Word: pram
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Some of William Schwenck Gilbert's own infancy must have gone into this carefree jingle. Aged two (and known to his doting parents as "Bab"), Gilbert was being wheeled in his pram along an Italian country road when the local bandits appeared on the scene. They tipped their hats to the nursemaid, suavely persuaded her that they had been sent by father Gilbert to fetch his son, and disappeared into the mountains with Bab (in later life, Gilbert insisted that he remembered the scenery as being very fine). The bandits demanded, and promptly received, a ransom...
Cried an indignant mother in the next issue of the Lancet: "I should also like to know how Dr. McCluskie deals with the infant who . . . when propped up in a pram . . . and enjoined to stay awake . . . proceeds to fall asleep in the most uncomfortable position possible, in spite of having slept 14 hours the previous night and three hours that same morning...