(Encyclopedia) Congreve, William, 1670–1729, English dramatist, b. near Leeds, educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and studied law in the Middle Temple. After publishing a novel of intrigue,…
(Encyclopedia) Spark, Dame Muriel, 1918–2006, Scottish novelist, b. Muriel Sarah Camberg. She lived in Edinburgh, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), London, New York, and Rome, and spent her last years in…
Drawings in black and white chalk, on tinted paper, from living models, used by artists. So called from the Royal Academy of Artists. Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham…
Alexander Cruden, author of the “Concordance to the Bible,” who petitioned Parliament to constitute him “Corrector of the People,” and went about constantly with a sponge to wipe out the…
An ale-house was so called in the eighteenth century. Some hundred persons assembled in a large tap-room to drink, sing, and spout. One of the number was made chairman. Ale was served to…
the device of Thackeray in drawings made by him. In Punch, vol. xx. No. 495, p. 8, is a butcher's boy chalking up “No Popery,” and the tray forms a pair of spectacles, showing it was…
Caverns in the chalk beds of Little Thurrock, Essex; so called from the tradition that King Cunobelin hid in them his gold. They are sometimes called Dane-holes, because they were used as…
One who banters or chaffs another. Daly, manager of the Dublin theatre, laid a wager that he would introduce into the language within twenty-four hours a new word of no meaning.…
He has come to the end of his tether. He has outrun his fortune; he has exhausted all his resources. The reference is to a cable run out to the bitter end (see Bitter End), or to the lines…
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