A splinter of steel

. . . if you think it’s agony to run hobbling with a splinter of steel buried in your calf muscle, you’re right, but it’s wonderful what you can do when Snider slugs are buzzing about your ears.



Flashman on the March, p.267, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2005.


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A jaw like a pike

There were four of the Bootnecks⁸ under a sergeant with a jaw like a pike, all very trim with their Sniders slung . . .


8. A Bootneck or Leatherneck is a Royal Marine, supposedly so-called from the leather tab securing the uniform collar in the nineteenth century, or possibly from the leather neck-stock. Leatherneck was adopted as a nickname for the U.S. Marines early in the twentieth century. Royal Marines were also known as Jollies, which according to Eric Partridge was once the nickname of the London Trained Bands.



Flashman on the March, p.12, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2005.


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