Chapter Sutton to Swim of S by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Sutton to Swim

Sutton (Sir William), uncle of Hero Sutton the City maiden.—Knowles: Woman’s Wit, etc. (1838).

Suwarrow (Alexander), a Russian general, noted for his slaughter of the Poles in the suburbs of Warsaw in 1794, and the still more shameful butchery of them on the bridge of Prague, After having massacred 30,000 in cold blood, Suwarrow went to return thanks to God “for giving him the victory.” Campbell, in his Pleasures of Hope, i., refers to this butchery; and lord Byron, in Don Juan, vii. 8, 55, to the Turkish expedition (1786–1792).

A town which did a famous siege endure …
By Suvaroff or Anglicè Suwarrow.
   —Byron: Don Juan, vii. 8 (1824).

Suzanne, the wife of Chalomel the chemist and druggist.—J. R. Ware: Piperman’s Predicament.

Swallow Stone. The swallow is said to bring home from the sea-shore a stone which gives sight to her fledglings.

Oft in the barns they climbed to the populous nests on the rafters,
Seeking with eager eyes that wondrous stone which the swallow
Brings from the shore of the sea, to restore the sight of its fledglings.
   —Longfellow: Evangeline, i. 1 (1849).

Swallow’s Nest, the highest of the four castles of the German family called Landschaden, built on a pointed rock almost inaccessible. The founder was a noted robber-knight. (See Superstitions, “Swallow,” p. 1060.)

SWAN. Fionnuala, daughter of Lir, was transformed into a swan, and condemned to wander for many hundred years over the lakes and rivers of Ireland, till the introduction of Christianity into that island. (See Lir, p. 617.)

(T. Moore has a poem on this subject in his Irish Melodies, entitled “The Song of Fionnuala,” 1814.)

Swan (The), called the bird of Apollo or of Orpheus. (See Superstitions, “Swan,” p. 1061.)

Swan (The knight of the), Helias king of Lyleforte, son of king Oriant and Beatrice. This Beatrice had eight children at a birth, one of which was a daughter. The mother-in-law (Matabrune) stole these children, and changed all of them, except Helias, into swans. Helias spent all his life in quest of his sister and brothers, that he might disenchant them and restore them to their human forms.—Thoms: Early English Prose Romances, iii. (1858).

Eustachius venit ad Buillon ad domum ducissæ quæ uxor erat militis qui vocabatur “Miles Cygni.”—Reiffenberg: Le Chevalier au Cygne.

Swan (The Order of the). This order was instituted by Frederick II. of Brandenburg, in commemoration of the mythical “Knight of the Swan” (1443).

Swan. The Mantuan Swan, Virgil, born at Mantua (B.C. 70–19).

The Sweet Swan of Avon. Shakespeare was so called by Ben Jonson (1564–1616).

The Swan of Cambray, Fénelon archbishop of Cambray (1651–1715).

The Swan of Lichfield, Miss Anna Seward, poetess (1747–1809).

The Swan of Padua, count Francesco Algarotti (1712–1764).

The Swan of the Meander, Homer, a native of Asia Minor, where the Meander flows (fl. B.C. 905).