MIND YOUR LANGUAGE

In medieval England, most people lived in small villages or hamlets and never travelled far from their homes. This was because it meant walking unless you had a horse. It was also dangerous because of highwaymen and footpads, so most stayed near home. The highlight of their lives was when the different travelling fairs came around. They were mainly for farmers to replenish their stocks, but also to enjoy yourself.
   One person that most people went to see was the quack doctor that used to promise that they could cure all your ills and to prove it, they would bring a person out from the audience (usually a stooge) and make him eat chopped up toad which was considered poisonous. Then after drinking his elixir when on the verge of collapse, he would amazingly recover. This is where the expression toadying (sucking up) comes from. After selling all his stock, he would gallop off into the night having made a big profit. But occasionally the villagers would find out that his potion was useless and bring him back and give him a taste of his own medicine.
   Many farmers went to the fair to buy pigs as pork was valued in those days above beef or even venison. They would be shown all the piglets to pick from which then would be marked to pick up on the way out. The pigs were put in sacks named Pokes and when the trusting farmers got home they often found that inside the sack was a drugged cat or dog in fact they bought a Pig in a poke or were sold a pup or if a cat came screaming out, they had let the cat out of the bag.
   One thing that was looked forward to was the roasting of an ox. The ox was killed and hung up from a beam where it thrashed about. The beam was called the buquet so if the animal kicked it was said to have kicked the bucket.
   If village people ever travelled, they did it only during the day for safety reasons. Rich people were quite generous and gave travellers shelter and food, but there was quite a difference in how the classes were treated. The poor were given a thin soup with not much in it and told to drink it and make no bones about it. That was easy as there was no meat in it. Likewise, they could be given a pie that contained some veg called Umble. We now say eat humble pie.
   There were no plates, so bread was sliced long ways. The top half was given to the rich - or the upper crust. If a knight came late, he might be given a slice of cold meat as he was given the cold shoulder.
MORE NEXT MONTH

new driver training department

We now have a fully air-conditioned multi-purpose Training Room at Brunswick House designed to the highest level. The New Driver Training is carried out by myself and Paul Tully. We have both spent a considerable period of time at Brunswick House and put together a new training programme which we feel is logical enough to understand for even the totally new subscribers to radio procedures and also a training day which complements the Drivers Instruction Manual.

Call 0171 251 0581 ext 555/556.
Any of your problems can be easily solved.

Allan Evans (Y83)