Are You Familiar with These Phrases and Words?

Posted on July 14, 2016 by Regina Jeffers

Today we will look at phrases/words we have inherited from England.

Go to the Dickens! (or) What the Dickens!
Believe it or not, neither phrase has anything to do with the Victorian novelist, Charles Dickens. Actually, “dickens” comes to us from William Shakespeare. In The Merry Wives of Windsor (Act III, scene 2), Mrs. Page asks, “Where had you this pretty weathercock?” (in reference to Falstaff’s page, Robin) – to which Robin replies, “I cannot tell what the dickens his name is my husband had him of.” Many experts believe the term was originally “devilkins,” rather than “dickens.”

Chaperon
French nobles of the late Middle Ages wore a hood similar to those worn today in academic gowns for degree programs. This hood resembled the mantle or chape worn by priests of the era. The hood was called a chaperon or little mantle. The chaperon became part the full dress uniform of the Order of the Garter in 1349 (created by Edward III). Men ceased wearing the “hood” (except the Order) after the 15th Century when it became part of a female’s dress, especially ladies of the court. In the 18th Century, the present day meaning came about. Metaphorically, the chaperon shelters her charge much as the hood sheltered the person’s face.

Phrases_Bible3_Drop_Bucket                                                                                  A Drop in the Bucket (or) Sea (or) Water
The phrase first appeared in John Wycliff’s (1382) translation of the Bible. “Lo, Jentiles as a drope of a boket, and as moment of a balaunce ben holden.” (Isaiah, ix, 15) Charles Dickens used the phrase in his 1844’s A Christmas Carol. Marley says to Scrooge, “The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business.”

To Be Taken Down a Peg
The first written allusion we can find is in Love’s Labor’s Lost (1592) by William Shakespeare. “Master, let me take you a button-hole lower.” (Act V, scene 2) The actual use of the word “peg” appeared in Pappe with an Hatchet (1589) from an uncertain author. The lines read “Now haue at you all my gaffers of the rayling religion, tis I that must take you a peg lower.” Some experts believe the “peg” comes from a reference to “draughts” (checkers) in a game. (The Phrase Finder)

To Bell the Cat
This phrase means to undertake an unpleasant or even a hazardous situation. The allusion comes to us from an ancient fable in which the mice mean to hang a brass bell upon the cat that makes their lives miserable. The bell would serve as a warning for the cat’s approach. In Piers Plowman (written ca. 1360-1387), we find “hangen it vp-on the cattes hals (neck) thane here we mowen (we may hear) where he ritt (scratch) or rest.” William Langland, the author, wrote this Middle English allegorical narrative poem in unrhymed alliterative verse divided into sections called “passus” (Latin for step).

From Æsop. (Sixth century B.C.)  Fables.The Harvard Classics.  1909–14, we have, “LONG ago, the mice had a general council to consider what measures they could take to outwit their common enemy, the Cat. Some said this, and some said that; but at last a young mouse got up and said he had a proposal to make, which he thought would meet the case. ‘You will all agree,’ said he, ‘that our chief danger consists in the sly and treacherous manner in which the enemy approaches us. Now, if we could receive some signal of her approach, we could easily escape from her. I venture, therefore, to propose that a small bell be procured, and attached by a ribbon round the neck of the Cat. By this means we should always know when she was about, and could easily retire while she was in the neighbourhood.’

“This proposal met with general applause, until an old mouse got up and said: ‘That is all very well, but who is to bell the Cat?’ The mice looked at one another and nobody spoke. Then the old mouse said: ‘It is easy to propose impossible remedies.'” (Bartleby) 

Tom and Jerry. In the U. S., a “tom and jerry” is a powerful alcoholic drink. A man named “Jerry Thomas (a nom de plume)” was the first to record the brandy and rum drink. However, its roots are founded in Pierce Egan’s (English journalist and novelist) 1821’s Life in London, or Days and Nights of Jerry Hawthorne and his Elegant Friend Corinthian Tom. The famous George Cruikshank illustrates the book. In the book, there is a “Jerry shop,” another name for a low class beer establishment.

TomandJerryTitleCardcAlso in America, Tom and Jerry is an American animated series of short films created in 1940, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. It centers on a rivalry between its two title characters, Tom Cat and Jerry Mouse, and many recurring characters, based around slapstick comedy. In its original run, Hanna and Barbera produced 114 Tom and Jerry shorts for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1940 to 1958. During this time, they won seven Acacdemy Awards for Animated Short Film, tying for first place with Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies with the most awards in the category. “Tom and Jerry” was a commonplace phrase for youngsters indulging in riotous behaviour in 19th-century London. However Brewer’s notes no more than an “unconscious” echo of the Regency era’s original meaning in the naming of the cartoon. (Wikipedia) 220px-Brewers_Dictionary_of_Phrase_and_Fable.jpg

To Trip the Light Fantastic. In John Milton’s “L’Allegro” (1632), we find…

Sport that wrinkled Care derides,
And Laughter holding both his sides.
Come, and trip it as ye go
On the light fantastick toe.

To Keep the Wolf from the Door

from cam.ac.uk

Most of us have the image of a wolf as a symbol of hunger. We have likely said something similar to “He wolfed down his meal.” The phrase “to keep the wolf from the door” comes to us from English chronicler, John Hardyng (1457). In his Chronicle, Hardyng writes, “Endowe hym now, with noble sapience By whiche he maye the wolf were (ward off) frome the gate.”

To Have Bees in One’s Bonnet
Variations of the expression was likely used long John Heywood, best known as a playwright, used the phrase in his 1546’s Dialogue conteining the number in effect of all the prouerbes in the English tongue. Most experts agree Robert Herrick (a poet) added the word “bonnet” to the phrase to replace the word “brain.” In Herrick’s 1648 poem, “Mad Maid’s Song,” we find “Ah! Woe is mee, woe, woe is mee,, Alack and well-a-day! For pitty, sir find out that bee, Which bore my love away. I’le seek him in your bonnet brave, I’le see him in your eyes.” (The Phrase Finder)

Junket
Originally this was a rush basket to carry fish. The word came from the Norman-French word “jonket” or “jonquette” from “jone,” which means “rush.” The English had discovered the basket once meant for smelly fish could also be used to prepare cheese. The cheese then came to be called “junket.” In some parts of England, this cheese, which is served with a dressing of scalded cream, is referred to “curds and cream.” Later, “junket” came to mean a lavish meal (carried in the basket). In the U. S., such a basket is used for a picnic. (English Language and Usage) 

To Bury the Hatchet
We in the U. S. would claim this phrase to mark the time when hostilities between neighboring tribes of Native Americans would come to an end. However, we must make reference to a similar phrase in English history. “To hang up the hatchet” dates back to the 14th Century. It meant much the same as the Americanism…to take up friendly negotiations. In G. L. Apperson’s English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, we find in a 1327’s political song: “Hang up thyn hatchet ant thi knyf.” The word “bury” replaced the word “hang” in about the 18th Century.

Disheveled
I chose this word because it is one of those words I must take time in spelling. When I am writing my books, I must pause to think it out each time. Needless to say, “disheveled” means very untidy. However, in Chaucer’s time, the word meant the state of one’s hair, rather than disorderly clothing. Chaucer used the word to mean bareheaded or baldheaded. He spelled it “discheuel, discheuelee, disshevely” or however he might chose. (It is nice to know I have something in common with Geoffrey Chaucer.) The word comes from the Old French deschevelé, meaning stripped of hair or bald. (Oxford Dictionaries)

from geekdad.com

Posted in word origins, word play | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Expectations for Ladies of Society in the Victorian Era: “Lady-of-All-Works”

Posted on July 13, 2016 by Regina Jeffers

The expectations for women of the Victorian Era were different from those of the Regency. Foremost, the ladies of the landed gentry were influenced by the prevalent Victorian opinion of a “natural” separation of the roles of males and females in society. A homegrown attitude of ladies benefitting others around them rather than themselves had taken root. Women of the day were expected to develop a loving and caring character, a well-read mind, sensibility, sympathy, social ease, and benevolence.There were also to be a “mild-mannered” companion to their husbands and a caring mother to their children. There were women who took to the role naturally and those who did not. Some had to learn to subjugate their thoughts and there more fiery natures to their husbands. Females were thought to be incapable of making rational judgments on crucial matters. This translated to their not being permitted to conduct business or their own financial matters. 

