Another Montagu Williams Anecdote
In describing a man who charged two actors with assault after they frightened him during a seance, Williams writes:
"[He] had made his fortune by exterminating from houses that most disagreeable of insects popularly known as the 'Norfolk Howard.'"
I had no idea what he was talking about, but a quick google search yielded the answer, in, of all places, a footnote in H.L. Mencken's "The American Language":
"Twenty-five years ago an Englishman named Buggey, laboring under the odium attached to the name, had it changed to Norfolk-Howard, a compound made up of the title and family name of the Duke of Norfolk. The wits of London at once doubled his misery by adopting Norfolk-Howard as a euphemism for bed-bug."
Ah, those London wits!
"[He] had made his fortune by exterminating from houses that most disagreeable of insects popularly known as the 'Norfolk Howard.'"
I had no idea what he was talking about, but a quick google search yielded the answer, in, of all places, a footnote in H.L. Mencken's "The American Language":
"Twenty-five years ago an Englishman named Buggey, laboring under the odium attached to the name, had it changed to Norfolk-Howard, a compound made up of the title and family name of the Duke of Norfolk. The wits of London at once doubled his misery by adopting Norfolk-Howard as a euphemism for bed-bug."
Ah, those London wits!
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