BrE: Ham-tea wedding
Marius Hancu
In BrE, is a "ham-tea wedding" a "financially constricted" one?
----
... moving beyond her disappointment over ... her ham-tea wedding to
George ...
Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, p. 15
----
Thanks,
Marius Hancu
Peter Duncanson (BrE)
<NOS...@videotron.ca> wrote:
>Hello:
>
>In BrE, is a "ham-tea wedding" a "financially constricted" one?
>
The expression is unknown to me. I would interpret it in the
same way as you.
>----
>... moving beyond her disappointment over ... her ham-tea wedding to
>George ...
>
>Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, p. 15
>----
>
>Thanks,
>Marius Hancu
--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)
Evan Kirshenbaum
That's the only place it shows up on Google Books and it doesn't show
up at all on the web aside from a reference to that and this thread.
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |The great thing about Microsoft
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |dominating the world is that
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |there's no shortage of support
|opportunities.
kirsh...@hpl.hp.com | Sam Alvis
(650)857-7572
Derek Turner
> Hello:
>
> In BrE, is a "ham-tea wedding" a "financially constricted" one?
>
> ----
It's a new coinage with regard to weddings AFAIKT but easily
understandable to anyone who lives north of a line from the Wash to the
Mersey. The 'ham tea' (no hyphen) is an institution most commonly
associated with funerals ('we buried him with ham'). Yes, financial
constraints, also class overtones (as always in GB), lack of
sophistication etc. The ham tea is normally 'laid on' at the home of the
corpse (bride, I guess, in this case) or a village hall rather than
(say) an hotel. Think pickled onions, tea and sherry rather than olives
coffee and champagne.
Hope this helps.
Marius Hancu
> It's a new coinage with regard to weddings AFAIKT but easily
> understandable to anyone who lives north of a line from the Wash to the
> Mersey. The 'ham tea' (no hyphen) is an institution most commonly
> associated with funerals ('we buried him with ham').
Interesting.
> Yes, financial
> constraints, also class overtones (as always in GB), lack of
> sophistication etc. The ham tea is normally 'laid on' at the home of the
> corpse (bride, I guess, in this case) or a village hall rather than
> (say) an hotel. Think pickled onions, tea and sherry rather than olives
> coffee and champagne.
>
> Hope this helps.
Definitely:-)
Thank you.
Marius Hancu
Mike Lyle
Wales, too. Dai Jones Station Terrace is now full of years, and the
doctor has left the house looking grave. Dai lies upstairs in the bed
whence none expect him to rise again. Mrs Dai Station Terrace busies
herself in the customary ways: dusting the front room (the front room
is, of course, only for corpses), and setting a fine fat ham on the
range to boil. Gradually the savoury aroma of the ham wafts its way up
the stairs to Dai Station Terrace's nostrils. The scent gives him the
strength to call Mrs Dai Station Terrace: "Blodwen!" Surprised but
attentive, Mrs Dai replies "Yes, Dai bach?" "Damn, but I'm feeling a bit
better. I think I could take a little food." "Wrth gwrs! What would you
like? A nice cup of beef tea, maybe?" "No, Blod, I tell you what I
really fancy now is a cut of that boiled ham I can smell." Aghast, Mrs
Dai exclaims, "Good heavens, no! That's for the mourners!"
--
Mike.
--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com
Derek Turner
>
> Wales, too. Dai Jones Station Terrace is now full of years, and the
> doctor has left the house looking grave. Dai lies upstairs in the bed
> whence none expect him to rise again. Mrs Dai Station Terrace busies
> herself in the customary ways: dusting the front room (the front room
> is, of course, only for corpses), and setting a fine fat ham on the
> range to boil. Gradually the savoury aroma of the ham wafts its way up
> the stairs to Dai Station Terrace's nostrils. The scent gives him the
> strength to call Mrs Dai Station Terrace: "Blodwen!" Surprised but
> attentive, Mrs Dai replies "Yes, Dai bach?" "Damn, but I'm feeling a bit
> better. I think I could take a little food." "Wrth gwrs! What would you
> like? A nice cup of beef tea, maybe?" "No, Blod, I tell you what I
> really fancy now is a cut of that boiled ham I can smell." Aghast, Mrs
> Dai exclaims, "Good heavens, no! That's for the mourners!"
>
Wonderful! UMW?
Mike Lyle
No, oral tradition, with a framework by Anon.
Marius Hancu
wrote:
> Wales, too. Dai Jones Station Terrace is now full of years, and the
> doctor has left the house looking grave. Dai lies upstairs in the bed
> whence none expect him to rise again. Mrs Dai Station Terrace busies
> herself in the customary ways: dusting the front room (the front room
> is, of course, only for corpses), and setting a fine fat ham on the
> range to boil. Gradually the savoury aroma of the ham wafts its way up
> the stairs to Dai Station Terrace's nostrils. The scent gives him the
> strength to call Mrs Dai Station Terrace: "Blodwen!" Surprised but
> attentive, Mrs Dai replies "Yes, Dai bach?" "Damn, but I'm feeling a bit
> better. I think I could take a little food." "Wrth gwrs! What would you
> like? A nice cup of beef tea, maybe?" "No, Blod, I tell you what I
> really fancy now is a cut of that boiled ham I can smell." Aghast, Mrs
> Dai exclaims, "Good heavens, no! That's for the mourners!"
Great!
Now:
Dai Jones Station Terrace, funny name is he the owner of the Station
or of the Terrace or of both?:-)
Dai bach?
Blodwen? Welsh name?
Thanks.
