Basingstoke, my love...

Carla is a spirited young lady and can get quite excitable around bedtime, which is not ideal. When we were getting her ready for bed recently, I came across two more phrases inherited from my Granny.

Both expressions were used in an attempt to soothe when I was an easily frustrated and temperamental child. The first, "Gently, gently, Mr Bentley", is not unheard of by others but my husband has only heard it in the abbreviated form of "Gently Bentley". Whether my Grandmother embellished the traditional phrase or whether others also use the longer form, I do not know and would be pleased to find out.

My husband was amused by the second expression as he had never heard it before. When I got myself into a tizzie (quite often but that's another tale to be told), Granny would not say "Calm down" but would quietly soothe with the words "Basingstoke,my love, Basingstoke". None of us know where this idiom comes from. Like the "toe-cover", I think my Granny may have claimed it had a literary origin. Perhaps I should telephone her now to find out.