RHYMING SLANG
SIR,--.Like Julian Franklyn. whose Dictionary of Rhyming Slang Stephen Potter reviews and quotes, I used to think that 'to scarper,' meaning to beat it, or clear out, derived from 'Scapa,' either—as he puts forward—by way of rhyming slang ('Scapa Flow'— `go') or, it occurred to me, as a direct derivation from the idea of 'scuttle,' which the German High Sea Fleet did at Scapa Flow in 1919. But I had to revise my ideas, and perhaps Mr. Franklyn will revise his, on consulting Eric Partridge's Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, where 1 discovered that the verb derived from the Italian, by way of the canting jargon of the Victorian fairgrounds known as arlyaree,' and a quotation, 'Vamoose—scarper- Hy!' dating from 1844. I cannot believe that Scapa Flow was a familiar place-name among the strolling Players of the eighteen-forties.—Yours faithfully,
CYRIL RAY
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