"Gammon" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... in one room. The wind sighed fitfully, and the rain fell in slow, soundless showers. Mr. Arnold felt the vacant oppression as well as Hugh. Mrs Elton having gone to Lady Emily's room, he proposed back gammon; and on that surpassing game, the gentlemen expended the best part of two dreary hours. When Hugh reached his room he was too tired and spiritless for any intellectual effort; and, instead of trying to decipher the ring, went to bed, and slept as if there were ...
— David Elginbrod • George MacDonald
... in undisguised disgust, and followed the surgeon. One, Two, and Three, invited to business by their illustrious friend, shook their thick heads at him knowingly, and answered with one accord, in one eloquent word—"Gammon!" ...
— Man and Wife • Wilkie Collins
... Wilson (not of St. James's), an industrious gentleman, who had a row with the congregation in respect to his marriage, and afterwards went away; the Rev. R. Close, a pretentious young man, who appeared to use much hair oil and think well of pious gammon; the Rev. E. M. David, a Welshman, who couldn't speak plainly enough for the congregation, and had to retire; and, lastly, the Rev. Bernard Robinson, who has been at St. Mary's about twelve months, and is evidently working satisfactorily in ...
— Our Churches and Chapels • Atticus
... brokenly, till Freckle, not entirely sober, shouted, "Good God, is it that gammon-head, Hugenot, who has ruined us? Fetch him out from his ancestry; let me see him, I say! Where is the man who took ...
— Bohemian Days - Three American Tales • Geo. Alfred Townsend
... "That's all gammon. When Violet wrote she told you you'd be expected to come out. Your old flame, Madame Max, will be there, and I tell you she has a very pretty idea of keeping to hounds. Only Dandolo has ...
— Phineas Redux • Anthony Trollope
... attempt, he drew three lines, one of which cut through a pig. When it was explained that this is not allowed, he protested that a pig was no use until you cut its throat. "Begorra, if it's bacon ye want without cutting your pig, it will be all gammon." We will not do the Irishman the injustice of suggesting that the miserable pun was intentional. However, he failed to solve the puzzle. Can ...
— Amusements in Mathematics • Henry Ernest Dudeney
... host, 'is a fast And there is naught in my larder but mutton. On Friday who would serve such repast, Except an unchristianlike glutton?' Says Pat, 'Cease your nonsense, I beg; What you tell me is nothing but gammon. Take my compliments down to the leg And bid it walk hither, a salmon.' ...
— The Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson • Edward A. Moore
... are said to be excellent. Morris Brown University is not a university at all, but does grammar and high-school work. It is officered and supported by colored people, all churches of the African Methodist Episcopal denomination subscribing funds for its maintenance. Gammon Theological Seminary is, I am informed, the one adequately endowed educational establishment for negroes in Atlanta. It would, of course, be a splendid thing if the best of these schools and colleges could ...
— American Adventures - A Second Trip 'Abroad at home' • Julian Street
... like reciprocal sentimentality. The odds are, that the old aunt is addicted to snuff, tracts, and the distribution of flannel, and before August, the fair Dorothea will be yearning for a sight of her adorer. You can easily gammon Anthony Whaup into a loan of that yacht of his which he makes such a boast of; and if you go prudently about it, and flatter him on the score of his steering, I haven't the least doubt that he will victual his hooker and give you a cruise ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, No. 382, October 1847 • Various
... me, Dick, the gammon worked. Half of them, at least, saw Tilly disappear in the air. They'd drunk my whiskey at Juneau and seen stranger sights, I'll warrant. Why should I not do this thing, I, who sold bad spirits corked in bottles? Some of the women shrieked. Everybody fell to whispering ...
— The God of His Fathers • Jack London
... that information valuble as anybody else may. A poor servant may have a bit of luck as well as a gentleman, mayn't he? Don't you be putting on your aughty looks, sir, and comin' the aristocrat over me. That's all gammon with me. I'm an Englishman, I am, ...
— The History of Pendennis • William Makepeace Thackeray
... "let him hang; he was born for a halter. I am come to save my own life. I only said that to gammon him." ...
— The Privateer's-Man - One hundred Years Ago • Frederick Marryat
... there. He had been with her so much that without him she now struck one as bereaved and forsaken. This was really better, no doubt, but superficially it moved—and I admit with the last inconsequence—one's pity. Mrs. Peck would doubtless have assured me that their separation was gammon: they didn't show together on deck and in the saloon, but they made it up elsewhere. The secret places on shipboard are not numerous; Mrs. Peck's "elsewhere" would have been vague, and I know not what licence ...
— The Patagonia • Henry James
... miser was all panic. His hands groped towards his waist, then suddenly flew upward beneath his moleskin pillow, and there lay clutching something out of sight. Meantime, to himself he incoherently mumbled:—"Confidence? Cant, gammon! Confidence? hum, bubble!—Confidence? fetch, ...
— The Confidence-Man • Herman Melville
... man who had L50,000 to leave behind could not be expected to play 'for love;' and so when Mr H—e proposed 'a pound a hit or treble a gammon,' the lawyer not only thought it reasonable, but, conscious of his power in the game, eagerly accepted the terms of playing. They played; but the lawyer was gammoned almost incessantly, till he lost L50. Then H—e proposed 'double or quits to L1000,'—thereupon the poor lawyer, believing ...
