An A - Z of Victorian Crime and Culture - N is for...



N is for - Newgate knockers. I thought I would start the day with something amusing. For those of you with a smutty mind, you will be disappointed to discover that they are actually the full and shaped sideburns in fashionable males, often waxed or greased back over the ears. Samson Shepherd displays a marvellous pair on the cover of Jack Ketch's Puppets...

 N is for - Nark - a grass or police informer - a copper's nark. Not the sort of reputation you want to survive in Victorian England.

 N is for - Neddy - a short cosh, either solid or a weighted sack or bag, favoured by criminals as an enforcer. Is made into a clinical weapon in book 3, as you will discover, later this year.

 N is for - 'Nose in the manger' - a common complaint for most blue light responders, old and new... to eat fast and eagerly...or to eat whilst working.

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