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Rachel Beer was both a rich Victorian society lady and a social progressive

Needless to say, they were given no say in such matters as marriage settlements. It was thought to be reprehensible of a woman to concern herself with such negotiations. In contrast, the potential bridegroom was considered diligent if he chose to be involved. Many Victorian women were expected to claim the role of “dumb blonde,” whether her hair color was that shade or not. Intelligence in females was not a valued asset during the time. Men tended to look upon a woman as an embellishment. 

Wives of the landed gentry and lords of the land were expected to bring “gaiety”to social gatherings. They were to be the arbiters of proper conduct within their husband’s social circle. The wives and daughters of the landed gentry and the aristocracy depended upon their close male relatives (father, brother, cousin, husband, uncle, etc.) for their status and for their material well-being. Unfortunately, girls were not valued within the family. They were often considered a financial burden and there was a rush to have them married off. Mothers were known to express their own doubts by glorifying the birth of a son and treating the birth a daughter as a bit of a disappointment. The lack of an heir was considered the woman’s “fault.” She had failed her husband. (Each daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert received a 21-gun salute after her birth. Each son received a salute of 101 shots.) The daughters of the landed gentry and the aristocracy had neither freedom nor control. 

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yooniqimages.com FRANCES EVELYN MAYNARD, LADY BROOKE, COUNTESS OF WARWICK

Part of their life was to be devoted to the care of charity cases, especially of those surrounding their husbands’ estates. Parish life was a continual pull upon the woman’s role in the neighborhoods. A woman devoted to dress and gossip was frowned upon by the bulwarks of society. As part of the farce, recipients of the lady’s charity were expected to display humble gratitude. Unfortunately, many upon whom the great house’s charity was bestowed did not “read for their parts.” There a great deal of bitterness among the cottagers, servants, etc. It was not beyond the master’s domain to cane a cottager who did not utter the necessary respect to his wife. Daisy, the Countess of Warwick referred to the custom as a form of “serfdom.” [Note! This statement came in 1930, well after the Victorian attitudes had soften.}

Among other aspects of the process was the necessary example the lady was to set for the working classes. This demand upon the mistresses of the household was played in many ways: card playing and excessive drinking were discouraged because the activities led to all sorts of evils; keeping the Sabbath holy (not even cooking a hot meal); playing the organ in church, etc. Instead, many, especially the dowagers, spent their time in “instructing” the younger women in their duties, as well as “instructing” the single females in what or who would make a good marriage match. Women ruled the family and social life: Men ruled public life. 

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Lady Georgiana Mary Curzon, daughter of the 5th Earl of Curzon yooniqimages.com

Until 1918, women were barred/excluded from exercising the parliamentary franchise and from the magistracy. In November 1919, the American-born Lady Astor was the first lady to take a seat as an MP. That did not mean they were not involved in political issues. It is said that Lady Georgiana Curzon, Lady Randolph, for example, masterminded her husband’s re-contestation of her seat on being given the seat from the Conservative party. Lady Randolph’s “connections” in the community served her husband well. 

NPG x123524; Lady Muriel Beatrice Beckwith (nÈe Gordon-Lennox, later Lady Jones) by Bassano

http://www.npg.org.uk Lady Muriel Beatrice Beckwith (née Gordon-Lennox, later Lady Jones)

Women held few rights to land ownership in a system of primogeniture and of patrilineal descent. In 1883, John Bateman published the fourth edition of The Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland. It indicated that less than 7% of properties came to women due to the failure of the male line. Part of this system was the British peerage. In 1880, only seven of the 580 peers were women who held the title in their own right rather than being the female “subject” of her husband’s peerage. Needless to say, none sat in the House of Lords. 

Girls who “did not take” in society would be dependent upon male relatives. They sometimes led a nomadic existence, clinging to the benevolence of first one relative and then another. A spinster in society could lose everything with the death of a father or the marriage of a brother. Her position as his “hostess,” as well as her financial future, was usurped by another. Sometimes an unmarried daughter had to make her home with her widowed mother. Lady Muriel Beatrix Gordon-Lennox Beckwith in her book When I Remember (Nicholson and Watson, 1936) says, “Spinsters were compelled to keep up [a] girlish attitude. Their hair might turn grey, and their cheeks become wrinkled, but they remained girlish, simpered, walked delicately.” 

Posted in Act of Parliament, British history, family, Living in the UK, titles of aristocracy, Victorian era | Tagged , , , , | 10 Comments

The Triumvirate Which Changed the Face of Bath During the Georgian Era

Posted on July 8, 2016 by Regina Jeffers

The beginning of the 1700s in England saw the expansion of the middle class and a stronger economy. As such Bath had known a steady period of growth, but when Queen visited the city in 1702 (and then again a year later), the fashionable crowd took notice. Although the Bath of the early 1700s remained smaller than other “bathing holes,” such as Tunbridge Wells, Daniel Defoe said, “We may say now it is the resort of the sound as well as the sick and a place that helps the indolent and the gay to commit the worst of murders–to kill time.”

Bath Abbey rose from a close and crowded resort town within the curve of the River Avon. One could find a crowded fish market at the East Gate on the river quay. Jacobean buildings sported gables and leaded windows. Sally Lunn’s house between Abbey Green and the Parade is said to be the city’s oldest house and is typical of the style of the Jacobean façade.

Unfortunately, the eighteenth century, society in Bath was not what one might term “first tier.” The hot baths attracted the infirmed and all those who thought to “cure” them. Hooligans and gamblers and those who practiced deceit polluted the city.

It was Richard ‘Beau’ Nash, the Master of Ceremonies of the Corporation, who changed the city. Nash was named to the unpaid position after the incumbent had lost his life in a duel. He was a man known to possess an excessively high opinion of himself, but he was also seen a very practical gentleman.

“Almost immediately Nash forbade dueling and the wearing of swords in the city; persuaded the Corporation to repair the roads, to pave, clean and light the streets, to license the sedan-chair men and regulate their behavior. He engaged a good orchestra from London and was responsible not only for the building of a new Pump Room, but a large public room, Harrison’s Room, for dances as well as gaming on what is now Parade Gardens. He outlawed private gatherings and strictly controlled the public ones, and drew up a rigid list of rules to which everyone–and that included dukes, duchess, and even the Prince of Wales–had to conform. It might not have worked had not the age been one in which people were amused by such things: half the amusement of Bath was in obeying the ‘King,’ who was no doubt unaware that he himself was part of the fun. Besides, it worked. Bath was civilized and ‘different’–rather than a large, smart holiday camp.” (Winsor, Diana: Historic Bath)

It was the architect John Wood, who changed the face of Bath. His “Grand Design” for the city was executed in segments. He began with Queen Square, first leasing the land, and then designing the square before sub-letting the sites for individual houses to builders, who could design the interiors as they wished, but who were compelled to follow Wood’s exterior design. Queen Square was completed within seven years. “It should be seen as the forecourt of a palace, the north dominating what was then a formal garden of parterre beds with espaliered limes and a low balustrade. Wood also designed the obelisk in the centre, raised by Beau Nash as a tribute to the Prince of Wales, with an inscription by the poet Alexander Pope.” (Winsor)

In the heart of Bath is Queen Square–a square of Georgian houses designed by John Wood, the elder in the early 18th century and paid for by Beau Nash. The square was designed to join the houses in unison and give the impression that together they formed one large mansion when viewed from the south facing side.

