NOSTALGIA buff Derek Chisnall, in researching the origins of some of our more familiar (though often obscure sounding) ancient phrases has come up with the following gems.

The saying 'hair of the dog' (often expressed in inducing an over-indulgent elbow-bender to cure his overnight hangover with a follow-up shot of alcohol) comes from an old belief that a bite from a mad dog could be cured by sticking a hair from the dog's tail into the wound.

'Paying through the nose', adds Derek, a 70-year-old retired welder from Surrey Street, Parr, goes back to the 9th-century when the conquering Danes introduced a 'nose tax' (don't ask me!). Non-payers had their noses slit as punishment.

The saying 'sent to Coventry' apparently has Cromwellian origins. Coventry folk had such a dislike of the Roundheads stationed there, Derek discovers, that they shunned them. It was taboo for any woman to be seen speaking to the soldiers. So, perhaps understandably, the troops hated being sent to Coventry.

The gung-ho expression 'son of a gun' is said to go back centuries to a time when women were allowed to live aboard naval ships as a 'comfort concession' to the crew. When any of them was due to give birth, a canvas screen was erected between two cannons as she went into labour. And if the woman was unmarried (and presumably the father unnamed) the child was duly registered as 'Son of a Gun'.

We're all familiar with the 'warts and all' phrase which arose from an utterance by Oliver Cromwell. When having his portrait painted he insisted that the artist should "show roughness, pimples and warts and all".

Which brings us seamlessly to a query from Ray Platt of Litherland Crescent, Haresfinch, who is curious to know how the saying 'Life of Riley' - meaning to have a whale of a time - came into being.

"Who was this particular Riley?" asks Ray, whose interest was prompted when daughter Lyndsey used the expression in reporting back on the good time she had experienced on holiday.

IF you have an answer to Ray's puzzle (or can perhaps provide the origins of other old phrases, including the legendary 'Kilroy was Here') then please drop a line to Whalley's World at the Star.