Chapter King's Chair to Kings of K by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

King's Chair to Kings

King's Chair A seat made by two bearers with their hands. On Candlemas Day the children of Scotland used to bring their schoolmaster a present in money, and the boy who brought the largest sum was king for the nonce. When school was dismissed, the “king” was carried on a seat of hands in procession, and the seat was called the “king's chair.”

King's-Crag Fife, in Scotland. Called “king” because Alexander III. of Scotland was killed there.

“As he was riding in the dusk of the evening along the sea-coast of Fife, betwixt. Burnt-island and King- horn, he approached too near the brink of the precipicë, and his horse, starting or stumbling, he was thrown over the rock and killed on the spot ... The people of the country still point out the very spot where it happened, and which is called `The King's Crag.”'- Sir Walter Scott: Tales of a Grandfather, vi.

King's Cross Up to the accession of George IV. this locality in London was called “Battle Bridge,” and had an infamous notoriety. In 1821 some speculators built there a number of houses, and, at the suggestion of Mr. Bray, changed the name.

King's Evil Scrofula; so called from a notion which prevailed from the reign of Edward the Confessor to that of Queen Anne that it could be cured by the royal touch. The Jacobites considered that the power did not descend to William III. and Anne because the “divine” hereditary right was not fully possessed by them, but the office remained in our Prayer-Book till 1719. Prince Charles Edward, when he claimed to be Prince of Wales, touched a female child for the disease in 1745; but the last person touched in England was Dr. Johnson, in 1712, when only thirty months old, by Queen Anne. The French kings laid claim to the same divine power even from the time of Anne of Clovis, A.D. 481, and on Easter Sunday, 1686, Louis XIV. touched 1,600 persons, using these words: “Le roy te touche, Dieu te guerisse. ” The practice was introduced by Henry VII. of presenting the person “touched” with a small gold or silver coin, called a touchpiece. The one presented to Dr. Johnson has St. George and the Dragon on one side and a ship on the other; the legend of the former is Soli deo gloria, and of the latter Anna D:G.M.BR.F:ET.H. REG. (Anne, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland Queen).
   We are told that Charles II. touched 92,107 persons. The smallest number in one year was 2,983, in 1669; and the largest number was in 1684, when many were trampled to death. (See Macaulay's History of England, chap. xiv.) John Brown, a royal surgeon, had to superintend the ceremony. (See Macbeth, iv. 3.)

King's Keys The crow-bars, hatchets, and hammers used by sheriffs' officers to force doors and locks. (Law phrase.)

“The door, framed to withstand attacks from exciseman, constables, and other personages, considered to use the king's keys ... set his efforts at defiance.”- Sir W. Scott: Redgauntlet, chap. xix.

King's Men The 78th Foot; so called from their motto, “Cuidich'r Rhi ” (Help the king).
   It was raised by Kenneth Mackenzie, Earl of Seaforth, in 1777, and called the Seaforth Highlanders. In 1783 it became the 72nd Foot. From 1830 to 1881 it was called the “Duke of Albany's Highlanders”; and in 1881 it was made the 2nd Battalion of the “Seaforth Highlanders (Rossshire Buffs), the Duke of Albany's.”

King's Mess (The). An extra mess of rice boiled with milk- or of almonds, peas, or other pulse- given to the monks of Melrose Abbey by Robert [Bruce], the feast to be held on January 10th, and £100 being set aside for the purpose; but the monks were bound to feed on the same day fifteen poor men, and give to each four ells of broad cloth or six ells of narrow cloth, with a pair of shoes or sandals.

King's Oak (The). The oak under which Henry VIII. sat, in Epping Forest, while Anne (Boleyn) was being executed.

King's Picture Money; so called because coin is stamped with “the image” of the reigning sovereign.

King's Quhair King's book (James I.). “Cahier” is a copybook.

King's Cheese goes half in Paring A king's income is half consumed by the numerous calls on his purse.