We originally encountered the story of Daft Sammy via his portrait in a Devon antiques shop. He was a nineteenth century Derbyshire character, adept at extracting tips from tourists in Castleton. The portrait was only £10 but we didn’t buy it. A sketch of Daft Sammy isn’t the kind of thing even we would hang on the wall.
Returning from the church, we met with one of the celebrities of Castleton, Sammy Scutt, better known by the sobriquet of “Daft Sammy," the castle guide, an individual who appears to be possessed with a shrewd kind of lunacy, and to be endowed moreover with the power of ubiquity , dwelling everywhere and yet abiding nowhere. No one ever visits Castleton without making the acquaintance of our erratic friend; let them enter the place from whichever direction they may, they are sure to encounter Sammy, who, darting from some unseen corner, pounces upon them like a hawk descending upon its prey.
He has, or imagines himself to have, a legitimate right to levy blackmail upon all comers, and this right he exercises with rigid impartiality and religious exactitude, no one ever escaping him . Once a visitor comes within the range of his keen grey eye, and he is doomed ; there is only one chance of escape, the tender of a few coppers or a "little sixpence;" his claims thus satisfied he is at liberty to roam about without further interference. Sammy knows everything and everybody in and about Castleton , he is acquainted with all the most convenient and least dangerous paths, can point out the particular spots whence the best views are to be obtained , and shew you everything that is worth seeing.
On Foot Through The Peak – James Croston (1868)
It sounds as if Sammy was not so daft, but I’m sure we’d benefit today were we to adopt similarly blunt nicknames for public characters. Maybe UK media coverage of the recent pandemic would have steered a more rational course if Matt Hancock had been widely known as Daft Matt.
Another possibility which needs no explanation would be Daft Harry. There are many more examples though. Maybe too many, especially as Daft Sammy was probably smarter than any of them.
On Foot Through The Peak – James Croston (1868)
It sounds as if Sammy was not so daft, but I’m sure we’d benefit today were we to adopt similarly blunt nicknames for public characters. Maybe UK media coverage of the recent pandemic would have steered a more rational course if Matt Hancock had been widely known as Daft Matt.
Another possibility which needs no explanation would be Daft Harry. There are many more examples though. Maybe too many, especially as Daft Sammy was probably smarter than any of them.
6 comments:
"dwelling everywhere and yet abiding nowhere": a lovely phrase. Is it from the Bible?
That must be where the Cheddar(?) car park idea came from. One day people noticed that the car park was unattended. Enquiries revealed that the council had never had an attendant there and that the - unidentified - entrepreneur who had taken the money for ten years or so was "self-employed". We can only presume that he'd decided that he had enough and could afford to retire!
Originally "daft" meant that someone was gentle, soft, and easy-going. Sammy was probably feigning something like that, to good effect. Hancock was trying to look competent, but unable to hide the truth.
It got me thinking about the phrase "daft as a brush". I wonder where that came from. Utilitarian things, brushes, and a good clothes-brush is a fine thing.
It doesn't matter, sigh.
If we settle upon some inoffensive adjective as a marker of our disrespect then some pecksniff activist will convert that word into an offensive marker indicating that any speaker must be showing sexism/genderism/racism/ableism/white privilege or whatever.
Mind you, 'Daft Woke' is appealing.
@Sam: do you happen to know when the meaning changed?
dearieme - it is a lovely phrase but I've no idea where it comes from. It almost sounds like something a judge might have said about a likeable miscreant.
Jannie - that's enterprise plus knowing how slow councils can be to cotton on.
Sam - yes that's the original meaning but I don't know when it changed although I've come across the older meaning in general reading. Perhaps its meaning was regional, because Dickens had a Yorkshire character in Nicholas Nickleby use it to mean something like crazy.
DJ - 'Daft Woke' it is then.
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