The focal point of Queen Square is the obelisk at the centre, which commemorates the visit of Frederick, Prince of Wales.

Next, Wood built his “Royal Forum.” The Parades are a series of historic terraces built around 1741. The Royal Forum was to include North Parade, South Parade, Pierrepont, and Duke Streets, but was never completed. In the last year of his life, John Wood, the elder, began the Grand Circus, but it was his son John Wood, the younger, who brought the project to fruition. A Roman amphitheatre turned into domestic architecture, the Circus is made up of three segments and 33 houses, all of three storeys, with Roman Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns. The younger Wood linked the Circus to the Royal Crescent with his design of Brock Street. Between 1767 and 1775, the paving stones were laid and 30 houses rose to form the Royal Crescent. He also oversaw the completion of the Hot Bath and the Bath Assembly Rooms. These buildings contrasted with the more decorated and embellished style preferred by his father. Whilst John Wood the Elder’s Circus includes superimposed orders and a detailed frieze, the Royal Crescent – designed by his son, has a single order and plain decoration throughout.

Top-10-things-to-do-in-Bath-Royal-CrescentThe site Wood chose for the Royal Crescent also demonstrates his interest in creating a “dialogue” between his buildings and their settings. Previous buildings and set pieces in Bath were all intensely urban and inward looking whereas the Royal Crescent was fully open and looked out on the open fields. This is not always apparent today, but when it was built in 1775, the crescent was situated right on the edge of the city with no nearby buildings to block residents’ views of the countryside. The Royal Crescent is among the greatest examples of Georgian architecture to be found. Outside of Bath, Wood’s most notable works include Buckland House in Buckland, Oxfordshire, and General Infirmary in Salisbury.

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Ralph Allen’s town house behind Terrace Walk, Bath http://www.bathintime.co.uk

The third man to change the face of Bath was the assistant to the postmistress, one Ralph Allen, a savvy businessman and philanthropist. Allen developed a powerful friend in the form of Marshall George Wade. Allen had shared with Wade the news of a large cache of arms stored in the area, and as Wade meant to squash the Jacobite insurgence in the west country, he took an immediate liking to Allen. Later, Allen married Wade’s daughter. Allen developed several profitable postal routes, earning him high sums from the Postal System. He invested in the new Avon Navigation company, which was designed to make the river navigable to Bristol. In 1726, Allen developed stone quarries on Combe Down.

Allen built simple houses for his workers, which can still be seen as part of Combe Down village, and what is now the village recreation ground was once his quarry. Allen also built a railroad to carry the stone blocks to the river and canal wharf at Widcombe. Earning a fabulous living, Allen built his home Prior Park, which was designed by Wood the Elder, to highlight the beauty and quality of Bath Stone. At Prior Park, Allen entertained writers, statesmen, poets, and actors. Henry Fielding’s character Squire Allworthy in Tom Jones is based on Ralph Allen.

“Almost anyone who was anyone visited Bath to take the waters and gossip in the Pump Room. It was a sparkling century, with aspects both sordid and brutal, but never lacking in vigour, wit and style. Bath was part of it all. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the gaming tables had long been forbidden and the old king buried more than forty years, the city had changed. Tobias Smollet wrote in 1771 that ‘a very inconsiderable proportion a genteel people are lost in a mob of impudent plebians…’

“Nevertheless, Bath was still elegant and fashionable, if a trifle less frothy and fizzy – more of a medium sherry than champagne. ‘Enchanted castles raised on hanging terraces,’ observed Smollett’s Lydia Melford. Its population had grown to more than 30,000; it had spread far beyond the old walls to incorporate surrounding villages and hills. It was now one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.” (Winsor)

Posted in British history, buildings and structures, Georgian Era, Great Britain, Living in the Regency, Regency era, Regency personalities, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Scotland’s Merrick Murder Hole and The Old Grey Man

Posted on July 4, 2016 by Regina Jeffers

 

This article first appeared on the Dark Jane Austen Book Club Website on March 11, 2013. 

The Disappearance of Georgiana Darcy

JeffersDofGDShackled in the dungeon of a macabre castle with no recollection of her past, a young woman finds herself falling in love with her captor – the estate’s master. Yet, placing her trust in him before she regains her memory and unravels the castle’s wicked truths would be a catastrophe.

Far away at Pemberley, the Darcys happily gather to celebrate the marriage of Kitty Bennet. But a dark cloud sweeps through the festivities: Georgiana Darcy has disappeared without a trace. Upon receiving word of his sister’s likely demise, Darcy and wife, Elizabeth, set off across the English countryside, seeking answers in the unfamiliar and menacing Scottish moors.

How can Darcy keep his sister safe from the most sinister threat she has ever faced when he doesn’t even know if she’s alive? True to Austen’s style and rife with malicious villains, dramatic revelations and heroic gestures, this suspense-packed mystery places Darcy and Elizabeth in the most harrowing situation they have ever faced – finding Georgiana before it is too late.

When it was first released, one of the means I used to introduce my readers to The Disappearance of Georgiana Darcy was to take a closer look at the area which hosts the Old Grey Man, the Awful Hand, and the Murder Hole. The book is  set in the Scottish Uplands, in a land drenched in legend and mystery. It is an area where the heather in bloom can steal one’s breath with its beauty, but where nature can also teach harsh lessons.

The Range of the Awful Hand looking west across Loch Enoch. The closest hill is Merrick, Benyellary is not visible.

The Range of the Awful Hand looking west across Loch Enoch. The closest hill is Merrick, Benyellary is not visible.

As part of the Range known as the Awful Hand, the Merrick is a 2766-foot hill. The Merrick descends to Loch Enoch, the Grey Man, the Murder Hole, and a host of other lochs. Nine miles of wilderness walk traverses the area. The Range of the Awful Hand is a string of hills in the Southern Uplands of Scotland so named because of their resemblance to the fingers of a hand. The hills, starting at the ‘thumb’ are Benyellary (719 m); Merrick (843 m); Kirriereoch Hill (786 m); Tarfessock (697 m); Shalloch on Minnoch (768 m).

bruce'sstoneThe wilderness walk starts at Bruce’s Stone, a monument erected in memory of Robert Bruce’s defeat of the English at Glen Troll. If one knows anything of the battle, he realizes the monument represents Bruce’s men rolling huge rocks down the hillside on the advancing army.

The “Grey Man of Merrick” is an eerie rocky outcrop aptly named, as it clearly resembles the stony face of an old man. He sits just below Merrick Hill, acting almost as a guard to the highest hill in Galloway.greyman

If one is adventurous enough to set out on foot in the area, it is best to approach Loch Neldricken via the Rig of Loch Enoch. The advantage of walking along the Rig of Loch Enoch is it is high enough to keep a person from the bog lands below. There are no paths, and the grass grows in lumpy tufts making walking quite difficult. Sometimes one’s feet will disappear into a deep shuch, and a person ends up covered in mud.

murderhole1
In this photo, one finds the infamous Murder Hole. It is the round pool to the right of the loch in this photo. Legend has it that many years ago weary travelers were robbed and their bodies dumped in the hole never to be seen again. In summer there is a ring of reeds growing around the hole, but none grow in it. People say the bodies keep the deeps too warm for the reeds to grow. It is also rumored that in even the coldest winters, the center does not freeze.murderhole2

Though it is claimed the real Murder Hole is near Rowantree Bridge on the Water of Minnoch where the bodies of waylaid, murdered travelers were dumped, the “Murder Hole” refers to an incident in Samuel Crockett’s novel The Raiders.

