Chapter Whistle to White Lady of W by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Her eyes committed theft upon all hearts, and her sweetness kept them captive. Her shape was majestic, her air noble and modest, her wit flowing, her manners engaging. In a word, she was beyond everything that was lovely.—Comtesse D’Aulnoy: Fairy Tales (“The White Cat,’ 1682).

White Clergy (The), the parish priests, in contradistinction to The Black Clergy or monks, in Russia.

White-Cotton Night-Cap Country. (See RED-COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY, p. 902.)

White Cross Knights, the Knights Hospitallers. The Knights Templars wore a red cross.

The White Cross Knight of the adjacent isle.
   —Robert Browning: The Return of the Druses, i.

White Devil of Wallachia. George Castriota, known as “Scanderbeg,” was called by the Turks “The White Devil of Wallachia” (1404–1467).

White Elephant (King of the), a title of the kings of Ava and Siam.

White Fast (The), the day of atonement in the Jewish synagogues.

White Friars (The), the Carmelites, who dress in white.

(There is a novel by Miss Emma Robinson called White Friars.)

White Hoods (or Chaperons Blancs), the insurgents of Ghent, led by Jean Lyons, noted for their fight at Minnewater to prevent the digging of a canal which they fancied would be injurious to trade.

Saw the fight at Minnewater, saw the “White Hoods” moving west.
   —Longfellow: The Belfry of Bruges.

White Horse (A), the Saxon banner, still preserved in the royal shield of the house of Hanover.

A burly, genial race has raised
The White Horse standard.
   —Woolner: My Beautiful Lady.

White Horse (Lords of the), the old Saxon chiefs, whose standard was a white horse.

And tampered with the lords of the White Horse.
   —Tennyson: Guinevere.

White Horse of the Peppers, a sprat to catch a mackerel. After the battle of the Boyne, the estates of many of the Jacobites were confiscated, and given to the adherents of William III. Amongst others, the estate of the Peppers was forfeited, and the Orangeman to whom it was awarded went to take possession. “Where was it, and what was its extent?” These were all-important questions; and the Orangeman was led up and down, hither and thither, for several days, under pretence of showing them to him. He had to join the army by a certain day, but was led so far afield that he agreed to forego his claim if supplied with the means of reaching his regiment within the given time. Accordingly, the “white horse,” the pride of the family, and the fastest animal in the land, was placed at his disposal, the king’s grant was revoked, and the estate remained in the possession of the original owner.—Lover: Stories and Legends of Ireland (1832-34).

White Horse of Wantage (Berkshire), cut in the chalk hills. The horse is 374 feet long, and may be seen at the distance of fifteen miles. It commemorates a great victory obtained by Alfred over the Danes, called the battle of Æscesdun (Ashdown), during the reign of his brother Ethelred in 871. (See RED HORSE, p. 903.)

In this battle all the flower of the barbarian youth was there slain, so that neither before nor since was ever such a destruction known since the Saxons first gained Britain by their arms.—Ethelwerd: Chronicle, ii, A. 871. (See also Asser, Life of Alfred, year 871.)