ale-draper publican
all's bowmon all's well
angelic single young woman
apartments to let empty-headed
area-sneak burglar through a house's area
baked exhausted
ball of fire glass of brandy
ballum-rankum dance by naked prostitutes
bamming being funny, humbugging
Banbury tale silly, roundabout story; hence, a lie
bang-up most stylish, a la mode
barker pistol
bartholomew baby a doll, gaudy person; hence, a clown
beak magistrate
belch beer, porter, etc.
Black Beetles lower orders
blackleg sporting gambler or sharper
blate frightened
blue tape gin
blunt money
bottom pluck, grit
boxing a charlie trapping a watchman in his box
breathing exercising
breech backside
bridle cull highwayman
browns and whistlers counterfeit coppers
brush go away quickly
bub beer
burned to the socket dying, done for; hence, penniless
burrick prostitute
bushed poor, without resources
buz-gloak pickpocket
buzz talk, rumour
case suit of clothes
castaway drunk
casualty a nonentity
cattle horses
charlies watchmen
cheese it stop it, desist
chipper lively girl
chived lit. cut, hence gone away
chouse cheat
circumvendibus roundabout way
claret blood
clock face
clunch a lout, a lumpish fellow
conk nose
cool Nantz brandy
crack the whid to talk sociably, to joke
crapped hanged
crib a house
cross a “fixed” fight
cry rope to warn, hence inform
cut drunk
cut his pigtail resign commission
Cyprian a harlot
daddle hand
daffy gin
darbies fetters
delope to fire wide deliberately
dial face
Diamond Squad fashionable society
dibs money
dice teeth
dicky paltry, inferior
dicked in the nob mad, silly
dive to go slumming, hence a low establishment
dorse (doss) to sleep
doxy loose woman
dozzened stupefied
dub your mummer shut your mouth
duds clothes
dummy-hunters pickpockets (of wallets)
earwig eavesdropper, hence to listen
edge encourage (cf egg on)
eye-water gin
facer a blow in the face
fadge be suitable (Won't fadge = won't do)
famble (fam) hand
family underworld
Fancy boxing, sporting fraternity
fib to box, to punch
file a person
fives fists
flash loosely, relating to the underworld, but also disreputable, showy; thieves' language
flimsy a bank-note, money
fly cunning, aware
fly-flapped whipped at the cart-tail
foxed drunk
fussock lazy fat woman
futter to copulate
galoot a soldier
gams legs
gelt money
gig fun
gill a fellow
gloak synonymous with gill
go-alonger simpleton
gone to roost dead, done for
Grand Strut Rotten Row, Hyde Park
gun to examine (took a gun = took a look)
gut-foundered hungry
Haymarket ware a prostitute
heavy wet porter (drink)
high ropes angry, excited
hocus to drug, hence to deceive
Holy Land back slums of St Giles'
hop the twig to die, to go away
hop the wag to play truant
hopper-dockers shoes
hot house brothel
ivories teeth
jigger door
jobbernowl a fool
juggs breasts
ken a house, place of resort
knee a second (boxing)
lawful blanket wife
leery wary, cunning
leg-men (legs) bookmakers' touts
lickerish lecherous
lillywhite a Negro
limbo prison
lush strong drink
lushy drunk
mag (meg) a ha'penny
mauleys boxing-gloves
mellow drain sociable drinking
mill (n. and v.) fight, to box
mint sauce money
mollisher (moll) a prostitute
monkey £500
mop, on the on a drinking spree
mot a low woman
mufflers boxing-gloves
muslin girl
mutton-monger a ladies' man, a rake
muzzler upper-cut (boxing)
nap (nab) catch, arrest
nix nothing, hence an emphatic negative
not a feather to fly with penniless
nuller a boxer
nun a harlot
nuts (nutty) something delightful, sweet
nymph of the pavey a prostitute
office private information of prize-fight venue
ogles eyes
Oliver the moon (depending on whether the moon is shining or set, Oliver is said to be in, or out of, town)
out-and-outer splendid fellow
Paddington frisk a hanging
pads street robbers
pattering the flash speaking thieves' cant
panny small house (family panny, underworld resort)
peck food (peck alley, throat, peck-box, mouth)
peepers eyes
pewter money
phiz (phizzog) face
pick up to act as second (boxing)
pike run away
pilot a watchman
pimple the head
pippen a good fellow
Point Nonplus, off without money or credit
poulticed mortgaged
prad horse (pradster, horseman)
prig to steal, a thief. Also prigger
put to bed with a shovel buried
racket a fraudulent or criminal operation
rapper false witness
reader notebook
red tape brandy, spirits (cf. blue tape)
rhino money
roll of soft sheaf of bank-notes
ruby blood
rum queer, but also excellent
sarsy (sassy, saucy) impudent
scorched short of money
screwed burgled
shap hat
sharp a sword
shiner black eye
shiver to shake the fist
shoot the cat vomit
shot in the neck drunk
shove in the mouth glass of gin
skirt female
slum nonsense, foolish talk
smoky suspicious, underhand
snitch betray
snyder a tailor
sow's baby sixpence
spangle a seven-shilling coin
Spike Hotel prison
spunging house preliminary prison for debtors
stampers feet
stash it desist (“stow it”)
Steel, the Coldbaths Field Prison (“the Bastille”)
strap to copulate
Tick River (up or in) deep in debt
tiger groom
titter young woman
toco punishment
togs (toggery) clothing
town tabby Society matron, dowager
trap mouth
tulip a showy person, would-be “Swell”
vis-a-vis carriage with facing seats
vinegar guard at a prize-fight (also whip)
wet drink
Wild Goose Nation Ireland
winder a body blow
winker bright-eyed girl
wistycastor a powerful blow at boxing
whiz talk (n.)
