Re: CHAT Stambul (was: A new version of Genesis)

In a message dated 6/17/04 12:41:03 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
ray.brown@FREEUK.COM writes:

<<  'going to Town' (no
 definite article) was commonly used to mean 'going to London'. >>
As an avid reader of  late-19th-early 20th century British popular fiction,
I am familiar with the phrase as having that meaning, but I agree it seems to
be oldfashioned--I have never, I believe, heard an actual living Briton say
it.
My impression from my reading is that the phrase might be to some extent
upper-class
--I think of it as being used by the sort of  people who might have a home in
the country but go into London fairly often for shopping or plays or the
like, or perhaps even maintain a separate home in London for "the Season," which I
believe is not a modern custom.
John Leland