According to this Telegraph article Molly was also the most common name for both cats and dogs last year (Sadly Tiddles doesn’t get a look in)
So if a house has a pet called Molly does that make it a Molly House?
A Molly House is an 18th Century term for a meeting house/brothel for gay men. One of the most famous, or perhaps notorious, of which was run by Margaret (aka Mother)Clap in Holborn. In 1726 the local constabulary raided the house and Mother Clap was sentenced to the stocks. It is believed that she died of the injuries sustained during this time – being sentenced to the stocks was often a lingering death sentence - three of her patrons were hanged at Tyburn.
Or perhaps it just makes a house with a cat or dog called Molly, Perhaps having four cats makes this a cat house…
Interestingly Mother Clap does not seem to have given rise to the slang term for gonorrhoea though; that is believed to come from “clapier”, the Old French word for brothel.
8 comments:
Oh, poor Mother Clap. If it had been modern times she would have gotten a tell all book deal and movie out of her whoring adventures, ala Heidi Fleiss. She'd have been a national celebrity, for sure! Can you imagine how much she could have gotten paid just by revealing her clientele list?
Where was the Star, The Globe, And The National Enquirer, when Mother Clap needed them the most?
Ah but there she was born and a half centuries too early! There is a fascinating looking book called Mother Clap's Molly House.. I night have to get hold of a copy
Mrs. tyger and myself are expecting another bundle of noise and vomit in June.
Possibly a girl - scan was 70% conclusive.
Obviously we're thinking of Russian names (Mrs. tyger is Russian), and at the moment Anoushka is 1st choice. Our boy is called Danilo - which I doubt is in the top 100.
Congratulations Tyger! Anoushka is a very nice choice of name. For what it's worth meither my name or the not-wife's is in the top 100 either!
Does your cat house with four cats serve Chateau Lafont Fourcat Bordeaux?
(Amazingly, almost 40 years ago, a wine from that winery was sold here in the US at prices college students could afford. Ah, memories...)
LOL Steve.. Hmm,, when I was in my teens Blue Nun and the like were seen as the acme of god wine drinking.. how things have changed over the last 25 years!
So Australia own Olivia* (Newton John) could never be confused with a Molly.
* well sorta born in the UK...
LOL Pete, not in her Grease get up.. I wonder how she looks nowadays??
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