Mind Your Language | 25 January 2003

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  Mind Your Language | 25 January 2003

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Alexander Larman

What happened to the Rishi Sunak I knew at school?

But a more famous source for the exclamation cushy or cusha is ‘The High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire, 1571’ by Jean Ingelow. In it the mayor climbs the tower of Boston church to warn the people of floods by the ringing of ‘The Brides of Enderby’. If that is a tune, its rendition is foreign to English bellringing, which prefers mathematical changes.

The universal familiarity of Jean Ingelow’s poem is reflected in a passing reference in a short story by Kipling called ‘My Son’s Wife’. In the poem ‘my sonne’s faire wife, Elizabeth’ is forever ‘