A hellish end in Halifax
QUESTION
What’s the origin of the phrase ‘From hell, Hull and Halifax, Good Lord, deliver us!’?
This quote is from The Vagrant’s (or Beggar’s) Litany: pre-17th century folklore about the dangers (and good things) in store for itinerants, people travelling from place to place looking for work, of which there were many at that time.
John Taylor, the so-called Water Poet, cemented the phrase in his 1622 poem The Very Merry-Wherry-Ferry Voyage: ‘There is a proverb, and a prayer withal. That we may not to three strange
places fall: From Hull, from Halifax, from hell,
’tis thus, From all these three, good Lord deliver us.’
halifax straddled the ancient packhorse ways used by travellers and traders through the hills and moors. It was a market for woollen cloth, which was woven in a vast cottage industry and transported by horse or backpack.
It was a greatly feared place because of its Gibbet Law, which allowed local magistrates and judges to issue the death penalty for the most trivial offences, including theft.
A replica of the halifax gibbet stands at Gibbet hill at the junction of Gibbet Street and Bedford Street South.
It was a form of guillotine invented long before the French Revolution, with a blade of sharpened slate. The last blade used in an execution is on display in the town’s Bankfield Museum.
As the poet Taylor put it: ‘At Halifax the law so sharp doth deal, That whoso more than 13 pence doth steal, They have a jyn that wondrous quick
and well, Sends thieves all headless unto heav’n or hell.’ The good citizens of Kingston upon hull were thought to have the same savage attitude to miscreants and allegedly passed an order allowing magistrates to whip beggars out of town.
hull’s medieval jail was said to be one of the most feared in the north of England.
David A. Tomlinson, Halifax, W. Yorks.
QUESTION
What was the longest word used by William Shakespeare?
The longest word used by Shakespeare occurs in Love’s Labour’s Lost, a comedy written during the 1590s.
Though its popularity did not last long after the playwright’s lifetime — the play was rarely performed in the 19th century — it’s undergone a recent revival.
The play is remarkable for featuring, in Act V, Scene I, the word honorific a bi li tu din it a ti bus, meaning‘ the state of being able to achieve honours’.
This is the longest English word in which vowels and consonants alternate.
The play is also noted for the longest scene in Shakespeare (Act V, Scene II), and a speech of 588 words by Berowne in Act IV.
Ian MacDonald, Billericay, Essex.
QUESTION
Trains from London to East Anglia were cancelled after balloons became caught in overhead wires. What other unusual incidents have caused transport delays?
I Used to travel 45,500 miles a year by train, so I experienced many delays. Anything ‘on the line’ could cause a problem. Just about every type of wildlife chews signalling cables.
Since electrification, animals and birds, in particular, have caused short circuit tripping of the power feeds.
Then there are farm animals on the loose, traditionally horses and cattle, but journeys have been delayed by more exotic animals — llamas, alpacas and even ostriches.
Bird strikes can lead to broken windows, particularly on drivers’ cabs.
Cars, buses and even planes have caused delays, as have collapsing cranes. In the West Midlands, there were shipping containers on the line. having been placed too close to the edge of a cutting, they slipped down onto the track.
Wheel flats are caused by excessive slipping, often owing to leaves on the line, or brakes locking on. Landslides and fallen trees are common in the winter, as is flooding or the breach of a sea wall, most notably at dawlish in devon.
Windy or stormy conditions can mean almost anything can become airborne and lead to the power being turned off for the overhead lines.
There was the infamous ‘wrong type of snow’ of the late 1980s and early 1990s. having been caught out by unexpected snow drifts in 1987 and 1988, a railmounted snow blower was obtained that was similar to, but smaller than, machines used in Austria and Switzerland.
When it was put to work in the South of England, it failed — much to the amusement of the Press. The machine was designed to move snow drifts, but the problem snow was fine and powdery. The machine fared better in Scotland.
The most unusual incident that affected me happened one evening in the late Eighties when my train was diverted due to a bridge strike — a lorry or other large vehicle damaging a bridge over a railway line. The train came to a standstill and eventually there was an announcement that the driver did not know the way! C. E. Sayers-Leavy, retired senior rail industry engineer, Broadstairs, Kent.
Returning by train to Toronto after a day trip to Windsor, Ontario, we came to a stop. We were told two suspects in a stolen car had broken down on a country level crossing and abandoned the vehicle.
Luckily, it had been spotted by a farmer looking out of his window, who alerted the authorities.
Philip Brannon, London SE25.
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