The Nine Tailors - Explanation of The Title

Explanation of The Title

In some parishes in England the centuries old tradition of announcing a death on a church bell is upheld. In a small village most people would be aware of who was ill, and so broadcasting the age and sex of the deceased would identify them. To this end the death was announced by telling (i.e. single blows with the bell down) the sex and then striking off the years. Three blows meant a child, twice three a woman and thrice three a man. After a pause the years were counted out at approximately half minute intervals. The word teller in some dialects becomes tailor, hence the old saying "Nine tailors maketh a man".

The bell used in the novel for the announcement is the largest (tenor) bell which is dedicated to St. Paul. Hence "teller Paul" or in dialect "tailor Paul". Sayers is here acknowledging the assistance of Paul Taylor of Taylor's bell foundry in Loughborough, England who provided detailed information on all aspects of ringing to her.

Read more about this topic:  The Nine Tailors

Famous quotes containing the words explanation of the, explanation of, explanation and/or title:

    The explanation of the propensity of the English people to portrait painting is to be found in their relish for a Fact. Let a man do the grandest things, fight the greatest battles, or be distinguished by the most brilliant personal heroism, yet the English people would prefer his portrait to a painting of the great deed. The likeness they can judge of; his existence is a Fact. But the truth of the picture of his deeds they cannot judge of, for they have no imagination.
    Benjamin Haydon (1786–1846)

    To develop an empiricist account of science is to depict it as involving a search for truth only about the empirical world, about what is actual and observable.... It must involve throughout a resolute rejection of the demand for an explanation of the regularities in the observable course of nature, by means of truths concerning a reality beyond what is actual and observable, as a demand which plays no role in the scientific enterprise.
    Bas Van Fraassen (b. 1941)

    The explanation of the propensity of the English people to portrait painting is to be found in their relish for a Fact. Let a man do the grandest things, fight the greatest battles, or be distinguished by the most brilliant personal heroism, yet the English people would prefer his portrait to a painting of the great deed. The likeness they can judge of; his existence is a Fact. But the truth of the picture of his deeds they cannot judge of, for they have no imagination.
    Benjamin Haydon (1786–1846)

    One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to the place where he arose.
    Bible: Hebrew Ecclesiastes, 1:4-5.

    Ernest Hemingway took the title The Sun Also Rises (1926)