Chapter John-a-Dreams to John o Groat of J by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

John Dory A piratical French captain, conquered by Nicholl, a Cornishman.

"John Dory bought him an ambling nag,
To Paris for to ride-a."
Corbett: A Journey to France, p. 129.

John Long To wait for John Long, the carrier. To wait a long time; to wait for John, who keeps us a long time.

John Roberts (A). An enormous tankard holding enough drink for any ordinary drinker to last through Saturday and Sunday. This measure was introduced into Wales in 1886 to compensate topers for the Sunday closing, and derived its name from John Roberts, M.P., author of the Sunday Closing Act. (Standard, March 11th, 1886.)

John Thomas A generic name for a flunkey; or footman with large calves and bushy whiskers.

John Drum's Entertainment Hauling a man by his ears and thrusting him out by the shoulders. The allusion is to "drumming" a man out of the army. There is a comedy so called, published 1601.

"When your lordship sees the bottom of his success in't ... if you give him not John Drum's entertainment, your inclining cannot be removed." - Shakespeare: All's Well that Ends Well, iii. 6.

John in the Wad A Will-o'-Wisp. A wad is a wisp, and John or Jack is a name for any inferior person unknown. (See Jack.)

John of Bruges (1 syl.). John van Eyck, the Flemish painter (1370-1441).

John o' Groat, with his two brothers Malcolm and Gavin, came from Holland in the reign of James IV. of Scotland, and purchased the lands of Warse and Dungisbay. In process of time their families increased, and there came to be eight families of the same name.They lived together amicably, and met once a year in the original house; but on one occasion a question of precedency arose, who was to go out first, and who was to take the head of the table. John o' Groat promised them the next time they came he would contrive to satisfy them all. Accordingly he built an eight-sided room, with a door and window in each side, and placed a round oak table in the room. This building went ever after with the name of John o' Groat's House. The site of this house is the Berubium of Ptolemy, in the vicinity of Duncansby Head.

"Hear, land o'cakes and brither Scots,
Frae Maidenkirk to Johnny Groat's ...
A chield's amang you takin' notes.
And, faith, he'll prent it."
Burns: Captain Grose.