Brown Bess: The nickname for the muzzle-loading musket used for over a century by the British Army

Covie: A ‘cove’ is a bloke or a chap. You’d call a friend ‘covie’ the way we’d say ‘mate’ today

Dragoon: A mounted soldier armed with a musket or rifle

Lead (or lode): A gold deposit, often in an old river bed. The mother lode is the site of the biggest deposit

Lime-juicer: Slang for ‘Englishman’. English sailors drank lime-juice to stop them from getting scurvy, a disease caused by lack of Vitamin C

Mullock heap: The pile of dirt left over from mining

Red Toad: Slang for ‘soldier’, because it sounds like ‘red-coat’ (British soldiers wore red tunics)

Shicer: A mine with little or no gold in it

Toff: A wealthy or upper-class person

Waterloo, Battle of: In 1815, English and Prussian troops defeated Napoleon’s French army near the Belgian town of Waterloo. The victorious British army was led by the Duke of Wellington