>>Have you ever been to London? Do you think it's still all "pea-souper" fogs due to all the coal fires burning in so many grates? (and bobbies running around blowing whistles when they discover another 'orrible murder?)
>
>Oh, I thought they were using the whistles as one-person foghorns.

In Liverpool, sergeants out on the streets (well up to fairly recently - I'm not sure still) would carry, as a traditional adornment, long night-sticks, as opposed to the traditional truncheon (which was carried concealed in an internal trouser pocket - of course they now have those US-style batons, and all that paraphenalia on a u/t belt), with a metal ferule. They were used to rap on the cobblestones to signal to each other in the night.