[Ads-l] "Lord love a duck!" antedated (?) to 1889

[Stephen Goranson]

"What's the matter with Reuter [sic] in London? I ask this question because the great controller of the wires electrical, tells the public, of whom I am a humble and obscure member, that the Easter Holidays will be continued till Tuesday. Lord love a duck! Here is pabulum for mental sustenance. what next? shall we be cabled to the effect that Her Majesty's cat has been safely delivered of a litter of kittens?...."

The Lantern (Cape Town, South Africa), Sat. April 27, 1889; pg. 7; col. 2, Issue 606. [19th C. UK Per.]


Many subsequent uses of Lord/Lor'/Law/Oh/__ love a duck are associated with London (and some more specifically either mentioning being on The Strand or appearing in The Strand magazine).


Stephen Goranson

http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/


PS [?]

"Warning to Young Ladies--Do not too soon pronounce your lover a duck, lest you should afterwards discover him to be a goose."

1853 Punch's Almanack for 1853 col. 1.




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