English pubs

[Lincslady]

Re: English pubs

A sweet man who has recently passed away worked a career as a navy man....He told me a story of the Brass monkey and the chilling cold..if anyone is interested...

We say that here in the UK all the time Kate ..its enough to feeze the balls off a brass monkey ....meaning its really cold

It was something to do with the cannon balls on board ship that were stacked on something called a brass monkey ...once a certain temp the balls fell off ...or summat like that lol

[kassi59]

Re: English pubs

Exactly Lincs!...The ship has a 'brass monkey' that held all the cannon balls stacked up in a nice pile..when the temps went below a certain cold degree (dont know exactly how cold) the monkey would expand and all the cannon balls would fall off and roll all over the ship!.
Cool...good job!

[Lincslady]

Re: English pubs

Thats the one kate :o)

[limebrook1]

Re: English pubs

In the 16th century, houses had thatched roofs, thick straw, piled high with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the pets-dogs, cats and other small animals, mice, rats, bugs, etc.
lived in the roof. When it rained, it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall out of the roof, which led to the saying,
"It's raining cats and dogs.

The thatch also had a gap where it joined the walls, the eaves. When people talked outside the house the sound travelled in through the gaps and people inside could listen to the conversation. Hence the phrase 'eavesdropping'!

Don't we all know some useless things?

[Lincslady]

Re: English pubs

Son of a Gun!......


In the old days civilian women were allowed to live on naval ships; many became pregnant and had their child on board, usually near the midship gun behind a canvas screen. If the father was unknown, then the child was recorded in the ship's log as A son of a Gun

I always thought it was a son of an old wild west gunslinger lol

[Collectors-info]

Re: English pubs

Handy site for sayings.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~genepool/sayings.htm

Chris.