Here was my chance. I took the old man aside, and two or three glasses of Old Crow launched him into reminiscence.

the land rolls gently, so that, upon cresting a low rise or passing a copse of wind turbines, you suddenly spot a lot full of lorries or a complex of gigantic sheds.

The carny's goal is to get you to keep playing the game, and plunking down cash, until you get enough credits to trade up to a better prize. For this reason, hanky-panks are commonly referred to as trade-ups. The classic hanky-pank is Duck Pond (sometimes played as Fish Pond).

Now this pestilentiall Summer being well spent, upon the approach of the Winter, and decrease of the Sicknesse, the King […] drawes nearer to the City of London,