Language oddities

[flick]

This morning, both of us in a rush, I saw Mrs Next Door. I had a horse on each hand, about to jump on GB, and she was taking the dogs out for a quick wee

Comments

[desperance]

My grandad used to say that. Kentish born and raised (in the 1890s - never saw a motor-car till he was mid-teens, by his own account). I suspect my father must've trained himself out of it, that and more, in an effort to Move Up.

[flick]

Aha! Do you know which end of Kent?

[desperance]

Sadly, I don't. Not in Brenchley, alas (our direct line used to own one of the big Tudor houses in Brenchley, but the paterfamilias died intestate and the whole estate was swallowed up by squabbles and lawyers' fees and Chancery and such - very Jarndyce vs Jarndyce, and at about the same time).

[nils]

Can't say I've heard it (but I've not been in Kent long). Also can't work out what you thought she meant.

[flick]

"Overlain the baby" is a (fairly old fashioned, still used legally/medically) way of saying that (usually) the mother rolled over in the night and smothered it.

[nils]

Thanks! Not a phrase I've come acrose - without context, I probably would have assumed her meaning...