It's Regency Slang, By George(tte) Quiz

Answer: shut up

I've often wondered if 'stow your whids' is a corruption of the Scottish admonition to 'Haud your wisht' because they mean the same thing. "Stow your whids" is strictly language of the streets - and the sleazier streets at that! In polite Regency society, one would be told to "hold your tongue'. You'll find the more common term used by Swithin Liversedge, the oily rogue in Heyer's novel 'The Foundling'.

Answer: The doors and windows of your house

Jiggers, I assume, because one could jig open a door with a crowbar, and glims because windows let in light. Mr. Leek, the very non-traditional valet, comments on the jiggers and glims of the Earl of St. Erth's stately home, Stanyon Castle, in Heyer's Regency romance-cum-mystery novel 'The Quiet Gentleman'.

Answer: A highwayman

It stands to reason that a highwayman would also be referred to as a bridle-cull, since highwaymen were on horseback. One of the most famous highwaymen in England was Dick Turpin, but it's unlikely he was ever referred to as a bridle-cull since he was hanged in 1739, 72 years before the Regency Period began. Unmounted desperadoes intent on relieving travellers of their valuables were known as footpads.

Georgette Heyer introduced us to two delightful bridle-culls: Jeremy Chirk in 'The Toll Gate' and Lord Jack Carstares in 'The Black Moth'.

Answer: Shake hands

According to Mark Steven Morton in his book 'The Lover's Tongue: A Merry Romp Through the Language of Love and Sex', famble derives from fumble, meaning 'to grope' and one fumbles (or gropes) with one's hands. I find that a bit of a stretch. Half the time there is no definite source for Regency cant phrases and words. Mr. Mamble, the self-made man in 'The Foundling', offers his famble in apology to the Duke of Sale (who isn't quite sure what the word means).

Answer: A loose woman

This term enchants me. It's such a courtly and elegant way to describe a woman who was no better than she should be. It should be noted that the term was invariably reserved for young and pretty women of loose morals. Such women were also called cyprians, lightskirts, and Covent Garden Nuns (the latter because Covent Garden was a hangout for prostitutes in Regency London). By the time a barque of frailty had lost her youthful freshness, charm and most of her teeth, she might well be an Abbess (the Regency term for the Madam of an upscale brothel) with several Covent Garden Nuns in her 'care'.

Miles Calverleigh, the ramshackle hero of 'The Black Sheep' uses his acquaintance with an Abbess (who had been one of the barques of frailty with whom he consorted in his misspent youth) to settle a score with his disreputable nephew.

Answer: Sixpence

Regency slang terms for money were colourful to say the least and don't really have an etymology to show from whence they came. For instance, a rag was a farthing, a magg was a ha'penny, a double magg was a penny, a sixpence, in addition to being called a sow's baby, was a half-borde (a borde was a shilling), and so on. By the time one gets into larger sums, one is using terms like pony (25 pounds) and monkey (500 pounds).

In many of Heyer's novels young wastrels who find their pockets to let (i.e. they're broke!) frequently approach their well-breeched (i.e. wealthy) relatives and friends for the loan of a large sum like a monkey to cover their gambling debts.

Answer: Got drunk

When a Regency buck "went on the mop" he got thoroughly inebriated! Why that should be called 'going on the mop" doesn't make much sense, but then our modern euphemisms for drunk - tight, bagged, smashed, etc. - don't make much sense, either!

Sir Roland Pommeroy, Viscount Pelham's boon companion in 'The Convenient Marriage', is frequently on the mop, and one of the funniest passages in the book takes place because of Pom's inebriated state.

Answer: A coat

I haven't checked any of my sources, but I would assume that the word toge may (only by the lower classes, you understand) derive from toga - but don't quote me. A hat was a shap (from chapeau?).

Jason, Sherry's 'tiger' in 'Friday's Child', is heard to comment on a 'flash cove' (gentleman) in a toge.

Answer: He runs a tavern

Innkeepers, aka ale-drapers, feature largely in Georgette Heyer's Regency novels since the heroes frequently dash up and down the Great North Road or tool (that's drive in modern terms) their curricles in races to Brighton and stop at post houses (coaching inns) along the way to lay the dust in their throats by downing a pint served up by the ale draper.

While gentlemen could indulge in curricle races, it was considered very unseemly for a gentlewoman to engage in such unladylike behaviour. In 'Regency Buck' Judith Taverner incurs the wrath of her guardian, the Earl of Worth, when she accepts a racing challenge. Sophy Stanton-Lacy, the engaging heroine in 'The Grand Sophy' breaks all the rules of high society by driving her high-perch phaeton down St. James Street.

Answer: A bank note

"Flimsies" was the common term for banknotes in Regency England. A wad of banknotes was generally referred to as "a roll of soft". In 'The Toll Gate', Captain John Staple's former comrade-in-arms Wilfred Babbacombe carries a roll of soft when he comes into the wilds of Derbyshire searching for his friend.

Until 1844 banks in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales issued their own bank notes. After 1844, no new private banks were able to issue their own bank notes in England and Wales, but existing banks continued to do so. However, due to private bank failures, mergers and other market forces, the last private bank note in England was issued in 1921. Nowadays only Bank of England notes are legal tender in England and Wales. However, three private banks in Scotland and four in Northern Ireland retained the right to issue their own notes, and do so to this day.