THE world and his wife are fond of touching wood to avoid a spanner in the works or, as the Americans have it, everyone and his mother knock on wood to prevent a wrench in the works. In England, we take French leave; across the Channel, they filer à l’anglaise. Idioms exist everywhere, stemming from the Bible, from farming, sailing, games, superstition, war, literature and any other sphere of human influence. You might know your onions and get off scot free or you might be taken aback and find yourself blotting your copybook. Before you’re befuddled by bits and bobs, here’s a baker’s dozen of the best.
Buy a pig in a poke
Bustling and crowded, silver jingling in purses and pick-pockets darting every which way, marketplaces are where the grifters and the gullible mix. If you failed to open the poke— or bag—to inspect your squirming piglet, you might get a nasty surprise. Be grateful if someone lets the cat out of the bag, although, if you’re on a ship and the bosun draws the cat o’ nine tails from its red cloth, watch out.
The devil to pay and no pitch hot
Being caught between the devil and the deep blue sea is no place to be, when the devil is the longest seam of a ship. To keep deck seams watertight, sailors had to caulk, or pay, them with hot tar, or pitch, or risk an encounter with Davy Jones. William Langland has an older claim on paying the Devil, however, as the phrase appears in Piers Plowman, centuries before the first man o’ war was laid down.
Steal someone’s thunder
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November 29, 2023 من Country Life UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November 29, 2023 من Country Life UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
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The contented garden
George Plumptre returns to the garden of the American artist John Hubbard and finds it basking in comfortable maturity
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A bit of light relief
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A wop bop a loo bop a lop bam boom
As he prepares for another season on the fly, our correspondent considers what it is about fishing that has long enthralled the great and the good-from Coco Chanel to US presidents, Robert Redford and Eric Clapton
Walking with giants
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Romancing the stone
His walls are works of art, but it is Tom Trouton's innovative trees, fruits and even newts that set him apart as a master of dry stone
Claws for celebration
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Why we love (and hate) the A303
Sometimes, it is the journey we remember, rather than the destination. Julie Harding travels the long, winding-and sometimes frustrating road to the West Country, taking in the sights along the way
A valley of delightful beauty
In the first of two articles, David Robinson considers the medieval abbey at Hartland, beginning with its nebulous origins as an ancient religious site associated with the cult of St Nectan