220px-Samuel-Rutherford-CrockettGalloway’s landscape and its legends inspired Samuel Rutherford Crockett (1859-1914), a writer with a prodigious output. The Raiders, his best-known book, was a romantic, loosely historical, adventure story, which sold thousands of copies in 1894, and further editions were published to meet demand.

Taking A762 past the ruined Kenmure Castle, a traveler will eventually come to Mossdale, where he will find the sad little wooden sign of Little Duchrae Farm, where Samuel Crockett was born and further on the impressive memorial at Laurieston Village, the Clachanpluck of ‘The Raiders’ story. Paid for by public subscription and unveiled in 1932 by Crockett’s wife Ruth, it is constructed with large granite blocks set on a slight rise just off the road. Although he never met Robert Louis Stevenson, Crockett and Stevenson corresponded, and a plaque on the pillar carries part of the Stevenson poem, To SR Crockett,

Blows the wind today, 


and the sun and the rain are flying, 


Blows the wind on the moors today and now, 


Where about the graves of the martyrs the whaups are crying 


My heart remembers Now!

In her book The Life and Times of Samuel Rutherford Crockett, Islay Murray Donaldson stresses that, due to various circumstances, Crockett could not afford the luxury of spending enough time on his literary efforts, so he never reached Stevenson’s sustained heights or enduring popularity.

So, this is the setting for the mystery behind The Disappearance of Georgiana Darcy. Is it not perfect? One of the best sites for photos of this area is Walkhighlands.

 

Posted in British history, Georgian England, Georgian Era, gothic and paranormal, Great Britain, historical fiction, history, Jane Austen, legends and myths, Living in the Regency, Living in the UK, mystery, Pride and Prejudice, real life tales, Regency era, Scotland, spooky tales, Ulysses Press, writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Scotland’s Merrick Murder Hole and The Old Grey Man

Happy July Birthdays to Some of Our Favorite “Austen” Actors

Posted on July 1, 2016 by Regina Jeffers
birthday-cake-happy | Sizzle/Koi sizzlekoi.ca

birthday-cake-happy | Sizzle/Koi
sizzlekoi.ca

These fabulous actors brought us hours of pleasure with their performances…

 

 

 

 

MV5BMjE2ODM3MTY0MF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTE2NTQwOA@@._V1_UX214_CR0,0,214,317_AL_July 1 – Trevor Eve, who portrayed Sir Selwyn Hardcastle in Death Comes to Pemberley

 

Geraldine-James-in-Turtle-DiaryJuly 6 – Geraldine James, who was the voice of Jane Austen in 2007’s Northanger Abbey13492363_ori

July 8 – Diane Clare (8 July 1938 to 21 June 2013), who portrayed Henrietta Musgrove in 1960’s Persuasion

 

 

fiona shawJuly 10 – Fiona Shaw, who portrayed Mrs. Croft in 1995’s Persuasion1346189315

July 12 – Florence Hoath, who portrayed Kitty Bennet in Lost in Austen

 

 

Corin_RedgraveJuly 16 – Corin Redgrave (16 July 1939 to 6 April 2010), who portrayed Sir Walter Elliot in 1995’s Persuasiodonald-sutherlandn 

July 17 – Donald Sutherland, who portrayed Mr. Bennet in 2005’s Pride and Prejudice

 

 

 

Kelly_Reilly_2013July 18 – Kelly Reilly, who portrayed Miss Caroline Bing250926_1ley in 2005’s Pride and Prejudice 

July 21 – John Woodvine, who portrayed Admiral Croft in 1995’s Persuasion

 

 

 

d1bb5d1d96ef2c4fd3096b73460cc785July 23 – Tom Mison, who portrayed Charles Bingley in Lost in Austen kate-beckinsale-2014-vanity-fair-oscar-party-01

July 26 – Kate Beckinsale, who portrayed Emma Woodhouse in the 1996 TV version of Emma, as well as Lady Susan Vernon in Love and Friendship

 

 

imagesJuly 26 – Olivia Williams, who portrayed both Jane Fairfactor_12349ax in the 1996 TV version of Emma, as well as Jane Austen in Miss Austen Regrets 

July 27 – Dan Hedaya, who portrayed Mel Horowitz in Clueless

 

 

images-2July 30 – Richard Johnson (30 July 1927 to 6 June 2015) , who portrayed Mr. George Wickham in 1952’s Pride and Prejudice 

EmiliaFoxJuly 31 – Emilia Fox, who portrayed Miss Georgiana Darcy in 1995’s mini-series of Pride and Prejudice

Posted in film, Jane Austen, real life tales, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Princess Helena Augustus Victoria of the United Kingdom

Posted on June 30, 2016 by Regina Jeffers

HelenaSaxeCobourgGothaQueen Victoria gave birth to her third daughter, and fifth child, Princess Helena Augusta Victoria on 25, May 1846, one day after the queen’s twenty-seventh birthday. Named in honor of Princess Hélène of Orléans, Helena’s godmother. (Princess Hélène of Orléans was a member of the deposed Orléans family of France and, by marriage to a  branch of the Italian royal family, the Duchess of Aosta. Although her hand in marriage was sought for the heirs to the thrones of both the United Kingdom and the Russian Empire, religious differences prevented either alliance.) 

Helena’s name was affectionately shortened by her father, Prince Albert, to the German diminutive Lenchen (Helena in German is Helenchen). Prince Albert, together with his friend and counsellor Baron Stockmar, also chose her tutors. Like the other children not weighted down by the prospect of being the Princess Royal or the heir to the throne, Princess Helena’s childhood was quiet and carefree. Obstetrically, Helena’s birth was what was known as “protracted.” Protracted labor is abnormally slow cervical dilation or fetal descent during active labor. Protracted labor may result from fetopelvic disproportion (the fetus cannot fit through the maternal pelvis), which can occur because the maternal pelvis is abnormally small or because the fetus is abnormally large or abnormally positioned. Another cause of protracted labor is uterine contractions that are too weak or infrequent (hypotonic uterine dysfunction) or, occasionally, too strong or close together (hypertonic uterine dysfunction). We do not know the cause of the protracted labor in Helena’s cause, but both mother and child recovered in a relatively short period. Ironically, of the female children of Queen Victoria, Helena would be the most robust of them all. She would also be termed the least remarkable of the bunch. 

Victoria and Albert had declared great things for Princess Victoria. They planned a glorious marriage for their first child. Alice, the second girl, was also set for a brilliant match. Alice’s prospects would further their father’s dream of a democratic European world. With such prospects, no aspirations for Helena’s match was set by her parents. Unlike her siblings, Helena distinguished herself at her christening by crying through the entire ceremony. 

Shortly after her birth, the royal nursery was reorganized. Vicky and Bertie were be moved into a “classroom” for the “Development of Their Character.” That left Alice, Affie, and Helena in the official nursery. Victoria, the Princess Royal, and Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales, were given a supervised education, which included poetry, history, geography, mathematics, diction, languages, etc. There were also lessons in art, music, dancing, and scriptures. Vicky excelled in these studies. Albert, not so much. 

But in December 1861, tragedy struck. Her beloved father died. The whole family, and particularly Queen Victoria, was devastated. The Queen would wear mourning clothes for the rest of her life.

Helena fell in love with Carl Rutland, her father’s German librarian. Queen Victoria “was not amused.” She dismissed Rutland and had the man sent back to homeland. Then she made it her mission to discover a suitable husband for Helena. 

