One of the most amusing aspects of reports of Victorian court cases and also the (few) letters we have been able to read written by Marlow people in the same era is the opportunity they give to us to glimpse the everyday language spoken by Marlow residents, recorded as it was without filter or correction.
Here's our little guide to fitting in in Victorian and Edwardian Marlow =
1.) Swear like a trooper, and then some. On numerous occasions police constables had to explain to flustered magistrates that the terrible words used by Marlow people in the dock were in everyday use in the town and didn't mean quite so much here as they would in most places. One unnamed word quoted by a Marlow witness managed to cause a sensation when used in the (you would think) hardened and heard -it- all-before High Court in London. This again was explained as a normal word in Marlow. Officers from elsewhere were flabbergasted during WW1 by the effing and blinding capacity of Marlow recruits. Quite literally as the F word was familiar in the town long before it was so elsewhere, at least in male-only company. Marlow ladies were also prosecuted for using "indecent language" on a regular basis however, usually directed at their husbands during a row. Ladies of Dean Street and Chapel Street I'm looking at you. The guiltiest parties amongst the men for cussing were bargemen and chairmakers.
2.) Use "be" in front of many verbs. You didn't call someone you "becalled" them. This was used to mean simple calling out to someone and also calling them unpleasant names, depending on context. And in terms of thinking you "bethink" and "bethought" not think or thought. Going anywhere meant "becoming" there. And if you wanted to say that you are not something you would say "I Be Not" or more commonly "I b'aint" whilst "I am" was "I be". To "belabour" someone was to attack them. This way of speaking was widely used in the nearly villages such as Stokenchurch and Lane End and probably in the general wider area too.
3.) The town was not pronounced "Mar-low" but "Marler". Failing to pronounce the town name correctly instantly marked you out as an "foreigner" - that is born beyond Marlow Bottom. It still did when I was a child. There are still a (very) few elderly people alive in the 2020s who keep to the traditional pronunciation. The use of "Marlow upon Thames" to refer to the town became briefly quite common in late Victorian times, almost always by newcomers and produced eye rolling and sniggering from longer-standing residents rich and poor because of what was seen as it's pretentiousness.
4.) Sprinkle your speech with these expressions, all of which I have recorded in use more than once in Victorian or Edwardian Marlow :
Blackguarding someone= calling them names. Pronounced "blaggarding".
Bread and Cheese = hawthorn leaves. This was very old usage and common in Southern England as a whole. Still used in the 20th century.
Bullragging = using abusive, deliberately provoking language to someone.
Bumbledom = pomposity. A common word in all of Victorian England.
Coachee= coachman. A dismissive and insulting term similar to calling a maid a skivvy or slavvy.
Chuff something = to throw it.
Collar someone = any laying of hands on a person. It could mean anything from taking hold of someone's arm to grabbing them by the throat. The Buckinghamshire working class use of this expression to mean something other than simply taking someone by the lapels or collar as it did elsewhere caused many judges and magistrates to get confused in court cases by the evidence of witnesses. Note that the use of " to collar" someone as a term for arresting them doesn't seem to have been usual. Instead it was said that someone had been "ketched".
Daughter of Egypt / Son of Egypt = Gypsy. This was also common throughout England as it was wrongfully presumed that Romanies originated in Egypt.
Getting on = tipsy, on the way to being drunk. "Having a spree" meant letting your hair down and having a drink. Often used in mitigation, to imply tipsiness that might have been noisy but was not in danger of causing violence or other anti-social behaviour e.g "She's only having a spree, constable". Another expression used to described tipsiness was "to be a bit elevated". Someone more drunk than tipsy had had a "smart little drop" or just "a smart drop". Someone very drunk was "bursted with beer".
Give someone one or two = beat them up.
Give someone beans = to annoy or pain them.
Have something by you = possessing something, not necessarily having it on your person though- you could describe your family by saying, "I have three children by me" for instance or your business by saying "I have a hundred cows by me on my farm".
Hot lot = skilled sports team or person.
"Lady or man", used to call the toss of a coin, rather than heads or tails. Lady instead of heads as of course Queen Victoria was on all the coins. Presumably this went out when Edward came to the throne.
Lemon time = half time in a football match. It was lemons that the players sucked rather than oranges in those days. Rather them than me!
Little breeze = an argument. Often sarcastic, referring to a major row in fact.
Look after someone / to belook after someone = to be seeking them, or to be keeping a watchful eye on them on suspicion of their going to misbehave, or to be caring for them.
Piece of jobbery = the result of a conspiracy.
Sharp with someone= today being sharp with someone would mean expressing unkindness or criticism verbally but in this era it was also often used to describe physically harming them. An ill-treated wife might tell the police her husband was sharp with her when she meant that he had hit her.
Son of Crispin = a shoemaker. An old expression and used throughout England.
Son of Galen = a doctor. Used throughout the country too.
Sow bug = woodlouse, this was general Buckinghamshire dialect. They'll always be Cheese Bugs to me though because my family is from Kent and Sussex originally!
Sweep = as in "You sweep!", an insult. Probably because the devil was traditionally depicted as sooty due to the burning fires of hell.
Treacle seller/ Keeper of a treacle shop (insulting) = seller of low priced, poor quality goods, especially a grocer. General Victorian and Edwardian use in England which remained in some places well into the 20th century.
Weathercock = someone who changed their opinions or loyalties frequently. Strongly insulting. Being steadfast in your principles was a cornerstone of what it meant to be a good person, especially a gentleman, in this era.
Withy tree = willow. Withys / Withies = pieces of willow.
Worth your hire = to be worth a fair wage for the job you do. This seems to have become a common expression in Edwardian times. Used as in "I'm worth my hire, give me a pay rise".
Compiled by Charlotte Day.
©Marlow Ancestors.
