Shrewsbury : A Short Background

Shrewsbury was founded about 1200 years ago, close to an old Roman encampment, by the Saxons who called it Shrubs Byrig or the town of bushes although the place was known as Pengwern, or Alder Hill by the ancient Britons, maybe they chopped all the trees down and left a clearing for later settlers. Situated 140 miles from London and a mere 9 miles from the Welsh border, the town sits astride the Roman road of Watling Street, now the A5 trunk road running straight as an arrow just as it was 2000 years ago, and the gently flowing upper reaches of the River Severn.
When the Normans, under Duke William, conquered England in 1066, the first thing they did was to parcel out land to the victorious nobility. Robert de Montgomery was made Earl of Shrewsbury and, in 1074, he built Shrewsbury Castle, a massive stone donjon standing on the site of the wooden Saxon fort. Strengthened and extended with a series of towers by Edward I the castle has seen plenty of action from the siege by King Stephen to the Civil War when it was captured by the Parliamentarians. The object of the giving of domains was twofold, both a reward and a means of first defense against the marauding Welsh just across the border.
Soon after the castle, the other pillar of Medieval society, the church, built a large Benedictine Abbey in Shrewsbury, made famous today by the author Ellis Peters with her wonderful series of Medieval mysteries featuring Brother Cadfael. Built by Robert de Montgomery in 1083 much of the monastery was destroyed during the Tudor dissolution. The church and several other buildings still stood, however and much restoration work has been achieved. Both the castle, now the home of the Shropshire Regimental Museum with artefacts from their deployment in the American Revolutionary War (as the British call it) to other more recent engagements, and the Abbey are open to the public and are fine examples of their ilk.
Given the town's setting amongst the rolling March hills and ease of transport both to Bristol and London, Shrewsbury soon became a burgeoning center of the wool trade. The town contains 660 buildings listed as of historic importance including many Medieval streets, most still retaining their original, evocative names such as Dogpole, Grope Lane, Gullet Passage and Bear Steps. Wandering along Butcher Row is like stepping back in time and is one of the finest examples of a row of Tudor houses. The Old Market Hall in the square was originally built as a vending place for the woollen merchants to sell their fleeces, the interior was refurbished and now houses an arts cafe and showcase for digital media.
This was also the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. Just outside of Shrewsbury lies the town of Ironbridge, named for the first iron bridge in the world, forerunner of the Golden Gate and Bosphorous Bridge; a number of museums in the area document and display these first tentative steps towards the modern world. Ironbridge Gorge and the surrounding area is a World Heritage Site. Soon surpassed in industrialization by the Yorkshire and Lancashire mill-towns Shrewsbury has another claim to fame as the birthplace of the naturalist Charles Darwin, especially in this, his bi-centennial. Born in Mount House on February 12th 1809, the house still stands, today it is the Valuation Office and may be visited during office hours. He attended Shrewsbury School, itself a venerable and acutely English institution founded in 1552.
Shrewsbury is also home to the longest running flower show in the world (Guiness Book of Records - 2005). Held in early August in the Quarry, a famous recreational area on the site of a disused quarry, it features flower displays, fruit and vegetable competitions, military bands and equestrian events. To celebrate the 120th anniversary of the show, children, 16 and under, will be admitted free this year. Even when the show is not in situ the Quarry is an abundance of color with some of the most beautiful gardens in England.

River of Language - Sports

A large number of idioms in everyday usage are derived from sports and games, a vocal testament to our continued obsession with pastimes both active and sedentary. Boxing, or pugilism, was wildly popular throughout the 19th century; followers of the sport, known as the 'flash mob', picked up the argot and soon were talking about 'throw in the towel', 'saved by the bell', 'down and out', and, after the Marquis of Queensberry laid down the rules of boxing, 'to take the gloves off'. In 1828 reference was made to a double cross, defined as when a boxer takes money to lose a bout and then beats his opponent. To knock someones brains out goes back even further while 'beat to the punch' was coined around 1790 in reference to Daniel Mendoza, a great pugilist who weighed only 160 pounds but won through his speed and agility. A hundred years later, American sportswriters were extolling the 'fancy footwork' of the boxers of those times.

