Q: "penny-fort" (not in OED): Something new, or just a "pinafore"?

[Bonnie Taylor-Blake]

On Sun, Aug 18, 2013 at 1:34 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> Aha!! Perhaps.  In context, I was imagining a musical instrument, to
> go with "jews-harps", but hadn't thought of "pianofortes".  However,
> I was imagining something small.  And does one thrum or drum or hum
> on a pianoforte?
>
> Google didn't have anything connecting "penny-fort" with
> "pinafore".  Now I find that for "penny-fort" and "pianoforte" ... it
> doesn't have anything either.  :-(

I now see that the index for the 1920 edition of _The Old Farmer and
His Almanack_ has "pianofortes" appearing on p. 179; this page number
corresponds to the page on which the italicized "penny-forts" appears.
 Not sure that helps nail down for sure the significance of "penny
forts" in that (supposed) 1821 text, but there you go.

(The 1920 edition is viewable via Google Books.)

-- Bonnie

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