Chapter Heavies to Hegemony of H by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Hector of Germany. Joachim II., Elector of Brandenburg (1514-1571).
   You wear Hector's cloak. You are paid off for trying to deceive another. You are paid in your own coin. When Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland, in 1569, was routed, he hid himself in the House of Hector Armstrong, of Harlaw. This villain betrayed him for the reward offered, but never after did anything go well with him; he went down, down, down, till at last he died a beggar in rags on the roadside.

Hector (A). A leader; so called from the son of Priam and generalissimo of the Trojans.

Hector (To). To swagger, or play the bully. It is hard to conceive how the brave, modest, noble-minded patriot came to be made the synonym of a braggart and blusterer like Ajax.

Hectors Street bullies and brawlers who delighted in being as rude as possible, especially to women. Robbery was not their object, but simply to get talked about. (See Hawkubites.)

Hecuba Second wife of Priam, and mother of nineteen children. When Troy was taken by the Greeks she fell to the lot of Ulysses. She was afterwards metamorphosed into a dog, and threw herself into the sea. The place where she perished was afterwards called the Dog's - grave (cynos-sema). (Homer: Iliad, etc.)
   On to Hecuba. To the point or main incident. The story of Hecuba has furnished a host of Greek tragedies.

Hedge (1 syl.). To hedge, in betting, is to defend oneself from loss by cross-bets. As a hedge is a defence, so cross-betting is hedging. (E. Hunt: The Town, ix.)

"He [Godolphin] began to think ... that he had betted too deep ... and that it was time to hedge" - Macaulay: England, vol. iv. chap. xvii. p. 45.

Hedge Lane (London) includes that whole line of streets (Dorset, Whitcomb, Prince's, and Wardour) stretching from Pall Mall East to Oxford Street.

Hedge Priest A poor or vagabond parson. The use of hedge for vagabond, or very inferior, is common: as hedge-mustard, hedge-writer (a Grubb Street author), hedge-marriage (a clandestine one), etc. Shakespeare uses the phrase, "hedge-born swain" as the very opposite of "gentle blood." (1 Henry VI., iv. 1.)

Hedge School (A). A school kept in the open air, near a hedge. At one time common in Ireland.

"These irregular or `hedge schools' are tolerated only in villages where no regular school exists within a convenient distance." - Barnard: Journal of Education, December, 1862, p. 574.

Hedonism The doctrine of Aristippus, that pleasure or happiness is the chief good and chief end of man (Greek, hedone, pleasure).

Heel, Heels (Anglo-Saxon hel.)
   Achilles' heel. (See under Achilles.)
   I showed him a fair pair of heels. I ran away and outran them.

"Two of them saw me when I went out of doors, and chased me, but I showed them a fair pair of heels." - Sir W. Scott: Peveril of the Peak, chap. xxiv.

   Out at heels. In a sad plight, in decayed circumstances, like a beggar whose stockings are worn out at the heels.

"A good man's fortune may grow out at heels." Shakespeare: King Lear, ii. 2.

   To show a light pair of heels. To abscond.
   To take to one's heels. To run off. "In pedes nos conjicere. "

Heel-tap Bumpers all round, and no heel-taps - i.e. the bumpers are to be drained to the bottom of the glass. Also, one of the thicknesses of the heel of a shoe.

Heenan In Heenan style. "By apostolic blows and knocks." Heenan, the Benicia boy of North America, disputed for the champion's belt against Sayers, the British champion. His build and muscle were the admiration of the ring.

Heep (Uriah). An abject toady, malignant as he is base; always boasting of his 'umble birth, 'umble position, 'umble abode, and 'umble calling. (Dickens: David Copperfield.)