by Tim Symonds
Mortuus. Deceased.
Ohne Hast, aber ohne Rast. Without haste, but without rest. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Opera seria. Italian musical term for the noble and “serious” style of Italian opera predominant in Europe from the 1710s to c. 1770.
Politique de bascule. Used here to describe how a lesser power tries to trade off two or more Great Powers to gain an advantage. Bascule is a French term for seesaw and balance.
Puggried sun-hat. Broad brimmed felt hat with a muslin wrapped round it and trailing down the back.
Princes Islands: during the Byzantine period, princes and other royalty were exiled on the islands. Members of the Ottoman sultans’ family were later exiled there too, giving the islands their present name. The islands were captured by the Ottoman fleet during the siege of Constantinople in 1453. During the nineteenth century, the islands became a popular resort for Istanbul’s wealthier inhabitants.
Race-built ships. In 1570 with England threatened by Spain, Sir John Hawkins made important improvements in ship construction and rigging. They proved decisive against the Spanish Armada. The ships were ‘race-built’, longer and with fore- and aft-castle greatly reduced in size. They were described as having “the head of a cod and the tail of a mackerel”.
Rahat loukoum. Turkish Delight. See ‘Sherbet & Spice’ in ‘Publications’.
Raki. A traditional Turkish alcoholic drink produced from different fruits in differing regions, mainly grapes, figs and plums. In 1630, the famous Turkish traveller Evliya Çelebi listed the artisans of Istanbul in the first volume of his book on his voyages, recording the small wine shops and the kinds of wine they sold and also mentioned the taverns that sold raki, like raki wine, banana raki, mustard raki, linden raki, cinnomon raki, clove raki, pomegranate raki, aniseed raki.
Scatter-gun with S.S.G. Special Small Game. Archaic British designation for a size of buck shot. A potent, short range (40 yds extreme max.) hunting load for four-legged game.
Sherry Cobbler. The most popular drink in America around 1888, according to David Wondrich’s Imbibe!, but also a hit elsewhere in the world. The key to any cobbler is crushed ice, sugar, and a heaping of fresh fruit such as strawberries for the garnish. The cobbler style of cocktails can be made with any base, not just sherry, for example brandy or whiskey. The Cobbler spawned a number of similar wine cobblers made with a variety of wines of the time which are now for the most part extinct.
Silks. Heavy silks such as kemha (brocade), kadife (velvet), çatma (brocaded velvet), seraser (a precious silk fabric woven with threads of gold and silver), diba (a silk brocade), satin, and silk lampas, lighter silks such as taffeta, canfes (fine taffeta), and vala (a gauze like fabric). By the late 19th Century the Ottoman Empire was producing only inferior quality silks. Imports from Europe were preferred.
Simpson’s Grand Cigar Divan. After a modest start in 1828 as a smoking room and then a coffee house, Simpson’s Restaurant achieved fame around 1850 for its traditional English food, particularly roast meats.
Snipers. This particularly frightening element in warfare advanced as rifles, cartridges and telescopic sights develop in later Victorian times. By World War 11 and through the Korean War, Vietnam, Lebanon, Iraq etc. military snipers honed their ‘art’, delivering a single deadly shot from up to 11/2 miles (over 2.4 kilometres).
Spider phaeton. A carriage of American origin and made for gentlemen drivers, a very high carriage of light construction with a covered seat in front and a footman’s seat behind.
Stambouline. A rather unattractive frock coat for formal occasions worn by Turkish officials. Copied from Victorian era European fashions.
Syenite. Coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock. Somewhat like granite but with the quartz either absent or present in relatively small amounts.
Telegrams of support. The Sultan showed Holmes and Watson a pile of telegrams supportive of his rule. In 1916, one of Tsar Nicholas’s adulatory Ministers, Protopopoff, arranged for bogus telegrams to be dispatched in similar fashion to the German-born Empress, convincing her the Russian Army and peasantry were utterly loyal. Less than a year later the Romanov Dynasty fell.
Tigers. Either Holmes was being amusing or he did not know there are no tigers in Africa (except in the occasional zoo).
‘The toad beneath the harrow.’ A proverbial saying for a sufferer, dating back to the 13th Century. A harrow is a heavy frame with spikes dragged across a field by horses or a tractor to cultivate the soil. Clearly a toad beneath it would not survive very long.
Tophane. A neighbourhood in the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul, Turkey, taking its name from the Gun Foundry. It has a coastline with the Bosphorus. In the Ottoman era it was the city’s oldest industrial zone.
Tussie-Mussie. From Queen Victoria’s time when the small bouquets became a popular fashion accessory. Tussie-mussies include well-known floral symbolism from the language of flowers (e.g. Acacia blossom = hidden love), and therefore could be used to send a message to the recipient.
Verd-antique. Serpentinite breccia, popular since ancient times as a decorative facing stone. Dark, dull green, white-mottled (or white-veined) serpentine, mixed with calcite, dolomite, or magnesite, which takes a high polish.
Wardian case. Early type of terrarium, a sealed protective glass container for plants. Used in in the 19th century in protecting plants imported to Europe from overseas, most of which previously died from exposure on long sea journeys. Invented by Dr. Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward in about 1829.
Wideawake. A type of hat with a broad brim made of black or brown felt. Rembrandt wore a style of wideawake in his 1632 self-portrait. Also known as a Quaker hat.
Yataghan. Type of Ottoman knife or short sabre used from the mid-16th to late 19th centuries.
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