In The Western Times for 15th March, 1845, we read
"A butcher, named PAGE, was summoned by Mr. Stogdon for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals on a charge of cruelly killing a terrier dog.
"The dog, which belonged to a person named Downing, got into the Lower Market, and after smelling around the defendant's stall, began to gnaw at a calf skin which hung temptingly near the ground. The defendant took up a 'gumble,' a heavy stick, used to spread the skin and 'hove' it at the dog, and struck it on the head, and killed it instantly.
"The Mayor said the case was not one of wanton cruelty, and he would impose a small fine only to cover the expenses."
A gumble, here neatly defined by the newspaper, appears in none of my dictionaries. The OED (online) seemingly knows of only one written reference to gumbles. (in 1688!) meaning a horse's cheekbones. That there is, via butchers, bones and butchering a link here seems, to me, likely. Perhaps the cheekbone of the horse was also used to spread calfskin. It is, I learn, a large, flat bone. In any case Page, the butcher was a dead shot with the gumble and could heave it with lethal consequence as Downing's terrier found out.
Page the butcher said hove and, already in 1845, it is given speech marks. It, the old and regular form, is still common enough in Devon today as the past participle of to heave and certainly boats can only be hove to.
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals had only been founded in 1824. I have the impression that Exeter magistrates were not yet taking it seriously.
I have an image here of this butcher's stall in the Lower Market, with its scraped calfskins hanging to the ground, looking very different from today's butcher's shop, (as if there were any in Exeter!!) In my imagination it is selling all kinds of tripe and offal and sweetbreads and sheeps' heads, pigs' heads &c. which we seldom see now. Mind you, thanks to multiple cultures, I have seen that sort of thing on the Kingsland Road and elsewhere in London. Coming soon to Sidwell Street?
No comments:
Post a Comment