— The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims - Volume II (of II) • Andrew Steinmetz
... out real names the wolf would be more alarmed, I called by name on all the Raggets, and Short, and Noggin to come to my assistance, and looked round, pretending that I expected them to appear. The wolf, I thought, winked his wicked eye, as much as to say, "That's all gammon; don't suppose you can do an old soldier like me;" but I cannot say positively, as it was growing dark. Still he would not move, and I had no wish to get nearer his fangs. I continued shouting, and he went on howling, and a sweet concert we must have made, ...
— Dick Onslow - Among the Redskins • W.H.G. Kingston
... Tigg,—You always WERE full of your chaff, but you must have been drinking when you wrote all that cock-and-a-bull gammon. Thirty pounds! No; nor fifteen; nor as many pence. I never heard of the party you mention by the name of the Count of Monte Cristo; and as for the Prince, he's as likely to be setting out for Boulogne with an eagle as you are to start ...
— Old Friends - Essays in Epistolary Parody • Andrew Lang
... "Oh, gammon! Why not tell me at once that you are a winkle stall-keeper and be done with it? You can't tell a fish that another fish is a turnip—at least you can't and expect him to believe it. Own up, old chap. I know a man of birth when ...
— Cleek: the Man of the Forty Faces • Thomas W. Hanshew
... from the army in Piedmont; and having told him I was going thither, he asked me, whether I had a mind to buy any horses; that he had about two hundred to dispose of, and that he would sell them cheap. I began to be smoked like a gammon of bacon; and being quite wearied out, both with their tobacco and their questions, I asked my companion if he would play for a single pistole at backgammon, while our men were supping; it was not without great ceremony that he ...
— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre
... evident that the other passengers would have been considerably annoyed by the orators of this last group, had there not been stationed in each carriage an officer somewhat analogous to the Usher of the Black Rod, but whose designation on the railroad I found to be 'Comptroller of the Gammon.' No sooner did one of the long-faced gentlemen raise his note too high, or wag his jaw too long, than the 'Comptroller of the Gammon' gave him a whack over the snout with the butt end of his shillelagh; a snubber which never failed to stop his ...
— Railway Adventures and Anecdotes - extending over more than fifty years • Various
... "Bael gammon," replied the black; "he been give it I tell you, plenty;" whereupon Dugingi whispered a few words to his companions in his own dialect, and the whole sable conclave burst out into a loud laugh, and commenced an almost deafening jabbering ...
— Fern Vale (Volume 1) - or the Queensland Squatter • Colin Munro
... silver piece and rung it on his tin tobacco-box, then stowed it inside, and said, "Gammon! What ...
— Mary Anerley • R. D. Blackmore
... ye gammon," roared Tom Green, who rode on the second sledge in rear of that on which Davie Summers ...
— The World of Ice • Robert Michael Ballantyne
... on!" retorted Mr. Scraggs. "I fell into the hands of the Filly-steins oncet, and they put the trail of the serpent all over me. I run into the temple of them twin false gods, Mammon and Gammon, and I stood to draw one suit of sack-cloth and a four-mule ...
— Mr. Scraggs • Henry Wallace Phillips
... riding by him. Mr. Runciman replied that there was a great difference in people. "You may say that, Mr. Runciman. It's all changes. His lordship's father couldn't bear the sight of a hound nor a horse and saddle. Well;—I suppose I needn't gammon any furder. We'll just trot across to the ...
— The American Senator • Anthony Trollope
... called me a swindler. Well, I knew the man was in a passion, and I did not care. I only said, 'How dare you, Sir?' and I threw the piece of iron just to frighten him. Well, to be sure, the blackguard fell down like a bull, and I thought it was a humbug. I laughed and said, 'None of your gammon;' but he was dead. I think the thing must have struck something on the way, and so swerved against his head. I wished not to kill the fellow—I be damned ...
— Monsieur Violet • Frederick Marryat
... all gammon, Jue," he said: "you know very well your father doesn't care to have any one stay with you—it's too much bother. You'll have quite enough of me while I am ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Vol. XV., No. 85. January, 1875. • Various
... a addle-headed old creetur!' exclaimed Sam irritably; 'Old Baileys, and Solvent Courts, and alleybis, and ev'ry species o' gammon alvays a-runnin' through his brain. You'd better get your out o' door clothes on, and come to town about this bisness, than stand a-preachin' there about wot you don't understand ...
— The Pickwick Papers • Charles Dickens
... "All gammon. You needn't fancy he's doing this to compliment you, old man. Game and that lot are awfully down on him about it. They'd like to make up the team entirely of Parretts, but it seems they can't do without us for ...
— The Willoughby Captains • Talbot Baines Reed
... "Gammon! I know where he is! Law bless you!—don't blush. I've been there myself a dozen times. We were talking about quod, Lady Thrum. Were ...
