Jacobites, Big Balls and Canny Tales

Last night I watched Dr Bendor Grosvenor searching for the lost portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie.  Bendor came over quite well in this programme.  He rode his motorbike to the various locations he was searching, which always helps to make a chap likeable.

Watching the programme I was struck by a couple of things.  I have always lived in old Jacobite areas; Northumberland, Manchester and Derbyshire.  Perhaps it is simply that, like a Jacobite, I couldn't contemplate going south of Derby.  In Northumberland there is the tragic adventure of Charles Radcliffe, the Earl of Derwentwater; here there are tales of Scotsmen furtively travelling through the hills after the retreat was sounded.

Secondly, Bendor managed to say that while Bonnie Prince Charlie was in Edinburgh, "balls were held in his honour".  Maybe it was just the bike, but I thought that Bendor was referring to the AC/DC classic "I've Got Big Balls".  (it's my belief that my big balls should be held every night).  Miss and Master Aimson couldn't believe that track when they first heard it.  When it was released the track was a double entente, punning on balls (as fancy dances) and balls (as in anatomy).  By the time Miss and Master Aimson heard it, it was a single entente, as balls is no longer used in the fancy dance context.  English children nowadays have heard of proms, not balls. 

At the time they heard it the Labour party were holding their leadership election, and Master Aimson wanted Ed Balls to win, so that Labour's campaign music could be "We've got Ed Balls, we've got Ed Balls, we've got the Eddest balls of them all".  Labour really missed a trick there.

Yesterday I bought this at the Saturday Bazaar, or is that the Saturday Bizarre:

A Canny Book