Bugger's grips

[Laurence Horn]

>The quaint expression 'bugger's grips' apparently means "long
>side-whiskers" or "muttonchops" or "full sideburns" ... apparently regarded
>as potential 'hand-stirrups' for use during buggery/sodomy (i.e., during an
>'alternative sex act').
>
>This charming nomenclature is employed -- apparently with a 'straight face'
>-- by Simon Winchester in "The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder,
>Insanity, and the Making of the _Oxford English Dictionary_" (Harper,
>1998): p. 177 in the paperback:
>
>"... their beards -- in both cases white, long, and nicely swallow-tailed
>-- with thick moustaches, sideburns, and ample buggers' grips." [describing
>the similar whiskers of Drs. Minor and Murray]
>
>Certainly any expression which appears in a (sort of) serious book about
>the OED must be accessible by reference to the OED itself?

If the last query is an actual rather than rhetorical question, the
answer is that as far as I can tell, the on-line OED doesn't contain
any references to bugger's grips within the "bugger" entry (where you
WILL find "bugger-all").  The only relevant item turned up by google
is this entry from a self-styled web "profanisaurus":

face fannies n. Bugger's grips; sideburns. As sported by 'Rocket' Ron
Haslam, Sir Rhodes Boyson and the singer out of Supergrass.

I'm not familiar with these gentlemen.

larry