Of course, many sports were just an excuse for gambling, card games did not even bother to excuse themselves, that was their raison d'etre. Aboveboard, for honest dealing, dates from the 16th century and was soon followed by it's antonym 'under the table'. Some are obvious derivations, 'double-dealing' and 'an ace up ones sleeve', for example; while others are quite obscure, 'jackpot' comes from a variation of draw poker where only a pair of jacks or higher could open the betting or start the pot. 'Down and dirty' came from stud poker where the last cards are dealt face down accompanied by the dealers remark "down and dirty", which they often were. Poker tables of the 19th century had a hole cut in the middle, leading to a locked drawer, where the house put a percentage of the bets, as well as any checks or I.O.U.'s; once a player had no credit or cash left he was 'in the hole'. While on the subject of poker it is interesting to note that Kitty was an Old West term for a prostitute, gamblers in the saloons would toss coins into the lap of a Kitty watching the game for the winner.
Many other sports and pastimes have given us phrases, 'knuckle down' was a term used in marbles 300 years ago. The rules stated that you had to place your knuckle's on the exact spot where your marble lay. Oddly the term also morphed into 'knuckle under' meaning to submit. Bull or bear
baiting, not such a popular sport these days, was a contest between a bull or bear and a pack of dogs. If the prize beast looked as if was losing the owner would enter the fray, driving off the dogs with sticks or staves, thus 'to stave off'. Archery gave us both 'a long shot', the winner at medieval contests, and butt, as in the 'butt of a joke'. Medieval archers used the round bottoms of wine butts (casks) as targets, so commonly that the words became synonymous.

The American Pastime, baseball, has also been a rich vein. 'To farm out' has nothing to do with agriculture, instead it comes from Branch Rickey's cultivation of major league players through his farm system; these farm teams were usually located out in the bush giving rise to the term 'bush league'. Carl Hubbell won 24 games in a row, pitching 46 consecutive scoreless innings, with his 'screwball', a pitch that baffled the likes of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. The list of sports phrases is enormous from fishing, (angling for something, bait and cut); tennis (lob, game set and match); and, of course, horse racing. In 1816, in an effort to equalize thing, British horse racing introduced a scheme whereby extra weight was given to horses above the standard height and taken off horses below the height, which is where we get the phrase 'give and take'. The sport of kings also gave us photo finish and win by a nose. And so the list goes on from grandstanding, ace in the hole and shuffle, to home-run, home base, that's not cricket and bowl someone over (archaically, to bowl a maiden over; though what love at first sight and six balls with no runs have in common I cannot say).

Culinary Eponyms

Eponyms are words that have entered the language but originated as proper names. Usually they are descriptive of everyday objects, an apple danish, french-fries, a sandwich or even a hamburger. Foods are often named after their place of origin, or perceived popularity with a nation, the
weiner is named after the German for Vienna, currants were a corruption of the Latin for Corinthe where the best grapes were thought to come from. Sandwich is derived from the Earl of Sandwich, purported to be an inveterate gambler who begrudged time away from the tables and thus concocted a simple finger food. Many food eponyms are simply the name of the chef who created the recipe, the developer of the fruit or vegetable or the restaurant which served it, Cobb's Salad, Cox's Orange Pippin and Delmonico's Steak are examples. The Bartlett pear was misappropriated by Mr. Bartlett of Massachusetts, it was actually the Williams pear before that. Rudolf Boysen developed a loganberry, blackberry and raspberry cross which is known as a boysenberry; the loganberry itself is named after an American judge, James Logan. Kaiser rolls originated in the 15th century when a Viennese baker produced a batch in honor of the Holy Roman Emperor featuring his profile stamped on the top. Melba toast is named for the soprano Dame Nellie Melba, who in turn got her stage-name from her birthplace, Melbourne, Australia; while sick and staying at the Savoy in London, the chef Cesar Ritz (from whom we get the word ritzy) prepared extremely dry toast to her order, Peach Melba is also named after her.
Famous people often had food named after them, Napoleon brandy, Beef Wellington and Garibaldis, this last being the favorite snack for a man with little spare time in between unifying Italy. Crepes Suzettes were supposedly first served to the future King Edward VII at the Cafe Royal in
Paris where he was dining with a 'female companion'. To protect his anonymity the crepes were named after her. A margarita was first served to Rita Hayworth, so the story goes, whose full first name was, you guessed it, Margarita. On the other hand the Baby Ruth candy bar caused a lawsuit to be filed by the famous baseball slugger, resulting in the 'official' story that the name derives from Grover Cleveland grand-daughter Ruth, why she would have boosted sales is not revealed. Tangerines came from Tangiers while the Bing cherry was named after the Manchurian foreman of Samuel Lewellin, an Oregon horticulturist and Clementines after Pere Clement Rodier, a French monk living in North Africa.

There are many more of course, Chateaubriand steak was a recipe created by Vicomte Chateaubriand while he was ambassador to England, probably because of the poor level of cooking he encountered there. Angus beef is named after the Angus breed of cattle from the county of the same name in Scotland. Granny Smith was Marie Ana Smith of Australia and Grahams Crackers came from the puritanically inclined Presbyterian minister Sylvester Graham who believed in vegetarianism, teetotalism and whole wheat. Incidentally, the word teetotal came from an advocate of total abstinence who was cruelly parodied for his stutter; so we shall toast them all with a nice cup of Earl Grey.