4

‘Not to trouble you with impertinences, we fetched over against Jack Marget’s parish in a storm of rain about the day’s end. Here our roads divided, for I would have gone on to my cousin at Great Wigsell, but while Jack was pointing me out his steeple, we saw a man lying drunk, as he conceived, athwart the road.

This is from "A DOCTOR'S MEDICINE" from "Rewards and Fairies" by Kipling. https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/k/kipling/rudyard/rewards/index.html

I would be glad if someone would kindly teach me the meaning of the following:

"we fetched over against Jack Marget's parish"

1
  • 2
    fetched over is a nautical term meaning "we found ourselves being moved" or "we progressed in the direction of". against is an archaic locative that means "in the direction of, towards". They made their way towards and reached Jack Marget's parish.
    – TimR
    Commented Aug 4, 2017 at 9:37

2 Answers 2

1

"Fetched over against" there means, broadly, "came to… " or more clearly "came to the borders of…"

1

The answers/comments above are correct, "fetched over" is an old-fashioned term to describe the act of travel, or perhaps arrival. Potentially "set out to reach".

However I've never seen it in any common usage in this context. "Fetched over" in contemporary language is usually restricted to something achieving or having a certain value

e.g. "The valuable painting fetched over £2 million Pounds at auction"

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .