h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

While it is true that modern rhyming slang has traditionally rhymed dove with love, Brenda the Beed [c 23 BC] records prophetically that dove [or doveue in the original spelling] would actually become rhyming slang for glove. In later translations the g was deemed silent, hence the confusion. So the phrase Turtle-Doves in reality meant those dainty garments knitted for the slave turtle population to keep the beasts' tootsies protected against the harsh conditions imposed upon them by cruel landowners. The Turtle-Gloves Knitting Society became synonymous with revolutionary activity in about 458 AD, and had to go underground. It is believed that it was during this period of invisibility that the rhyming slang allocation from glove to love became imprinted on the developing East London language.
It's twue ... it is!