no grief from me, since that's the only real purpose of thsie site, no?
At any rate, this is a compendium of the previous answer, asked, if I recall correctly, by nickm, among others...
Please check here for my previous entry, to which I'm sticking...

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Phrases-and-Say ings/Question543468.html ...