BETTY MARTIN PLEASE tell Jim McTaggart that the source of the phrase Betty Martin - which he referred to in his recent column (Echo, Jan 19) - came not from any glossary of Teesdale language, but from Portugal.

In the Napoleonic Wars, our soldiers fighting the French with our oldest ally, Portugal, heard it from local religious people and brought it back to England.

It is a mishearing of a prayer to a local saint uttered when they heard gunfire.

I don't know the exact Portuguese saying, but it was like "O mi beatte Martin" (Oh bless me, St Martin).

I am 81 and haven't heard the expression for years. It was usually expressed in a shortened form as "All My Eye"

as a term of misbelief. - Bob Kelsall, Heighington.