Marius Hancu
Derek Turner
>
> Dai Jones Station Terrace, funny name is he the owner of the Station
> or of the Terrace or of both?:-)
Neither. Dai (David) Jones (Daffydd ap Sion [son of John]) is such a
common name that any sizeable Welsh Village will have at least half a
dozen (David being the name of Wales' patron saint and Jones being the
most common [Anglicized] surname in that country). There is/was a
tradition of distinguishing them by their occupations or place of
residence (as is this case). Jones the Milk etc.
>
> Dai bach?
Literally 'little Dai' - affectionate.
>
> Blodwen? Welsh name?
Oh yes.
and before you ask 'wrth gwrs' is Welsh for 'of course' and my UMW is
Under Milk Wood - now there's a book for you to tackle, Marius.
Mike Lyle
[...]
> Dai Jones Station Terrace, funny name is he the owner of the Station
> or of the Terrace or of both?:-)
Because some surnames are particularly common in Wales, people sometimes
have to be identified by some event, personal characteristic, their
occupation, or, as here, by their address. Station Terrace would be a
typical street name.
>
> Dai bach?
"Dave dear" --literally "little Dave" .
>
> Blodwen? Welsh name?
Yes. Not uncommon, but regarded by many Welsh people and virtually all
English people as funny. If I'm not mistaken, it means "White Flower".
Marius Hancu
> and before you ask 'wrth gwrs' is Welsh for 'of course' and my UMW is
> Under Milk Wood - now there's a book for you to tackle, Marius.
I have a Collected by DT and read several from that cycle ... Tough
indeed, even the expert commentators can't crack everything ... but
that's why poetry is fun:-)
Marius Hancu
John Dean
In Manchester, the 'burying with ham' was indicative of pushing the boat
out. Ham was expensive and if you took the trouble to lay it on at the tea
[1] after the ceremony, you were spending freely.
[1] 'tea' being the meal usually taken in the North between 5pm and 6pm.
--
John Dean
Oxford
Percival P. Cassidy
> Marius Hancu wrote:
> [...]
>> Dai Jones Station Terrace, funny name is he the owner of the Station
>> or of the Terrace or of both?:-)
>
> Because some surnames are particularly common in Wales, people sometimes
> have to be identified by some event, personal characteristic, their
> occupation, or, as here, by their address. Station Terrace would be a
> typical street name.
>> Dai bach?
>
> "Dave dear" --literally "little Dave" .
>> Blodwen? Welsh name?
>
> Yes. Not uncommon, but regarded by many Welsh people and virtually all
> English people as funny. If I'm not mistaken, it means "White Flower".
I've never met any Blodwens, but Bronwen/Bronwyn and Gwynneth were not
uncommon names in Australia, even for women with no Welsh heritage.
Perce
Nick
> Marius Hancu wrote:
> [...]
>> Dai Jones Station Terrace, funny name is he the owner of the Station
>> or of the Terrace or of both?:-)
>
> Because some surnames are particularly common in Wales, people sometimes
> have to be identified by some event, personal characteristic, their
> occupation, or, as here, by their address. Station Terrace would be a
> typical street name.
Someone I know gave up tracing their ancestry when they got back to
small welsh village in the 19C. The Rev Jones married Miss Jones to Mr
Jones, witnessed by two other Joneses.
>> Blodwen? Welsh name?
>
> Yes. Not uncommon, but regarded by many Welsh people and virtually all
> English people as funny. If I'm not mistaken, it means "White Flower".
It's a name that is particularly well suited to the rhythm and accent of
Welsh, so making it sound very welsh - almost comically so.
Peter Duncanson (BrE)
<NOS...@videotron.ca> wrote:
>Hello:
>
>In BrE, is a "ham-tea wedding" a "financially constricted" one?
>
Having read the replies so far it is clear that a "ham-tea
wedding" might be expensive for some people but cheap for
others. There is absolutely nothing surprising in that, of
course.
>----
>... moving beyond her disappointment over ... her ham-tea wedding to
>George ...
>
The brief quote doesn't indicate whether the wedding was
"ham-tea" out of necessity -- the best that could be afforded at
the time -- or whether something more lavish could have been
afforded. Either way, she might have wished to have something
better (from her point of view) to look back on in the future.
>Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, p. 15
>----
>
>Thanks,
>Marius Hancu
--
Mike Lyle
The very best thing you can do is to listen to the BBC recording, if
it's available. They produced a beautiful new version about five years
ago, incorporating Richard Burton's utterly stunning narration from the
old performance with new versions for the other parts. It was written
for radio --those were the days, when the BBC was full of drunken
geniuses and gifted madmen.
Robin Bignall
You can find the recording of Burton in the 1963 version, with full
text, at
http://www.undermilkwood.net/prose_undermilkwood.html
--
Robin Bignall (BrE)
Herts, England
the Omrud
Synchronicity! I was listening to it on my mp3 player on the plane home
from Sweden.
--
David
Mike Lyle
> Mike Lyle wrote:
[...Under Milk Wood...]
>>
>> The very best thing you can do is to listen to the BBC recording, if
>> it's available. They produced a beautiful new version about five
>> years ago, incorporating Richard Burton's utterly stunning narration
>> from the old performance with new versions for the other parts. It
>> was written for radio --those were the days, when the BBC was full
>> of drunken geniuses and gifted madmen.
>
> Synchronicity! I was listening to it on my mp3 player on the plane
> home from Sweden.
Does that mean Marius can get it easily? He could use the version
Robin's just pointed to, of course, as it seems to be free (thanks,
Robin: I'll add that to my collection).
the Omrud
Depends on what one means by "easily". I own the CD of the new
recording; if somebody were to write to me privately asking for a
single copy of the mp3s for personal use, I would think about it. The
original BBC recording is more fair game as it's been repeated on the
radio several times - I have that somewhere.
--
David
irwell
<mike_l...@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Like the Reith Lectures when Oppenheimer droned on about
physics and not a soul in the UK could understand him.