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Written by Nigel
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Tuesday, 22 April 2008 |
The dictionary has a wild goose chase to mean a hopeless quest. It’s an old phrase and one of the many introduced into the English language by Shakespeare. The earliest quoted usage is 1592 from Romeo and Juliet:
Romeo: Switch and spurs, switch and spurs; or I'll cry a match.
Mercutio: Nay, if thy wits run the wild-goose chase, I have done, for thou hast more of the wild-goose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I have in my whole five.
In popular usage the phrase refers to a task that will ultimately prove fruitless. Wild geese are clearly are clearly difficult to run down. Our understanding of the term differs from that in use in Shakespeare's day. The earlier meaning related not to hunting but to horse racing. A 'wild goose chase' was a chase in which horses followed a lead horse at a set distance, mimicking wild geese flying in formation. The equine connection was referred to in another early citation, just ten years after Shakespeare - Nicholas Breton's The Mother's Blessing, 1602:
"Esteeme a horse, according to his pace, But loose no wagers on a wilde goose chase."
That meaning had been lost by the 19th century. In Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1811, he defines the term much the way we do today:
"A tedious uncertain pursuit, like the following a flock of wild geese, who are remarkably shy."
 You may wonder where I am going with all this. Well today I have been on if not a wild goose chase, then a domestic duck chase. The picture is of the culprit – Bertil. As you may recall we had a pair of Svensk Gulanka [Swedish Yellow Ducks] and as they had started laying we separated them out from the others so we could hatch more. Current Svenska Lanthönsklubben has only 145 listed. However our old drake Sid seems to have taken offence at being separated and confined. On Wednesday he was back in the garden with the other ducks. He was duly rounded up and placed back with Hattie his would be spouse. On Thursday – he was there at 10am when I walked the dog. I then went to do some work on the new vegetable plots and he disappeared. I hoped, in vain as it turns out, that he would return. So if our hopes of helping to save the Yellow Duck were to be realised a new drake was needed. Fortunately Kirsti, the lady we got the original pair from still had a spare so yesterday Bertil was collected and introduced to Hattie. It seems Bertil liked his confinement no more than Sid did and he too did a runner, hence my reference to a wild goose chase. I know this sounds like the start of a joke but – How many Englishmen does it take to get a duck out of a blackthorn thicket? The answer is one, but it takes an hour and the Englishman gets scratched and punctured in the process. Did you know Blackthorn has two inch long thorns, I am all too painfully aware. Bertil now has had his wing clipped and is returned to his spouce to help save his race. Fingers crossed he stays there.
| In other news, I have finally persuaded one on the Skånegås to sit inside the electric fence of the night pen where she will be safe. I hoped if I built a wigwam affair they would look upon it favourably. It seems I was right. I have eggs in the incubator, but I really wanted them to raise some goslings of their own, maybe now they will. |  | As well as escapes we have also had someone trying to get into the garden. It seems that it is a favourable place to live after all. This female pheasant obviously thought so anyway. I watched her for about quarter of an hour trying to get through the fence before deciding to go over the shed roof. |  |  |  | And finally... [does anyone else remember ‘That’s life’?] here’s some pictures of Troy for no reason other than he’s a great dog and I haven’t mentioned him or posted pictures of him in ages.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 22 April 2008 )
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