— Men's Wives • William Makepeace Thackeray
... only opponents to the plan were Mrs. Sumfit, a kindly, humble relative of the farmer's, widowed out of Sussex, very loving and fat; the cook to the household, whose waist was dimly indicated by her apron-string; and, to aid her outcries, the silently-protesting Master Gammon, an old man with the cast of eye of an antediluvian lizard, the slowest old man of his time—a sort of foreman of the farm before Robert had come to take matters in hand, and thrust both him and his master into the background. Master Gammon remarked emphatically, once and for all, ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... or two before the steamer started he made a revelation. "This is all gammon, Peacocke," he said, when ...
— Dr. Wortle's School • Anthony Trollope
... all gammon. She don't mean to have him, Mr. Newton. You may take my word for that. You go in and ask her if she do. A pretty thing indeed! I can't invite my friend, Mr. Newton, to eat a bit of dinner, and let him walk out with my Polly, but you must interfere. If you had her to-morrow ...
— Ralph the Heir • Anthony Trollope
... the belief that everything is older than anybody knows of, I am rather startled by "Rowley Powley" not being as old as myself. I remember seeing mentioned somewhere, without any reference to this chorus, that rowley powley is a name for a plump fowl, of which both "gammon and spinach" are posthumous connexions. I cannot help thinking that this may be a clue to some prior occurrence of the chorus, with or without {75} the song. If "derry down," which has been said to be druidical, were ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 35, June 29, 1850 • Various
... "Gammon!" replied Mr. Moulder, who knew all the bearings of a commercial man thoroughly, and could have put one together if he were only supplied with a little bit—say the mouth, as Professor Owen always does with the Dodoes. Mr. Moulder ...
— Orley Farm • Anthony Trollope
... sir, so you do! and it was only my gammon. But you do wish you was a swaddy now, and wore a red coat instead ...
— Middy and Ensign • G. Manville Fenn
... life, stay with us—stay for ever. Marry Juana with my free consent. I ask not for wealth. Mine is sufficient for you both.' The cornet protested that the honor was one never contemplated by him—that it was too great—that—. But, of course, reader, you know that 'gammon' flourishes in Peru, amongst the silver mines, as well as in some more boreal lands that produce little better than copper and tin. 'Tin,' however, has its uses. The delighted Senora overruled all objections, ...
— Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers • Thomas De Quincey
... Gammon! We know we're a tremendous bore. We're a plain man, and don't like all this fuss; Accept our game, but don't make game of us. ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, Number 358, August 1845 • Various
... to float just round my nose! It has a strong scent, the damned stuff! (The guests are heard driving off.) They're off at last. Oh Lord! Merciful Nicholas! There they go, binding themselves and gulling one another. And it's all gammon! ...
— Redemption and Two Other Plays • Leo Tolstoy et al
... too quickly. And when I have a bloater for my breakfast—I'm partial to a bloater—it's black outside, as if it was done in the cinders; and then inside—well, I like them done all through, like any other man. Then I can't get her to get me gammon rashers. She will get these little tiddy rashers, with little white bones in them. Why, while you're cutting them out the bacon gets cold. You may think I'm fussy ... fiddly with my food. I'm not, ...
— Nocturne • Frank Swinnerton
... a-wooing go, Heigho, says Rowley; Whether his mother would let him or no: With a rowley, powley, gammon and spinach. Heigho, says ...
— The Little Mother Goose • Anonymous
... world; but in this they could not see how either their pinnaces should live in that sea, without being eaten up in that storm, or they themselves able to endure so long time, with so slender provision as they had, viz., only one gammon of bacon and thirty pounds of ...
— Sir Francis Drake Revived • Philip Nichols
... himself declared that he was ashamed to walk among his future constituents, so conspicuous had his name become. Grimes saw it, and was dismayed. At first, Grimes ridiculed the cry with all his publican's wit. "Unless he mean to drown hisself in the Reach, it's hard to say what he do mean by all that gammon about the River Bank," said Grimes, as he canvassed for the other Liberal candidate. But, after a while, Grimes was driven to confess that Mr Scruby knew what he was about. "He is a sharp 'un, that he is," said Grimes in the inside bar of the "Handsome Man;" and he almost regretted that ...
— Can You Forgive Her? • Anthony Trollope
... My parents are all dead, and the devil a penny they have left me, but a small pension, and that buys me thirty meals a-day and ten bevers,—a small trifle to suffice nature. I come [84] of a royal pedigree: my father was a Gammon of Bacon, my mother was a Hogshead of Claret-wine; my godfathers were these, Peter Pickled-herring and Martin Martlemas-beef; but my godmother, O, she was an ancient gentlewoman; her name was Margery March-beer. Now, Faustus, thou hast heard ...
— Dr. Faustus • Christopher Marlowe
... takes off all his men wins the game:—a single game (a "hit") if his adversary has begun bearing; a double game (a "gammon") if the adversary has not borne a man; and a triple game (a "backgammon") if, at the time the winner bears his last man, his adversary, not having borne a man, has one in the winner's inner table, or has a man up. When a series of games is played, the winner of a hit ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 - "Austria, Lower" to "Bacon" • Various |
