The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #173790   Message #4215017
Posted By: GUEST,Steve Shaw
09-Jan-25 - 05:26 PM
Thread Name: Spot the anachronism
Subject: RE: Spot the anachronism
From the song Kilkelly:

Kilkelly, Ireland, 18 and 92, my dear brother John
I'm sorry that I didn't write sooner to tell you that father passed on.
He was living with Brigid, she says he was cheerful
And healthy right down to the end.
Ah, you should have seen him play with
The grandchildren of Pat McNamara, your friend.
And we buried him alongside of mother,
Down at the Kilkelly churchyard.
He was a strong and a feisty old man,
Considering his life was so hard.


The word "feisty" was not recorded as being in use until 1896.

The Cedar of Lebanon was unknown in the UK until 1639, and even then it was decades before it achieved the typical magisterial aspect of mature specimens. It's amusing to try to spot it in "period dramas" set in Tudor times or even earlier. Buddleias were unknown in the UK until the 1890s, so take a dim view of sightings of it in costume dramas set earlier than the late-Victorian period. :-) I can't recall specific examples but I've spotted both!