E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Gamp (Mrs.),
or Sarah Gamp (g hard). A monthly nurse, famous for her bulky umbrella and perpetual reference to Mrs. Harris, a purely imaginary person, whose opinions always confirmed her own. (Dickens: Martin Chuzzlewit.)
1
“Mrs. Harris, I says to her, if I could afford to lay out all my fellow creeturs for nothink, I would gladly do it. Such is the love I bear ’em.”
Punch caricatures the Standard as “Mrs. Sarah Gamp,” a little woman with an enormous bonnet and her characteristic umbrella.
2
A Sarah Gamp, or Mrs. Gamp. A big, pawky umbrella, so called from Sarah Gamp. (See above.)
3
In France it is called un Robinson, from Robinson Crusoe’s umbrella. (Defoe.)