Christian_and_helenaOn 5 July 1866, Helena married the impoverished German Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, who was 15 years her senior. Because Prince Christian did not have any principality or crown to inherit, the couple settled in England, which suited Queen Victoria very well. This way, Helena could continue working as her mother’s secretary, a position she had assumed the previous year, after the marriage of her older sister Alice.

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Windsor Great Park – Long Walk. (view from Snow Hill to Windsor Castle). Deer passing by on a quiet day (via Sharon Lathan)

Helena and Christian had six children: Christian Victor (1867), Albert (1869), Helena Victoria (1870), Marie Louise (1872), and two sons who died in early infancy.  Queen Victoria had made Christian the honorary Ranger of Windsor Great Park, which is where the family residence of Cumberland Lodge was located. With no lands, titles or real job, Christian spent most of his time hunting or feeding his beloved pigeons.

“Princess Helena was an unprepossessing and sturdy, but emotionally fragile, woman. Her mother described her as ‘most useful and active and clever and amiable’ but also mentioned that she ‘does not improve in looks and has great difficulty with her figure and her want of calm, quiet, graceful manners.’ She was also addicted to laudanum and opium, and suffered from poor health. Her mother, though, didn’t believe she was ill and accused her of being a hypochondriac. Princess Helena had real health problems though. In the 1870s she suffered from severe rheumatism, congestion in her lungs, and had problems with her joints too.

“Despite her poor health, Princess Helena carried out many royal engagements. This is all the more remarkable because at the time, royals were not really expected to appear in public often. The Princess also became patron of several charities and institutions. She was the founding president of the Royal School of Needlework, as well as the president of the Royal British Nurses’ Association, in which role she helped support nurse registration against the advice of Florence Nightingale. Princess Helena was also one of the founding members of the Red Cross, as well as a supporter of women’s rights. In addition, she hosted free dinners for children and unemployed people, which gained her great popularity. Contemporary author C. W. Cooper, said that ‘the poor of Windsor worshipped her.’ Another interest of the princess was translations. She translated several Germans works into English, some of which were published. In 1916, Princess Helena and her husband Christian celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. The next year, Christian died. Helena followed her husband in the grave several years later. She died at Schomberg House on 9 June 1923.” (History and Other Thoughts)

Other Sources: 

A Victorian 

NineteenTeen 

Royal Splendor 

Unofficial Royalty 

Posted in British history, family, Great Britain, history, marriage, royalty, Victorian era | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

“X” Does Not Always Mark the Spot

Posted on June 29, 2016 by Regina Jeffers

Recently, I spent a delightful morning counting words in Pride and Prejudice. Why? You may ask: Regina, do you not have enough to do with your retirement years than to sit around counting how many times Jane Austen used the word “sex” in this novel? (That would be seven times, by the way.) The truth is I am a bit OCD about some things. (Okay, I’m a lot OCD at times, but not as afflicted as my friend Brooke who turns all the paperclips in the holder on her desk in the same direction. Yet, that is another story.)

Counting and numbers actually are distracting. It exercises the other side of my brain, and on this particular day, I had hit a wall with my new novel. I had three possible scenarios for an ending, and I could not make up my mind, which one would play out the best. Needless to say, choosing the ending affected the events I would include early on in the storyline. My writing was at a stand still. After seven years of cranking out novels, I have learned that I cannot force the story line. I must simply wait it out. Eventually, I will have that “aha” moment where what was so “obvious” reveals itself. (Usually in the form of a 4 A.M. wake-up call.) Therefore, I turned my attention to the post I had yet to write for my own blog.

One of the things I discovered some time ago, especially when I worked on my “Do You Speak Jane Austen?” series was that there are no words that begin with “x” in Austen’s novels. I took that as a personal challenge and added “x” words to my Christmas at Pemberley when the house guests were playing a parlor game called “I have a basket.”

“There is no word for ‘X'” Bingley protested. 

Edward corrected, “There is a xebec.”

Southland explained to a perplexed-looking Bingley, “A small, three-masted Mediterranean vessel.”

From where he sat, Darcy added “Xylem, Bingley. It’s a woody plant.”

“Xiphi. A sword,” Elizabeth added. “It is one of my favorite Greek roots.

“Xyster,” Mr. Bennet placed another word into play. 

“One could always use Xanthippe,” Georgiana said softly. 

Bingley laughed lightly. “Point well taken, everyone. I should not play word games with those who devour books.” 

 I wanted to find a word or two in Austen’s writings that began with the letter “X.” I was soon to discover that “X” as the beginning letter was quite elusive. I scanned Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Mansfield Park. No “X” words were to be found. However, that doesn’t mean that our Jane never used the letter. On the contrary, 158 different words containing the letter “X” are used within Pride and Prejudice alone.9babf977a786cb67c723e8bb89b13a46

The most commonly used word containing “x” was “next,” and I shall take great pleasure in telling my editor, who seems to frown on the word, that Jane Austen used “next”71 times in Pride and Prejudice. Other “X” words that our Jane used repeatedly were “expected” (43); “expect” (35); “exactly” (30); “exceedingly” (27); “expressed” (25); “anxious” (25); “express” (to mean both “to state” and “the mail”) (24); “expression” (22); “fixed” (22); “except” (22); and “excellent” (20).

Jane was also quite fond of “expectation” (19); “anxiety” (18); “extraordinary” (17); “excuse” (used both as a noun and a verb) (16); “extremely” (14); “excessively” (11); “expressions” (11); “vexation” (10); and “excited” (10).

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“vexation”

Of course, there are the variations of each of these words:“vexing” (1); “vex” (1); “vexed” (8); “vexatious” (2): “vexations” (1); “exceeding” (1); “exceeded” (2); “exceed” (2); “expectations” (7); “expecting” (8); “expects” (1); “expecting” (1); “excepting” (4); “fixing” (2); “fix” (3); “inexpressibly” (1); “expressing” (3); “inexpressible” (1); “expressly” (1); “expressed” (1); “expressively” (1); “anxiously” (1); “excessive” (4); “excess” (2); “excellency” (1) “unexpected” (8); “unexpectedly” (3); “excuses” (2); and “extreme” (4).

However, some of my favorite finds had nothing to do with Austen’s repeating of these common words. Instead, I enjoyed finding “Oxford” (1), “annexed” (1), “exigence” (1), “bandbox” (1), “beaux” (1), “proxy” (1), “expostulation” (1), “exercise” (6), “exertion” (9), and “foxhounds” (1).

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signing the number “6”

Another thing I noted (minus the deep scientific study I should have executed) is that Austen seems to use the number “six” quite often in her writing. In Pride and Prejudice, she used “six” ten times, “sixth” once, and “sixteen” seven times. I laughingly told myself it was because our dear Jane had to handwrite her stories (which you might recall is an act in my writing process) and “six” is much shorter to write than say “seven” or “eight.” That reasoning died away when I thought of the words “one,” “two,” and “ten.” Perhaps, “six” was Austen’s lucky number. After all, in Mandarin, “six” is good for business and can mean happiness. Did our Jane anticipate her literary success by using the number “six” often? Yes, it is used multiple times in Sense and Sensibility also. Or, mayhap, I am simply looking for a good story behind all this counting. MTE1ODA0OTcxNTQ2ODcxMzA5

My mathematical brain is now assuaged. (Did I ever tell you that I began college as a math major? Eventually, I switched to language arts, and the rest is history.) Hopefully, some of you are also both right and left brained and can understand my need to be whole brained in my daily life. If not, you will continue to see me as quite eccentric. [By the way, if one is looking for more delicious Jane Austen words, check out the Jane Austen Thesaurus (http://writelikeausten.com/).]

