Beat Up His Quarters

While the British tend to make greater use of the expression “beat up his quarters” it’s an interesting phrase that means the speaker has either hunted down where someone lives or who has decided to visit without notice, thereby taking the person to be visited by surprise.  It has also been used colloquially by some in the military to mean an unexpected attack on the enemy in his camp.

In 1855, Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796 – 1865) published a book entitled, “Nature and Human Nature.”  In Chapter 6 entitled, “The Wounds of the Heart” the following exchange between characters is found:

“‘Well,” said he, ‘Peter, I suppose we musn’t let the man perish after all; but I wish he hadn’t sent for me, especially just now, for I want to have a long talk with Mr Slick.’

“And he and father set off immediately through the woods.”

“Suppose we beat up his quarters,” said I, “Jessie. I should like to see his house and collection, amazingly.”

“Oh,” said she, “so should I, above all things; but I wouldn’t ask him for the world. He’ll do it for you, I know he will; for he says you are a man after his own heart. You study nature so; and I don’t know what all, he said of you.”

The expression was indeed part of everyday English as it appeared in a letter to Thomas Carlyle on March 14, 1855 according to “The Collected Letters, Volume 29” wherein the following paragraph is found:

He has got Books &c around him; got the little Sailor Boy1 home; and appears to take to his quarters. He is little more than a mile2 from me: very often, in my last walk (whh is an evening or rather a night one), about 10 o’clock, I beat up his quarters; and smoke a pipe with him. He is as quiet, and [words missing] meant or ought. Get Isabella or young Jamie to write me, as soon as possible, the Account I want;—and add some other “account,” namely, of what you are doing at Scotsbrig, how you all are &c &c: of which I seldom hear enough in late times. Jamie, I suppose, is gone back to Glasgow? Make my kind regards to Isabella; I hope (and indeed believe) the Spring weather will prove beneficial to her; and to the rest of us that have too thin a skin!

In 1836, James Kirke Paulding (1778-1860) published a book entitled, “The Book Of Saint Nicholas.”  The following passage is found in the book:

It was a rude, romantic spot, distant from the high road, which, however, could be seen winding up the hill about three miles off.  His nearest neighbours were at the same distance, and he seldom saw company except at night, when the fox and the weasel sometimes beat up his quarters, and caused a horrible cackling among the poultry.

“The Expedition of Humphry Clinker” by Tobias Smollett (1721 – 1771) was published in 1771.  One of the letters included in the book was an exchange of letters between Dr. Richard Lewis and Matt Ramble wherein Matt has this to say about Sir Thomas Bullford whom he had met while in Italy:

He is very good-humoured, talks much, and laughs without ceasing. I am told that all the use he makes of his understanding at present, is to excite mirth, by exhibiting his guests in ludicrous attitudes. I know not how far we may furnish him with entertainment of this kind, but I am resolved to beat up his quarters, partly with a view to laugh with the knight himself, and partly to pay my respects to his lady, a good-natured sensible woman, with whom he lives upon very easy terms, although she has not had the good fortune to bring him an heir to his estate.

And the “Whole Works of Walter Moyle, esq.” published in 1727 contains this interesting tidbit in poem form:

Meanwhile the foe beat up his quarters,
And storm’d the outworks of his fortress ;
And, as another of the fame Degree and party.

The phrase seems to have had its heyday in the 1700s and 1800s and then fell off in popularity although it can be found very occasionally in newspaper stories in the early half of the 1900s and in some social circles — usually military — from time to time.

Kettle Of Fish

In Captain Francis Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue published in 1811, he defined the phrase “kettle of fish” as meaning:

When a person has perplexed his affairs in general, or any particular business, he is said to have made a fine kettle of fish of  it.

Before this, however, the phrase was very much in use by various authors.  In Salmagundi, the  1807 satirical work by Washington Irving, his brother William Irving and James Kirke Paulding we find the following:

The doctor … has employed himself … in stewing up many a woful kettle of fish.

For those who enjoy trivia,  Salmagundi is best remembered for popularizing the sobriquet Gotham for New York City which has endured over the generations through to modern times.

Joseph Andrews — or The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams — was the first full-length novel by English author and magistrate Henry Fielding.  It was published in 1742 and told the story of a good-natured footman’s adventures on the road home from London with his friend and mentor, the absent-minded parson Abraham Adams. In the novel, Fielding wrote:

Here’s a pretty kettle of fish,’ cries Mrs. Tow-wouse.

The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling also written by Fielding was published in 1749 and in that novel he wrote:

Fine doings at my house! A rare kettle of fish I have discovered at last.

The Random House and Webster dictionaries give the origin of the phrase “kettle of fish” to England in 1735 however there is no source given as to where this reference can be found.