The heroine of Pope's serio-comical poem, entitled the Rape
of the Lock. The poem is based on a real incident:- Lord Petre cut
off a lock of Miss Fermor's hair, and this liberty gave rise to a
bitter feud between the two noble families. The poet says that Belinda
wore on her neck two curls, one of which the baron cut off with a pair
of scissors borrowed of Clarissa. Belinda, in anger, demanded back the
ringlet; but it had flown to the skies and become a meteor, which “shot
through liquid air, and drew behind a radiant trail of hair.” (See Berenice.)
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