Some of these expressions have other meanings also. The definitions listed here are those applying to the text.
About the Author
GEORGE MACDONALD FRASER, who has an established reputation worldwide as a humorist and a scholar of the Victorian era, now shows himself to be equally at home in the Regency period with Black Ajax. Like Mr American and The Pyrates, Black Ajax stands outside any series – although Captain Buckley “Mad Buck” Flashman, father of the notorious cad and scoundrel Harry Flashman, does play a large role. The eleventh and latest volume of the Flashman Papers is Flashman and the Tiger, which sees Flashman pitted against one of the greatest villains of the day, and observing, with his usual jaundiced eye, two of its most famous heroes. Thousands of readers around the world have also been delighted by the three volumes of stories about Private McAuslan, thoughtfully described as “the biggest walking disaster to hit the British Army since Ancient Pistol”.
George MacDonald Fraser served both in the Border Regiment in Burma during the war – his autobiography Quartered Safe Out Here became a bestseller – and in the Gordon Highlanders. He has worked on newspapers in Britain and Canada, and was deputy editor of the Glasgow Herald. In addition to his novels he has written numerous films, most notably The Three Musketeers, The Four Musketeers and the James Bond film, Octopussy.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.co.uk for exclusive information on Freya North.
Further praise for Black Ajax
“George MacDonald Fraser is not simply an excellent historical novelist, he is one of the best British writers currently at work.”
Mail on Sunday
“MacDonald Fraser is a wonderful storyteller and has brought to a fine art the device of mixing fact with fiction. Black Ajax is another splendid feather in the already bristling bonnet of MacDonald Fraser.”
Spectator
“A historical romp told with the wealth of period feel and details that only MacDonald Fraser can muster. For escapism back to an age, Black Ajax is hard to beat.”
The Times
“Full of amusement, [Black Ajax] is a work of quite admirable craftsmanship … a marvellously gripping read.”
Scotsman
‘Like everything Fraser writes, Black Ajax is addictively readable.’
Independent
‘Black Ajax is firmly based on real historical events, brilliantly recreated in fictional form by MacDonald Fraser.’
Sunday Express
Also by George MacDonald Fraser
THE FLASHMAN PAPERS
(in chronological order)
Flashman
Royal Flash
Flashman's Lady
Flashman and the Mountain of Light
Flash for Freedom!
Flashman and the Redskins
Flashman at the Charge
Flashman in the Great Game
Flashman and the Angel of the Lord
Flashman and the Dragon
Flashman and the Tiger
*
Mr American
The Pyrates
The Candlemass Road
*
SHORT STORIES
The General Danced at Dawn
McAuslan in the Rough
The Sheikh and the Dustbin
*
HISTORY
The Steel Bonnets:
The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers
*
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Quartered Safe out Here
*
The Hollywood History of the World
Copyright
This novel is entirely a work of fiction.
The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead or localities is entirely coincidental.
HarperCollinsPublishers
77-85 Fulham Palace Road,
Hammersmith, London W6 8JB
www.fireandwater.com
35798642
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1997
Copyright © George MacDonald Fraser 1997
The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
EPub Edition © 1997 ISBN: 9780007325641
Set in Postscript Times Roman with Janson Display by Rowland Phototypesetting Ltd, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)
Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W 1A8, Canada
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Contents
Prologue
Part 1 - The Witnesses
Chapter 1 - Paddington Jones
Chapter 2 - Lucien de la Guise
Chapter 3 - Marguerite Rossignol
Chapter 4 - Buckley Flashman
Chapter 5 - William Hazlitt
Chapter 6 - Bill Richmond
Chapter 7 - Tom Cribb
Chapter 8 - John Doe
Chapter 9 - Bob Logic
Chapter 10 - Pierce Egan
Chapter 12 - William Crockford
Chapter 13 - H.R.H. the Prince of Wales
Chapter 14 - Tom Molineaux
Chapter 15 - Bob Gregson
Chapter 16 - Captain Barclay
Epilogue
Glossary
About the Author
Praise
Also by George MacDonald Fraser
Copyright
About the Publisher