Chapter Gravelled to Grecian Coffee-house of G by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Great Scott or Scot! A mitigated form of oath. The initial letter of the German Gott is changed into Sc.

" `Great Scott! ... Beg pardon!' ejaculated Silas, astounded." - A. C. Gunter: Baron Montez, book iv. chap. xix.

Great Sea (The). So the Mediterranean Sea was called by the ancient Greeks and Romans.

Great Unknown (The). Sir Walter Scott, who published the Waverley Novels anonymously. (1771- 1832.)

Great Unwashed (The). The artisan class. Burke first used the compound, but Sir Walter Scott popularised it.

Great Wits Jump Think alike; tally. Thus Shakespeare says, "It jumps with my humour." (1 Henry IV., iv. 2.)

Great Wits to Madness nearly are Allied (Pope.) Seneca says, "Nullum magnum ingenium absque mixtura dementiæ est. "

Greatest The greatest happiness of the greatest number. Jeremy Bentham's political axiom. (Liberty of the People.) (1821.)

Greatheart (Mr.). The guide of Christiana and her family to the Celestial City. (Bunyan: Pilgrim's Progress, ii.)

Greaves (Sir Launcelot). A sort of Don Quixote, who, in the reign of George II., wandered over England to redress wrongs, discourage moral evils not recognisable by law, degrade immodesty, punish ingratitude, and reform society. His Sancho Panza was an old sea captain. (Smollett: Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves.)

Grebenski Cossacks So called from the word greben (a comb). This title was conferred upon them by Czar Ivan I., because, in his campaign against the Tartars of the Caucasus, they scaled a mountain fortified with sharp spurs, sloping down from its summit, and projecting horizontally, like a comb (Duncan: Russia.)

Grecian Bend (The). An affectation in walking, with the body stooped slightly forward, assumed by English ladies in 1875. The silliness spread to America and other countries which affect passing oddities of fashion.

Grecian Coffee-house in Devereux Court, the oldest in London, was originally opened by Pasqua, a Greek slave, brought to England in 1652 by Daniel Edwards, a Turkey merchant. This Greek was the first to teach the method of roasting coffee, to introduce the drink into the island, and to call himself a "coffee-man."