Chapter Tall Men to Tanner of Tamworth of T by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Tall Men to Tanner of Tamworth

Tall Men Champions (a Welsh phrase), brave men

“You were good soldiers, and tall fellows.”- Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 2.

“The undaunted resolution and stubborn ferocity of Gwenwyn... had long made him beloved among the `Tall Men,' or champions of Wales.”- Sir W. Scott: The Betrothed, chap. i.

Talleyrand, anciently written Tailleran, is the sobriquet derived from the words “tailler les rangs,” “cut through the ranks.”

Tally (A). The price paid for picking a bushel of hops. It varies (1891) from 1 1/2d. to 2 1/2d.

Tally To correspond. The tally used in the Exchequer was a rod of wood, marked on one face with notches corresponding to the sum for which it was an acknowledgment. Two other sides contained the date, the name of the payer, and so on. The rod was then cleft in such a manner that each half contained one written side and half of every notch. One part was kept in the Exchequer, and the other was circulated. When payment was required the two parts were compared, and if they “tallied,” or made a tally, all was right, if not, there was some fraud, and payment was refused. Tallies were not finally abandoned in the Exchequer till 1834. (French, tailler, to cut.)
    In 1834 orders were issued to destroy the tallies. There were two cartloads of them, which were set fire to at six o'clock in the morning, and the conflagration set on fire the Houses of Parliament, with their offices, and part of the Palace of Westminster.
   To break one's tally (in Latin, “Confringere tesseram”). When public houses were unknown, a guest entertained for a night at a private house had a tally given him, the corresponding part being kept by the host. It was expected that the guest would return the favour if required to do so, and if he refused he “violated the rites of hospitality,” or confregisse tesseram. The “white stone” spoken of in the Book of the Revelation is a tessera which Christ gives to His disciples.
   To live tally is to live unwed as man and wife. A tally- woman is a concubine, and a tally-man is the man who keeps a mistress. These expressions are quite common in Cheshire, Yorkshire, and Lancashire. In mines a tin label is attached to each tub of coals, bearing the name of the man who sent it to the bank, that the weighman may credit it to the right person As the tallies of the miner and weighman agree, so the persons who agree to live together tally with each other's taste.

Tally-ho! is the Norman hunting cry Taillis au! (To the coppice). The tally-ho was used when the stag was viewed in full career making for the coppice. We now cry “Tally-ho!” when the fox breaks cover. The French cry is “Taiaut!”

Tallyman (A). A travelling draper who calls at private houses to sell wares on the tally system- that is, part payment on account, and other parts when the man calls again

Talmud (The). About 120 years after the destruction of the Temple, the rabbi Judah began to take down in writing the Jewish traditions; his book, called the Mishna, contains six parts: (1) Agriculture and seed- sowing, (2) Festivals, (3) Marriage; (4) Civil affairs, (5) Sacrifices; and (6) what is clean and what unclean. The book caused immense disputation, and two Babylonish rabbis replied to it, and wrote a commentary in sixty parts, called the Babylonian Talmud Gemára, (imperfect). This compilation has been greatly abridged by the omission of Nos. 5 and 6.

Talpot or Talipot Tree. A gigantic palm. When the sheath of the flower bursts it makes a report like that of a cannon.

“They burst, like Zeilan's giant palm,
Whose buds fly open with a sound
That shakes the pigmy forest round.”
Moore: Fire Worshippers.

Zeilan is Portuguese for Ceylon.

Talus Sir Artegal's iron man. Spenser, in his Faërie Queene, makes Talus run continually round the island of Crete to chastise offenders with an iron flail. He represents executive power- “swift as a swallow, and as lion strong.” In Greek mythology, Talos was a man of brass, the work of Hephaestos (Vulcan),