Chapter Milesians to Mincing Lane of M by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Miller of Mansfield (The), John Cockle, a miller and keeper of Sherwood Forest. (See Mansfield, p. 667.)—Dodsley: The King and the Miller on Mansfield (1737).

Miller of Trompington (The), Simon Simkin, an arrant thief. Two scholars undertook to see that a sack of corn was ground for “Solar Hall College” without being tampered with; so one stood at the hopper, and the other at the trough below. In the mean time, Simon Simkin let loose the scholars’ horse; and while they went to catch it he purloined half a bushel of the flour, which was made into cakes, and substituted meal in its stead. But the young men had their revenge; they not only made off with the flour, meal, and cakes without payment, but left the miller well trounced also.—Chaucer: Canterbury Tales (“The Reeve’s Tale,” 1388).

A trick something like that played off on the Miller of Trumpington.—Review of Kirkton, xix. 253.

Miller on the Dee. “There was a Jolly Miller once lived on the River Dee,” is a song by Isaac Bickerstaff, introduced in Love in a Village, i. 1 (1763).

Miller’s Tale (The), in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. (See Nicholas.)

Million (Mrs.), a lady of enormous wealth, in Vivian Grey, a novel by Disraeli (lord Beaconsfield) (1826–27).

Mills (Miss), the bosom friend of Dora. Supposed to have been blighted in early life in some love affair. Hence she looks on the happiness of others with a calm, supercilious benignity, and talks of herself as being “in the desert of Sahara.”—Dickens: David Copperfield (1849).

Millstone. The saint who crossed the sea on a millstone was St. Piran, the patron of tinners.

Millwood (Sarah), the courtezan who enticed George Barnwell to rob his master and murder his uncle. Sarah Millwood spent all the money that George Barnwell obtained by these crimes, then turned him out of doors, and impeached against him. Both were hanged.—Lillo: George Barnwell (1732).

David Ross [1728–1790] was once sent for to see a dying man, who said to him, “Mr. Ross, some forty years ago, like ‘George Barnwell,’ I wronged my master to supply the extravagance of a ‘Millwood.’ I took her to see your performance of ‘George Barnwell,’ which so shocked me that I vowed to break off the connection and return to the path of virtue. I kept my resolution, replaced the money I had stolen, and found a ‘Maria’ in my master’s daughter…I have bequeathed you £1000. Would it were a larger sum! Farewell!”—Pelham: Chronicles of Crime.

Milly, the wife of William Swidger. She is the good angel of the tale.—Dickens: The Haunted Man (1848).

Milner (Miss), the heroine of Mrs. Inchbald’s novel called A Simple Story. The graceful, frivolous girl is in love with Mr. Dorriforth, a handsome young catholic priest, who is her guardian, and who is represented as grave, virtuous, and wilful (1791).

Miss Milner…has a quick tongue, a warm heart, and a wayward will of her own, which is ever leading her to the verge of wrong.—Miss Kavanagh.

Milo, an athlete of Crotona, noted for his amazing strength. He could carry on his shoulders a four- year-old heifer. When old, Milo attempted to tear in twain an oak tree, but the parts, closing on his hands, held him fast, till he was devoured by wolves.

The English Milo, Thomas Topham of London (1710–1752).

Milton, introduced by sir Walter Scott in Woodstock (time, Commonwealth).