Chapter Logres to Long Tail of L by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Lombard Fever Laziness. Pawn-brokers are called Lombard brokers, because they retain the three golden balls of the Lombard money-changers; and lazy folk will pawn anything rather than settle down to steady work.

Lombard Street to a China Orange Long odds. Lombard Street, London, is the centre of great banking and mercantile transactions. To stake the Bank of England against a common orange is to stake what is of untold value against a mere trifle.

“`It is Lombard Street to a China orange,' quoth Uncle Jack.”- Bulwer Lytton: The Caxtons.

Lombardic The debased Roman style of architecture adopted in Lombardy after the fall of Rome.

London says Francis Crossley, is Luan-dun (Celtic), City of the Moon, and tradition says there was once a temple of Diana (the Moon) where St. Paul's now stands. Greenwich he derives from Grian- wich (City of the Sun), also Celtic. It would fill a page to gave a list of guesses made at the derivation of the word London. The one given above is about the best for fable and mythology. (See Augusta, Babylon, and Luds Town.)

London Bridge built on Woolpacks In the reign of Henry II. the new stone bridge over the Thames was paid for by a tax on wool.
    There was a bridge over the Thames in the tenth century. There was a new one of wood in 1014. The stone bridge (1176-1209) was by Peter of Colechurch. New London Bridge, constructed of granite, was begun in 1824, and finished in seven years. It was designed by Sir John Rennie, and cost £1,458,000. In 1894 was opened a new bridge, called the Tower Bridge, to admit of easier traffic.

London Stone The central milliarium (milestone) of Roman London, similar to that in the Forum of Rome. The British high roads radiated from this stone, and it was from this point they were measured. Near London Stone lived Fitz Alwyne, who was the first mayor of London.
    London Stone was removed for security into the wall of St. Swithin's church, facing Cannon Street station, and secured from damage by an iron railing.
   There are two inscriptions, one in Latin and one in English. The latter runs thus:-

“London stone. Commonly believed to be a Roman work, long placed about xxxv feet hence towards the south-west, and afterwards built into the wall of this church, was, for more careful protection and transmission to future ages, better secured by the church wardens in the year of OVR LORD MDCCCLXIX.”

Long Chalk (A) or Long Chalks. He beat me by a long chalk or by long chalks. By a good deal; by many marks. The allusion is to the game of dominoes, where the notation is made by chalk on a table.

Long Dozen (A) is 13. A long hundred is 120.

Long-headed Clever, sharp-witted. Those who believe in the shape and bumps of the head think that a long head indicates shrewdness.

Long Home He has gone to his long home. He is dead. The “long home” means the grave. The French equivalent is “Aller dans une maison ou l'on demeurera toujours. ”

Long Lane (See Lane .)

Long Meg of Westminster A noted virago in the reign of Henry VIII. Her name has been given to several articles of unusual size. Thus, the large blue-black marble in the south cloister of Westminster Abbey, over the grave of Gervasius de Blois, is called “Long Meg of Westminster.” Fuller says the term is applied to things “of hop-pole height, wanting breadth proportionable thereunto,” and refers to a great gun in the Tower so called, taken to Westminster in troublous times.
   The large gun in Edinburgh Castle is called Mons Meg, and the bomb forged for the siege of Oudenarde, now in the city of Ghent, is called Mad Meg.
   In the Edinburgh Antiquarian Magazine, September, 1769, we read of “Peter Branan, aged 104, who was six feet six inches high, and was commonly called Long Meg of Westminster. (See Meg.)
   Long