Chapter Paris Garden to Parson Adams of P by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Parpaillons (King of the) , the father of Gargamelle “a jolly pug and well-mouthed wench.” Gargamelle married Grangousier “in the vigour of his age,” and she became mother of Gargantua.—Rabelais: Gargantua, i. 3 (1533).

Parr (Old). Thomas Parr, we are told, lived in the reign of ten sovereigns. He married his second wife when he was 120 years old, and had a child by her. He was a husbandman, born at Salop, in 1483, and died 1635, aged 152. (See Longevity.)

Parricide (The Beautiful), Beatrice Cenci, who is said to have murdered her father for the incestuous brutality with which he had treated her (died 1599).

(Shelley has a tragedy on the subject, called The Cenci, 1819.)

Parsley Peel, the first sir Robert Peel. So called from the great quantity of printed calico with the parsley- leaf pattern manufactured by him (1750–1830).

Parson Adams, a simple-minded country clergyman of the eighteenth century. At the age of 50 he was provided with a handsome income of £23 a year (nearly £300 of our money).—Fielding: Joseph Andrews (1742).

Timothy Burrell, Esq., in 1715, bequeathed to his nephew Timothy the sum of £20 a year, to be paid during his residence at the university, and to be continued to him till he obtained some preferment worth at least £30 a year.—Sussex Archæological Collections, iii. 172.

Goldsmith says the clergyman of his “deserted village” was “passing” or exceedingly rich, for he had £40 a year (equal to £500 now). In Norway and Sweden, to this day, the clergy are paid from £20 to £40 a year; in France, £40 is the usual stipend of the working clergy.