Chapter Sponge to Squeers of S by Brewer's Readers Handbook

This lord John Hervey married the beautiful Molly Lapel; hence Pope says—

So perfect a beau and a belle
As when Hervey the handsome was wedded

To the beautiful Molly Lapel.

Spout (speaking). (See Derry-Down Triangle, p. 272.)

S.P.Q.R., the Romans. The letters are the initials of Senatus Populus-Que Romanus (see p. 943).

New blood must be pumped into the veins and arteries of the S. P. Q. R.— Sair (Belgravia, April, 1871).

Sprackling (Joseph), a money-lender and a self-made man.

Thomas Sprackling, his brother, and equal in roguery. — Wybert Reeve: Parted.

Sprat Day, November 9, the first day of sprat-selling in the streets. The season lasts about ten weeks.

Sprenger (Louis), Annette Veilchen’s bachelor.—Sir W. Scott: Anne of Geierstein (time, Edward IV.).

Sprig of Shillelah (The), a famous Irish song, author uncertain. The first verse is—

Och! love is the soul of a nate Irishman,
He loves all the lovely, loves all that he can,
With his sprig of shillelah and shamrock so green.
His heart is good-humoured—’tis honest and sound,
No malice nor hatred is there to be found;
He courts and he marries, he drinks and he fights,
For love, all for love, for in that he delights,
With his sprig of shillelah and shamrock so green.

(And three other stanzas.)

Sprightly (Miss Kitty), the ward of sir Gilbert Pumpkin of Strawberry Hall. Miss Kitty is a great heiress, but stage-struck; and when captain Charles Stanley is introduced, she falls in love with him, first as a “play actor,” and then in reality. —Jackman: All the World’s a Stage.

Spring. (See Seasons, p. 976.)

(Mrs. Barbauld wrote an Ode to Spring, in imitation of Collins’s Ode to Evening.)

Spring (A Sacred). The ancient Sabines, in times of great national danger, vowed to the gods “a sacred spring” (ver sacrum), if they would remove the danger. That is, all the children born during the next spring were “held sacred,” and at the age of 20 were compelled to leave their country and seek for themselves a new home.

Spring-Heel Jack. The marquis of Waterford, in the early parts of the nineteenth century, used to amuse himself by springing on travellers unawares, to terrify them; and from time to time others have followed his silly example. Even so late as 1877-8, an officer in her majesty’s service caused much excitement in the garrisons stationed at Aldershot, Colchester, and elsewhere, by his “spring-heel” pranks. In Chichester and its neighbourhood the tales told of this adventurer caused quite a little panic, and many nervous people were afraid to venture out after sunset, for fear of being “sprung” upon. I myself investigated some of the cases reported to me, but found them for the most part Fakenham ghost tales.

Springer (The). Ludwig Margrave of Thuringia was so called, because he escaped from Giebichenstein, in the eleventh century, by leaping over the river Saale.

Sprinklers (Holy Water), Danish clubs, with spiked balls fastened to chains.

Spruce, M.C. (Captain), in Lend Me Five Shillings, by J. M. Morton (1764–1838).