Posted in book excerpts, British history, Georgian England, Georgian Era, Jane Austen, Living in the Regency, writing | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Sir Thomas Wyatt (c. 1503 – 1542), 16th C English Ambassador and Lyrical Poet

Posted on June 27, 2016 by Regina Jeffers

Sir_Thomas_Wyatt_(1)_by_Hans_Holbein_the_YoungerBorn to Henry and Anne Wyatt at Allington Castle, near Maidstone, Kent, in 1503, Thomas Wyatt made his first appearance at the royal court in 1516 as Sewer Extraordinary to Henry VIII.  In 1516 he also entered St. John’s College, University of Cambridge. Around 1520, he took his M. A., and at the age of seventeen, he married Lord Cobham’s daughter Elizabeth Brooke. She bore him a son,  Thomas Wyatt, the Younger, in 1521.  He was at favorite at court and carried out several foreign missions for King Henry VIII. Sir Thomas Wyatt was an ambassador to France and Italy. He accompanied Sir Thomas Cheney on a diplomatic mission to France in 1526 and Sir John Russell to Venice and the papal court in Rome in 1527. He was made High Marshal of Calais (1528-1530) and Commissioner of the Peace of Essex in 1532. Wyatt’s travels abroad exposed him to different forms of poetry, which he adapted for the English language — most notably, the sonnet.

Around 1525, Wyatt separated from his wife, charging her with adultery; it is also the year from which his interest in Ann Boleyn probably dates. (Rebholz, R. A., Sir Thomas Wyatt: The Complete Poems. New York, Penguin, 1994). Also in 1532, Wyatt accompanied King Henry and Anne Boleyn, who was by then the King’s mistress, on their visit to Calais. Anne Boleyn married the King in January 1533, and Wyatt served in her coronation in June.

15923.books.origjpgWyatt was presented a knighthood n 1535, but soon fell out of favor and in 1536 he was imprisoned in the Tower of London for quarreling with the Duke of Suffolk.  It was also rumored that Wyatt was one of Anne Boleyn’s lovers, and he spent a month in the Tower until Boleyn’s execution for adultery. As part of his imprisonment, from the Bell Tower, Wyatt witnessed the execution of Anne Boleyn on 19 May 1536. During that time, he  V. Innocentia Veritas Viat Fides Circumdederunt me inimici mei. 

V. Innocentia Veritas Viat Fides Circumdederunt me inimici mei. 

by Sir Thomas Wyatt, the Elder

Who list his wealth and ease retain,
Himself let him unknown contain.
Press not too fast in at that gate
Where the return stands by disdain,
For sure, circa Regna tonat.2

The high mountains are blasted oft
When the low valley is mild and soft.
Fortune with Health stands at debate.
The fall is grievous from aloft.
And sure, circa Regna tonat.

These bloody days have broken my heart.
My lust, my youth did them depart,
And blind desire of estate.
Who hastes to climb seeks to revert.
Of truth, circa Regna tonat.

The bell tower showed me such sight
That in my head sticks day and night.
There did I learn out of a grate,
For all favour, glory, or might,
That yet circa Regna tonat.

By proof, I say, there did I learn:
Wit helpeth not defence too yerne,
Of innocency to plead or prate.
Bear low, therefore, give God the stern,
For sure, circa Regna tonat.

(The Latin title adapts Psalm 16.9: “My enemies surround my soul.” Also note that Wyatt’s name (“Vial” in the title is surrounded by “Innocence,” “Truth,” and “Faith.”) (Luminarium)

He was released later that year. Many consider his poem “Whoso List to Hunt” to be about Boleyn. His romance with Anne Boleyn, if it did exist, ended in the early 1530s when the young Marchioness came to the attention of Henry VIII. Wyatt’s brilliant sonnet, “Whoso list to hunt,” is widely believed to refer to this severance.

Whoso List to Hunt

Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,
      But, as for me: helas, I may no more.
      The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,
      I am of them, that farthest cometh behind.
   Yet may I by no means my wearied mind
      Draw from the deer; but as she fleeth afore
      Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore,
      Since in a net I seek to hold the wind.
   Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,
      As well as I, may spend his time in vain.
      And, graven with Diamonds, in letters plain,
   There is written, her fair neck round about:
      Noli me tangere, for Caesar’s I am,
      And wild for to hold—though I seem tame.

Wyatt was returned to favor and made ambassador to the court of the Holy Roman Emperor,  Charles V, in Spain. He returned to England in June 1539, and later that year was again ambassador to Charles until May 1540. Wyatt’s praise of country life, and the cynical comments about foreign courts, in his verse epistle Mine Own John Poins derive from his own experience.

In 1541 Wyatt was charged with treason on a revival of charges originally leveled against him in 1538 by Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London. Bonner claimed that while ambassador, Wyatt had been rude about the King’s person, and had dealings with Cardinal Pole, a papal legate and Henry’s kinsman, with whom Henry was much angered over Pole’s siding with papal authority in the matter of Henry’s divorce proceedings from Katharine of Aragón. Wyatt was again confined to the Tower, where he wrote an impassioned ‘Defence’. He received a royal pardon, perhaps at the request of then queen, Catharine Howard, and was fully restored to favor in 1542. Wyatt was given various royal offices after his pardon, most notably he was made Commander of the Fleet. He fell ill after welcoming Charles V’s envoy at Falmouth and died at  Sherborne  on 11 October 1542.

penguin-wyattOn his journey to Italy in 1527, Wyatt became enthralled with the works of Italian love poets, most prominently Petrarch and Serafino dell’ Aquila. His translation of Petrarch produced the first group of sonnets in English. His Seven Penitential Psalms are a close imitation of the work of Aretino. 

“The Lover Compareth His State to a Ship in Perilous Storm” is one of Wyatt’s best known and most typical of sonnets. In it, the unhappy lover is like a ship tossed by waves. In the extended metaphor his sighs are like the winds, the disdain of his sweetheart like the dark clouds, and his tears are the rainstorm. Meanwhile in “A Renouncing of Love,” another sonnet, the poet prefers liberty to love and orders love to leave him and other troubled young lovers. 

In “Forget Not Yet the Tried Intent,” the reader finds one of the finest lyrics (of the time) in English. Simplicity, grace, and sincerity mark Wyatt’s style. The lover asks his mistress to remember his anguish, his patience, and his steadfast faith. The change of the refrain “Forget not yet” to “Forget not this” at the end of the lyric is unexpected and appropriate. It adds emphasis and clinches the idea of the poem. It is a subtle stroke of art. 

“Of the Mean and Sure Estate” is an epistolary (letter) poem. The story told here is that of the country mouse who visits her modish sister in town. The country mouse pays dearly for the luxury of the town for which she has left the peaceful country. She is caught by a cat. “And so you see, dear Poins,” says Wyatt to the friend to whom he writes, “Each kind of life hath with him his disease. Content yourself with your fortune, for in the end your only happiness will be found in your mind.”

Wyatt wrote a wide variety of verse, sonnets, epigrams, satires, moralizings, elegies, and pastorals. Some of his poems are on court life, though most deal with love. His verse is vigorous and sometimes rough, displaying the struggle with the new medium – New English. Wyatt wrote no memorable poems, but he blazed the track for future English poetry, and it was through the sonnet that lyricism again entered English verse. 

Sources:

The Anne Boleyn Files

Heale, Elizabeth. Wyatt, Surrey, and Early Tudor Poetry.  London ; New York: Addison Wesley Longman, 1998.

The Hyper Texts 

Luminarium 

Poetry Foundation

Thomas Wyatt’s Poetry about Anne Boleyn on English History 

 

Posted in Great Britain, history, marriage, poetry, real life tales, romantic verse, Tudor | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Do You Know The Origin of These Words and Phrases?

