|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Ride a cock horse to Banbury cross to see a fine lady upon a fine horse. Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, she shall have music wherever she goes.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Bells on her toes is a lovely image, especially when you consider how much bells can add to certain kinds of dancing when they're placed on shoes, around the ankles, or up at the knees. Too much of it can get on your nerves, but, for a number here and there, bells are quite charming.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 261
enthusiast
|
enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 261 |
A similar phrase I've heard is 'with brass knobs on', I'm not sure of their origins though.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636 |
In reply to:
After this display of male vitality she, in fine fickle, gave her heart to a fool.
*Sigh* Story of my life.....
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear etaoin: from your first URL, what is a "rood loft"? During the Civil War and Restoration there is widespread written evidence of the way new religious and social ideals were being promulgated. The sometimes brutally aggressive Puritans stripped the churches of their images, rood lofts and altars - while a smaller, less-aggressive number, from time to time attempted to restore some of the ‘popish’ traditions [7].
Edit I got lucky and found a glossary: Rood - a cross erected at the entry to the chancel. Roods often had figures of the Virgin Mary on one side and St. John on the other.
Rood Loft - the gallery upon which the rood is supported.
Rood Screen - a screen built beneath the rood loft.
Wish there had been pictures to make it more easily understood.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
formerly known as etaoin...
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Thanks, etaoin. I suppose the wide structure with the dozen or so tall columns is the rood screen, and the smaller structure above it is the rood loft.
This rude heathen know little of the rood.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
travelers and farmers, and other folks would often dress up wagons or horses, or even riders with bells -- that has been going on for ages .(sometimes for good or happy reasons, sometimes for sad-- lepers were required to carry a bell, to warn others they were approaching)
but as people migrated westward in US, and crossed Utah, and other western deserts, they often found they had to lighten the load on there wagons.. and decortive elements, like bells, were discarded.
a good trip, or hopes of a good trip, was to arrive at one destination with bells on meaning, things had never gotten so bad, that food and water held out, and you had no need to lighten the load...
so while the bells are old, and common in both UK and many part of europe, to do something with bell's on is an american idiom for doing something, not just successfully, but with ease.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
to arrive at one's destination with bells on meaning, things had never gotten so bad, that food and water held out, and you had no need to lighten the load
Folk etymology?
To me, with bells on implies, not success, not ease, but rather eager anticipation.
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,512
Members9,187
|
Most Online3,341 Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
0 members (),
397
guests, and
4
robots. |
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|