the fevvers on a frush's froat

[Jonathan Lighter]

This shibboleth of stereotyped Cockney speech is in Partridge's _Dictionary
of Catch Phrases_ without a date, but it evidently goes back to 1918 at
least:

1978 F. A. J. Taylor _The Bottom the Barrel_ (London: Regency) 77:  I got
back at the Cockneys as I called all the lads from London....[w]ith their,
"I sawrim getting of of a bes." Also I guyed their difficulty with the sound
"th." We were "ver firty fird division." One story went round that the
battalion carpenter...was reputed to say, on one occasion, "Vers firty free
farsand fevvers on a frushes [sic] froat."

Taylor, who was about twenty in 1918, was from Manchester.

JL

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