Reply #12: Since Hartlepool is within a few miles of my home I'd better jump in here [View All]

[ikri]

Hartlepool during the Napoleonic wars was a small fishing village. Most of the inhabitants wouldn't have traveled more than 15 miles from their homes during their entire lives let alone met someone from another country.

Now a monkey is washed ashore dressed in a French soldier's uniform having survived the sinking of either a French ship where the monkey was what passed for entertainment of from a zoo ship where the owners thought it would be funny to have a monkey dressed in a French uniform (the ship changes depending on who you talk to).

The locals, having never met a Frenchman and having little idea of what the French language sounded like, spot a biped wearing a French uniform. Having spoken to it they conclude that since it neither speaks or comprehends English, but will jabber in some language unknown to the locals, that it must indeed by a Frenchman.

The unfortunate monkey was in fact given a trial. But since it was a monkey it had no way to defend itself against the charges of spying.

It was subsequently hung on the beach just next to the town walls.

For years calling a Hartlepudlian a Monkey Hanger was a quick way to start a fight. More recently though the inhabitants of Hartlepool have taken it on as their own local nickname, preferential to the normal regional nickname Smoggies.