I got thinking of some old stuff that we learned in a legal history class that I took.

1.  Why is the document that is used to transfer real estate called a "deed", when that word usually is used to refer to an act someone does, like the Boy Scout who does his good deed for the day?  It's because of the way land was transferred in old England, before the common person could read and write.  The buyer and seller would meet on the subject land, and each would be accompanied by his youngest son, who had to be at least 8 years old.  Then then buyer and seller would each cut a stout switch from a tree on the land, and then beat his respective kid to within an inch of his life.  That way, the kids would remember the day that one father sold the land, and the other bought it.  That was the "deed of transfer".  Pity the poor kid whose father was a real estate developer.

2.  What is the rule of thumb and arms length?  That was the law in old England that said you could discipline your wife with a stick no bigger around than your thumb, nor longer than your arm.  Anything bigger was considered beyond the bounds of normal wifely discipline.

3.  When a woman in old England killed her child, why did they hang the husband?  Because he failed in his duty to control his wife.

No kidding - these were the way the Brits did things back eons ago.

Mick - is that why you had so many wives? <g>.

Mick -Cute story.

I never did get whacked in school - I feared my father too much, and knew what I would have gotten at home would have been far worse than any teacher could put out.

I had a different answer for #2 "rule of thumb"

- in the old days when the miller (or whoever)  would fill your flour sack ( or whatever) he would hold on to the top of the bag, fill until it reached his thumb-  in other words using the thumb as a ruler.  

seems to fit the current meaning of the term a little better

I have found there are often several possible etymologies for old sayings, etc.  



English common law pretty interesting sometimes -

my favorite is when the pretty young widow got caught in adultery - she would lose title to her late husband's property unless she rode into court on a black ram and recited :

"Here I am,
Riding upon a black ram,
Like a sleeper as I am;
And for my crincum crancum
Have lost my bincum bancum,
And for my tail's game
Have done this worldly shame;
Therefore I pray you, Mr Steward,
Let me have my land again."



p.s. looks like the site censors change " 'ho " to "sleeper"  

If you read about the actual laws read Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England

Ha! Mick if you had done that sort of thing in this day and age, your face would have been plastered all over the TV and newspaper, probably making national news. Maybe some time in juvenile home for sure.  Earlier this year in Oregon you might remember, they suspended this grade school kid from school just because he brought the little 3 inch plastic rifle from his GI Joe toy. Made all the news.

stinger wrote on 12/28/10 at 00:30:28:

that's true stinger but that was then,never heard of a school shooting.
Not in England anyway, a few months later my Dad did get my gun back. it was just a little Webley Mk 11 , 450 FPS.
of course I had to make many promises.

Must still be lots of horse stables at inns, right?

Jerry Eichenberger wrote on 12/28/10 at 13:46:51:

In '82 when I went for a 5 weeks vacation on one of the Inns I stopped at.  My motorcycle was parked in the stables.