lazy and lousy... and long
A member of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Literary Society discussion group posted today that they were reading a book (it was A.S. Byatt's Unruly Times: Wordsworth and Coleridge in their Time, published in 1997) in which there was mention of "Lazy, lousy Liverpool" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge to describe travel by coach back in 1812. And wouldn't it be interesting if the children who had chanted "Lazy, lousy Lizy Jane" around Eliza Jane in her unfortunate childhood (see Little Town on the Prairie, Chapter 15, "The School Board's Visit") were actually copying a much earlier catch-phrase? Of course it would!

I always thought the reference was to "Long, lazy, lousy Lewisham" (I didn't know about the Coleridge one) - the appropriately-shaped village within the larger London borough of Lewisham, which had been a horribly poor area in the eighteenth century (I haven't a clue about today).

"Long, lazy, lousy Lewisham" can be found in provincial glossaries prior to Coleridge's use of it to describe Liverpool. Understandably, too, it was said to be the alliteration of the proverb - rather than the truth of it - that guaranteed its preservation. It's certainly been preserved to the present time, thanks to the "Little House" books!

HERE is an interesting article by Ann Weller Dahl about the use of language in the "Little House" books. Dahl is author of the "'Little House' Reading Guides" published by the Calvert School.
- posted by pioneergirl at 11:59 PM