Posted on June 16, 2016 by Regina Jeffers

Three Sheets to the Wind – Urban Dictionary defines this phrase to mean “to be explicitly drunk; inebriated.” The origin is likely found in practicality: Sheets actually refer to the ropes that are used to secure a ship’s sail. If the 3 ropes used were loose in the wind, the sail would flop around, causing the ship to wobble around, much like a drunk.

From phrases.org, we find something similar. “To understand the phrase “three sheets to the wind,” we need to enter the arcane world of nautical terminology. Sailors’ language is, unsurprisingly, all at sea and many supposed derivations have to go by the board. Do not be taken aback to hear that sheets aren’t sails, as landlubbers might expect, but ropes (or occasionally, chains). These are fixed to the lower corners of sails, to hold them in place. If three sheets are loose and blowing about in the wind then the sails will flap and the boat will lurch about like a drunken sailor.

“The phrase is these days more often given as ‘three sheets to the wind’, rather than the original ‘three sheets in the wind’. The earliest printed citation that I can find is in Pierce Egan’s Real Life in London, 1821: ‘Old Wax and Bristles is about three sheets in the wind.’

The-Fisher-s-Daughter-Part-2-Mason-Catherine-9781167247231“Sailors at that time had a sliding scale of drunkenness; three sheets was the falling over stage; tipsy was just ‘one sheet in the wind’, or ‘a sheet in the wind’s eye’. An example appears in the novel The Fisher’s Daughter, by Catherine Ward, 1824: ‘Wolf replenished his glass at the request of Mr. Blust, who, instead of being one sheet in the wind, was likely to get to three before he took his departure.’ The earliest manifestation of the phrase in print is the ‘two sheets’ version. That is found in The Journal of Rev. Francis Asbury, 1815, which recounts Asbury’s travels through Kentucky. His entry for September 26th 1813 includes this: ‘The tavern keepers were kind and polite, as Southern folks should be and as Southern folks ought not to be; they were sometimes two sheets in the wind. O, that liquid fire!’ That leads us to think that the phrase may be of American origin. However, Asbury was English, born in West Bromwich and travelled to America when he was in his mid twenties. Whether he took the phrase with him from the English Black County or heard it (or indeed coined it) in the U.S., we cannot be certain.

imgres“Robert Louis Stevenson was as instrumental in inventing the imagery of ‘yo ho ho and a bottle of rum’ piracy as his countryman and contemporary Sir Walter Scott was in inventing the tartan and shortbread ‘Bonnie Scotland’. Stevenson used the ‘tipsy’ version of the phrase in Treasure Island, 1883 – the book that gave us ‘X marks the spot’, ‘shiver me timbers’ and the archetypal one-legged, parrot-carrying pirate, Long John Silver. He gave Silver the line: ‘Maybe you think we were all a sheet in the wind’s eye. But I’ll tell you I was sober.'”

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Duece Take It! – We who write Regency romances are always looking for a way for out gentleman hero to curse without appearing coarse in manners. Therefore, “duce take it!” appears often in these books. From The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, we find this meaning: n. The devil: used, with or without the definite article, chiefly in exclamatory or interjectional phrases, expressing surprise, impatience, or emphasis: as, deuce take you! go to the deuce! the deuce you did!

From The American Heritage ® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

  • n. The devil: “Love is a bodily infirmity . . . which breaks out the deuce knows how or why” ( Thackeray).
  • n. An outstanding example, especially of something difficult or bad: had a deuce of a time getting out of town; a deuce of a family row.
  • n. A severe reprimand or expression of anger: got the deuce for being late.
  • n. Used as an intensive: What the deuce were they thinking of?

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rotting-fish-head-river-rocks-26740A fish rots from the head down – Phrases.org gives us this definition: When an organization or state fails, it is the leadership that is the root cause. The origin of this phrase likely lies in some ancient proverb. Many countries lay claim to it – China, Russia, Poland, England, Greece and so on, but usually with no evidence to substantiate those claims. One source says it was written in a Greek text by Erasmus, who died in 1546, but this cannot be substantiated.

“All of the early examples of the phrase in print in English prefer the variant ‘a fish stinks from the head down’ to ‘a fish rots from the head down’, which is more popular nowadays. Those early examples all ignore the nations mentioned above and credit the term to the Turks. Sir James Porter’s Observations on the religion, law, government, and manners of the Turks, 1768, includes this: “The Turks have a homely proverb applied on such occasions: they say ‘the fish stinks first at the head,’ meaning, that if the servant is disorderly, it is because the master is so.’ The early date of this citation and the fact that Porter was in a position to be authoritative on Turkish custom, being British ambassador to the Sublime Porte of the Ottoman Empire for 15 years in the second half of the 18th century, gives Turkey a strong claim to be the birthplace of this proverb.” Needless to say, the proverb isn’t a lesson in piscine biology. The phrase appears to have been used in Turkey in a metaphorical manner rather than using the literal sense for, in reality, it is the guts of fish that rot and stink before the head.

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Brimborion (Pronounced /brɪmˈbɔərɪən/)

World Wide Words tells us that this “Weird Word” is “not a word that rises unbidden to the lips of English speakers today, nor — if the record is to be trusted — at any time. It means a thing without value or use. It was borrowed from French, where it may still be found in dictionaries, though firmly marked as literary. According to the lexicographer Emile Littré, who compiled a famous dictionary of French in the middle decades of the nineteenth century, it’s a bastardised form of the Latin breviarium, the source of breviary for the service book used by Roman Catholic priests.

“The link had been explained by another lexicographer two centuries earlier. Randall Cotgrave wrote in his French-English dictionary of 1611 that the word came to mean ‘foolish charms or superstitious prayers, used by old and simple women against the toothache, and any such threadbare and musty rags of blind devotion,’ hence something valueless. A rare appearance is in a letter of 1786 by the writer Fanny Burney, in which she refers to ‘Talking to your royal mistress, or handing jewels … and brimborions, baubles, knick-knacks, gewgaws.’

“It is much less weird in German, in which the closely connected Brimborium, also borrowed from French but given a Latinate ending, is an informal term for an unnecessary fuss. The sentence ‘du machst viel zu viel Brimborium um eine Kleinigkeit’ might be translated as ‘you’re making a lot of fuss about nothing.'”

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Furlong (mile) – “Before the days when Edward I ruled England (1272 – 1307), an acre of land was understood to be such amount of tillable land as a yoke of oxen could plow in a day. The size was indefinite, just as was the  Latin ager, field, from which acre is derived. It was several times the size of our present acre, usually ten times the size, because in some regions at least the extent was measured as the amount which a team of eight oxen could plow in a day. This latter ideal field was a square which measured an eighth of a Roman mile, or a stadium, in each direction. The furrows were therefore each a stadium in length and, with the primitive plow then used, there were probably 320 furrows across the field. The length of a furrow thus became a convenient measure of distance – a furlang, as it was called in Old English from furh, furrow, and lang, long. But for the sake of standardization, the size of the acre was reduced under the statutes of King Edward. Thereafter it denoted an area which measured forty rods in length by four rods in breadth, although neither the rod nor the yard upon which it was based were of standard size. Then when the Roman mile of a thousand paces (mille passus), or about 1,618 yards, was replaced by the standard English mile of 1.790 yards, and the length of the yard became a standard measure, furlong became merely a term for a unit of distance an eighth of a mile or 220 yards in length, no longer equal to the Roman stadium.” (Charles Earle Funk, Thereby Hangs the Tale, ©1950, Harper and Row, page 127)

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Sitooterie – World Wide Words tells us, “This word is a Scots colloquial term, though not a common one in print. It means a place to sit out in, a summerhouse or gazebo, from sit plus oot (a Scots pronunciation of out) plus the noun ending –erie of French origin that’s familiar from words like menagerie and rotisserie.

