Dead but Not Forgotten
The Victorians were obsessed with funerals. They lavished enough money and thought on them to make the average Egyptian Pharaoh look a cheapskate. The flamboyance required an entire vocabulary of its own, not to mention elevating the lucky builders and horse hirers who began to specialise in the trade, to the new profession of undertaker.
As well as the elaborately ornate hearse, there would be special mourning coaches drawn by black horses. (Apparently stallions were preferred because their colour was less likely to fade to brown with age.) And the relatives would seldom be able to live down the expectation that they have coaches and four rather than the more economical coaches and two. Throw in a fancy coffin; pall; new scarfs, hatbands and gloves for the attendants; coachmen; bearers; grave-digger; monument; mourning dress; mourning stationary… it is little wonder most people started saving while they were still firmly in good health. One must have had to live to a reasonable age simply to be able to afford to die!
Fortunately everything required could increasingly be obtained from specialists. They would advertise as being able to equip entire households in mourning clothes within a few days of being contacted. And this was at a time before off-the-peg clothes, so specialist fitters would be sent out to make everything to measure. Every detail had to be correct down to the smallest ornaments and jewellery. Be seen with a silver watch chain instead of a black silk cord, and you would be committing gross disrespect to the dead. And all this would last for months, in the case of widows for years, after the death. Many people would spend a large proportion of their life in mourning.
Wandsmen
were men who carried wands, which was a harking back to the days when gentlemen-ushers in aristocratic households carried staves of office. Quite what the justification was for the featherman
, who carried a ridiculous tray of plumes over his head, is less clear. And mutes
don’t seem to have done much except dress up in black and hang around bumping up the expenses. Middle class women would very seldom attend at the graveside for even their closest relatives, since they were considered too frail. They would presumably stay at home and plan the next one. But autre temps, autres moeurs
.
Effrenate
Means unbridled
or ungovernable
and is usually applied to drugs or passions.
No, I didn’t know either, I just wanted a word that was vaguely suitable and began Eff
, so I worked my way through the dictionary until I found one. The only examples given are from the sixteenth century mind, so William obviously had a very wide vocabulary.
Effulgent
Ever wondered what effulgent
means? Here is the entry from the Oxford English Dictionary for you:
effulgent, a.
[ad. L. effulge-nt-em, f. as prec.] Shining forth brilliantly; sending forth intense light; resplendent, radiant. Hence
e’ffulgentlyadv.1738 Glover Leonidas ii. 89 Whose spacious orb collects th’ effulgent beams.
1852 A. Jameson Leg. Madonna (1857) 178 He is upborne by an effulgent cloud.
1860 Tyndall Glac. i. 27. 218 The fiery light of the sinking sun…mottled the mountains with effulgent spaces.
1744 Akenside Pleas. Imag. i. 330 Venus…stood Effulgent on the pearly car. (I do hope she didn’t scratch the paintwork.)
1831 Brewster Newton (1855) II. xxiv. 358 Others…resist the effulgent evidence which sustains the strongholds of our faith.
1868 J. T. Nettleship Ess. Browning vi. 219 Its beauty might be more effulgent by reason of the…dullness of the rest.
Which goes to show that William was not alone in his abuse of the English language.
Police Rattles
Obscure facts for pub quizzes #365: When the Metropolitan Police was first instituted in 1829 the men were issued with rattles to summon their colleagues assistance. Whistles were not introduced until 1884.
Porter
A dark brown bitter beer, brewed from partially-charred malt. Considered rather a common drink and having no relationship whatsoever to the wine called Port.
Sweet Fanny Adams
This is not actually a euphemism for something impolite. Fanny Adams was an eight-year-old girl who was murdered in Alton, Hampshire, on August 24th 1867. The brutal nature of the crime made it the cause célèbre of its day; and the public hanging of the killer, Frederick Baker, on Christmas Eve at Winchester, was greeted with national approval. It is possibly the only instance of a murder when it was the name of the victim that remained in the public consciousness, as opposed to that of the perpetrator. Although unfortunately the reason it did so is that the poor child was chopped up into small pieces, and when the first tinned meat was invented the inevitable jokes were made. Which tells you something about human nature.