NICKNAMES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12711, 5 August 1919, Page 7

NICKNAMES.

Among the old things that are dying out are the local nicknames given to inhabitants of various cities or counties. There is a well known Lancashire saying connected with a stage-coach driver which is remarkable for its nice grades of distinction between four passengers The old driver was asked: ‘‘"Who has la gotten i’ th’ coach, Jem?” And Jem replied: ‘‘Who, there’s a gentleman fro’ Liverpool, .and a mon fro’ Manchester, and a cha.p fro’ Oldham, and a felly fro’ Wigan-” “Yorkshire,” again, is a term used for cunning or shrewdness. “He’s a deep ’un,” says someone in one of Charles Reade’s novels, “ but we are Yorkshire, too.” A lying old proverb says: “Shake a bridle over a Yorkshireman’s grave, and he will arise and steal a horse-”

A .jocular nickname for men of Norfolk is “Norfolk Dumplings,” perhaps because these East-country folk still maintain tho custom of serving “dumpling” or puddipg before, meat, which in old days was a general custom, especially in economical households. for the pudding 'took the edge' off the sharp appetiteThe Lincolnshire nickname is the uncomplimentary one of “ Yellow Bellies,” in allusion to the frogs and eels which abound in the fen country, A neighbouring county has long been called “ Bean-belly Leicestershire,” and there is. an old saying; “Shake a Leicestershire yeoman by tho collar, and you shall hear the beans rattle.”