| Robert Smith Surtees (1805 - 1864) was the author of some tremendously popular novels. His books were about fox-hunting Englishmen, and are full of vivid humorous characters. His biggest success was a rich Cockney grocer named Jorrocks who has taken on the management of the fox-hounds in a little spa town called Handley Cross. I first read his book about Jorrocks decades ago, and I’m now going back over it. I usually have no trouble with the language in Victorian novels, but Surtees sometimes uses words that mean nothing to me. For example, there is an incident where a servant is indignant because he went out of his way to help a character called Captain Doleful, and all the miserly Captain gave him as a tip was “a Joey”. Now, I first visited the UK in the 1960’s when the old pre-decimal money was still in use, and I take a ridiculous pride in knowing the names of all the old coins, but I had never heard of a “Joey”. A few minutes with the OED and Wikipedia explained what it was. A Joey was a small silver coin that was worth four pence and was only minted from 1836 to 1855. It got its name from Joseph Hume, the member of parliament who pushed for it to be created. A standard cab fare was evidently four pence, and Hume wanted a convenient coin. In fact, the cab drivers hated it, because before there was a four pence coin people used to give them sixpence and not ask for change. After that history lesson, I wanted to have a Joey of my own, so I bought one from a coin dealer in England, and it arrived today. And here you see it in my hand. |
| Created on 17 May 2023, updated on 28 May 2023 by Samuel Ethan Fox |