Chapter Vantom to Vehmgericht of V by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Vashti. When the heart of the king [Ahasuerus] was merry with wine, he commanded his chamberlains to bring Vashti, the queen, into the banquet-hall, to show the guests her beauty; but she refused to obey the insulting order, and the king, being wroth, divorced her.—Esth. i. 10, 19.

O Vashti, noble Vashti! Summoned out,
She kept her state, and left the drunken king
To brawl at Shushan underneath the palms.
   —Tennyson: The Princess, iii. (1830).

Vatel, the cook who killed himself because the lobster for his turbot sauce did not arrive in time to be served up at the banquet at Chantilly, given by the prince de Condé to the king.

Vathek, the ninth caliph of the race of the Abassides, son of Mota ssem, and grandson of Haroun-al- Raschid. When angry, “one of his eyes became so terrible that whoever looked at it either swooned or died.” Vathek was induced by a malignant genius to commit all sorts of crimes. He abjured his faith, and bound himself to Eblis, under the hope of obtaining the throne of the pre-Adamite sultans. This throne eventually turned out to be a vast chamber in the abyss of Eblis, where Vathek found himself a prisoner without hope. His wife was Nouronihar, daughter of the emir Fakreddin, and his mother’s name was Catharis.—Beckford: Vathek (1784).

Vathek’s Daughter, a red-and-yellow mixture given him by an emissary of Eblis, which instantaneously restored the exhausted body, and filled it with delight. —Beckford: Vathek (1784).

Vato, the wind-spirit.

Even Zoroaster imagined there was an evil spirit, called Vato, that could excite violent storms of wind. —T. Row [i.e. Dr. Pegge]: Gentleman’s Magazine, January, 1763.

Vaudeville (Father of the), Oliver Basselin (fifteenth century).

Vaughan, the bogie of Bromyard, exorcised by nine priests. Nine candles were lighted in the ceremony, and all but one burnt out. The priests consigned Nicholas Vaughan to the Red Sea; and, casting the remaining candle into the river Frome, threw a huge stone over it, and forbade the bogie to leave the Red Sea till that candle reappeared to human sight. The stone is still called “Vaughan’s Stone.”

Vaugirard (The Deputies of. The usher announced to Charles VIII. of France, “The deputies of Vaugirard.” “How many?” asked the king. “Only one, may it please your highness.”

Canning says that three tailors of Tooley Street, Southwark, addressed a petition of grievances to the House, beginning, “We, the people of England.”

Vauxhall. The premises in the manor of Vauxhall were the property of Jane Vaux in 1615, and the house was then called “Stockdens.” From her it passed through various hands, till it became the property of Mr. Tyers in 1752. “The Spring Gardens at Vauxhall” are mentioned in the Spectator as a place of great resort in 1711; but it is generally thought that what we call “Vauxhall Gardens” were opened for public amusement in 1730.

The tradition that Vauxhall was the property of Guy Fawkes (hence the name of “Fauxeshall”) is erroneous.—Lord W. Lennox: Celebrities, etc., I. 141.

Vauxhall Slice (A), a slice of meat, especially ham, as thin as it is possible to cut it.

Slices of pale coloured, stale, dry ham cut so thin that a “Vauxhall slice” became proverbial.—Lord W. Lennox: Celebrities, etc., I. vii.

V.D.M.I.Æ., Verbum Dei manet in æternum (“the Word of God endureth for ever”). This was the inscription of the Lutheran bishops in the diet of Spires. Philip of Hessen said the initials stood for Verbum diaboli manet in episcopis (“the word of the devil abideth in the [Lutheran] bishops”).