Blue Pig. An inn sign, corrupted from the “Blue Boar.”
Blue Stocking. From the famous club of literary ladies formed by Mrs Montague in 1840, at which Benjamin Stillingfleet, who habitually wore blue stockings, was a regular visitor. Blue stockings, therefore, became the recognised badge of membership. There was, however, such a club of ladies and gentlemen at Venice as far back as 1400, called Della Calza, from the colour of stockings worn.
Blunderbuss. A corruption of the Dutch donderbus, “thunder tube.”
Board of Green Cloth. The steward of the Royal Household presides over this so called court, which has a green cover on its table.
Boar’s Head. The sign of the ancient tavern in Eastcheap immortalised by Shakespeare. This, like all others of the same name, was derived from the heraldic device of the Gordons, the earliest of whom slew a boar that had long been a terror of the forest.
Bob Apple. A very old boyish pastime. Standing on tiptoe, with their hands behind them, they tried to catch in their mouths an apple as it swung to and fro at the end of a piece of string suspended from the ceiling. A variant of the same game consisted in lying across a form and plunging their heads into a large tub of water, at the bottom of which was the apple.
Bobby. The nickname of a policeman, after Sir Robert Peel, to whom the introduction of the modern police system was due.
Bobs. The popular nickname of Lord Roberts during the South African War. He is also called “Lord Bobs.”
Boer. Expresses the Dutch for a farmer. Synonymous with the English “boor,” an uncultivated fellow, a tiller of the soil.
Bogtrotter. An Irishman, from the ease with which he makes his way across the native bogs, in a manner astonishing to a stranger.