In the flickering light from a distant candle my partner and I sat in a “sitooterie” to partake of tea, pie and cakes. Motherwell Times, 10 Mar. 1933.

“English newspaper readers suddenly started to see this word during the summer of 2000 because it was applied to an art exhibition in the historic landscaped gardens of Belsay House in Northumberland, near Newcastle upon Tyne. A dozen designers and architects were each given a budget and invited to interpret the idea of a sitooterie as a meditation on the perception of landscape. This resulted in intriguing structures, some practical, some more like follies. The exhibition had the minor consequential effect of turning sitooterie for a brief period into part of the English — as opposed to the Scots — tongue. It has since vanished again.

“Several Scottish subscribers have remarked that the word used to have a rather different meaning — a secluded corner where you could take your partner during a dance. It would seem that the word has either shifted sense, or the exhibition organisers have extended its meaning.”

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That’s all she wrote – Needless to say a female author would find this phrase’s origin fascinating. World Wide Words tells us, “Let’s be clear to start with what the expression means. It always has an implication of finality about it, though it can be variously translated as ‘that’s all there is,’ ‘it’s finished,’ ‘it’s over,’ ‘there’s no more,’ ‘that’s enough’:

When it starts to get really dark — when the sky goes from blue to purple — I’m flipping back. That’s it; that’s all she wrote. I’m not walking through these woods after dark. The Talisman, by Stephen King, 1984.

Skipper Tom meowing and hopping around like he had the itch. Then dumped a load of cat crap all over a lobster trap. Jack threw it overboard to rinse it, and that’s all she wrote buddy, he was jerked into the water. The Shipping News, by E Annie Proulx, 1993.

On the one hand it is obvious enough what the phrase means, but why should anybody drag in a reference to an anonymous woman writer?

“If one searches the reference books for the answer, he will probably come across the story that it’s from a bitter joke of the Second World War. An American serviceman opens a letter from his wife or girlfriend and starts to read it to his mates: ‘Dear John.’ He stops. ‘Well, go on,’ his listeners urge him, ‘read us the rest of it.’ ‘I can’t,’ he replies, ‘that’s all she wrote.’ Dumping letters were common enough to have been given the Dear John letter epithet at the time, though it starts to appear in the record only in 1945. It’s a nice story, but it’s a pity about the absence of any contemporary evidence for it, such as somebody on record as telling the joke or referring to it.

“Another suggestion is that that’s all she wrote comes from the words of a popular song, perhaps one that linked Dear John to it. A song by Aubry Gass and Tex Ritter, written in 1950, the same year Hank Williams recorded it, has the line: ‘And that’s all she wrote, Dear John.’ That arrived on the scene too late to be the origin. In 1946, George Crawford penned That’s All She Wrote, ’Cause the Pencil Broke, though similarly the dating confirms the title came from the existing saying. But there’s an earlier one.

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The cover of a sheet music collection by Ernest Tubb The Ernest Tubb collection of 1942 that contains the song

“A World Wide Words reader, Michael Templeton, found a song by Ernest Tubb, dubbed the Texas Troubadour, who was a pioneer of country music on radio from the late 1930s. His song was entitled That’s All She Wrote and appeared in a sheet music collection that was published by the American Music Inc of Hollywood in 1942.

“American researcher Garson O’Toole, writing on the American Dialect Society mailing list, has unearthed three examples of that’s all she wrote from 1942. All derive from civilian contexts, so the prevailing view that the idiom is from World War Two servicemen being dumped by Dear John letters is no longer sustainable. Four even earlier appearances, all from Texas, were posted on the American Dialect Society list in October 2015 by Bonnie Taylor-Blake. The oldest is this excellent example:

No power except that of the legislature can change the rolls. The assessor-collectors do not have the power, the commissioners’ courts do not have the power. That’s all she wrote and it’s final, the attorney general says in language much more eloquent and technical. – Ralph L Buell, in his In Our Valley column in The Brownsville Herald (Texas), 16 Jun. 1935. 

“Ralph Buell clearly used the phrase in the expectation that his readers would recognise and understand it. The Texas Troubadour’s song is very unlikely to have reached such widespread popularity as early as 1935 and so has to be rejected as the origin. It’s more likely that it was an existing folksy saying among Texans that Ernest Tubb happened to make use of.”

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Pall Mall – This name marks both a popular brand of cigarettes, as well as street in London. Both names came to the language from an old outdoor game. The name (and the game) entered the language from the French (ball, palle + mallet, maille). Palle maille was a popular 16th Century game that arrived in England during the reign of Charles I (1625 – 1649). “The boxwood ball used in the game was about the size of the modern croquet ball, and the mallet, also of wood, was similar to the croquet mallet, except that the head was curved and the two faces sloped toward the shaft. The game was played on an alley of considerable length, from the starting point at one end to an iron ring suspended at some height at the other end. The player was winner who took the fewest strokes to drive his ball through the ring. The most noted alley in London in which the game was played was the near St. James’s, now bearing the name of the game. The French name was long retained, but because of its pronunciation, the spelling was altered by some to pell-mell. Others, however, recalled that the Latin sources of the French words were respectively palla and malleus, and therefore insisted upon the spelling pall-mall, which; nevertheless, is still pronounced in England either as if spelled ‘pell-mell’ or like the first syllables of ‘pallet’ and ‘mallet’ respectively.” (Charles Earle Funk, Thereby Hangs the Tale, ©1950, Harper and Row, page 213)

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Wet one’s whistle – Some claim this one comes from a tale that goes something like this: ‘Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. ‘Wet your whistle’ is the phrase inspired by this practice’. 

Although fun to read, there is but a “morsel of truth with a large serving of invention. They lie at one extreme of the spectrum of folk or popular etymology, and they’re a very good illustration of the way that mistaken ideas about words and phrases can disseminate.

One “can be sure that no pub cup or mug ever had a whistle fitted to it for this purpose. If one wanted another drink, he went up to the bar and asked for it; if the place was posh enough to have table service, he most certainly wouldn’t blow a whistle to get attention! You sometimes see such mugs today, but they’re the pottery equivalent of your a joke on a long-established saying.

imgres-1“In the expression, whistle is just a joking reference to one’s mouth or throat and to the fact that one can’t easily whistle when one’s mouth is dry. It’s a very ancient expression: its first recorded appearance is in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales at the end of the fourteenth century, and it must surely be even older.

“You can sometimes find it as whet one’s whistle, through confusion with whet one’s appetite and similar words in whet, literally meaning to sharpen. It would seem that those who first wrote it that way, more than 300 years ago, were as unsure of the real source of the expression as many of us are today (the first known example is from a book of 1674 by Thomas Flatman with the title Belly God).”

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Guinea – A special gold coin came into place in 1663. The Royal Mint of England created the gold coinage of twenty-shilling pieces “in the name and for the use of the Company of Royal Adventurers of England,” who traded with Africa. When they came into general use, these coins, designed for the specific purpose of trading, were called guineas, because the “Company of Royal Adventurers of England” were actually along the coast of Guinea. “At this period in English history the standard of value was not gold, but silver, and the silver coinage was in bad state owing to the activities of ‘clippers,’ who mutilated coins by paring the edges. The value of the gold guinea therefore increased to more than twenty-shillings’ worth of silver coin, or more than its face value. Accordingly, in 1717, its value was fixed at 21 shillings. After the establishment of the gold standard in 1816 no more guineas were coined.” (Charles Earl Funk, Thereby Hangs the Tale, ©1950, Harper and Row, page 139)

Posted in Age of Chaucer, Canterbury tales, etymology, history, Jane Austen, real life tales, tall tales, word origins, word play, writing | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments