Chapter Panyer Stone to Paradise and the Peri of P by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Panyer Stone to Paradise and the Peri

Panyer Stone (The). A stone let into the wall of a house in Panyer Alley. It is a rude representation of a boy sitting on a pannier. (French, panier; Latin, panarium, a bread-basket.) The stone has the following inscription:-

“When you have sought the city round,
Yet still this is the highest ground.
August 27th, 1688.”

    This is not correct, for there are higher spots both in Cornhill, and in Cannon Street.

Pap He gives pap with a hatchet. He does or says a kind thing in a very brusque and ungracious manner. The Spartan children were fed by the point of a sword, and the Teuton children with hatchets, or instruments so called- probably of the doll type. “Ursus,” in Victor Hugo's novel of “L'Homme qui Rit, ” gives “pap with a hatchet.”

Papa, Father The former is Greek pappas (father); Chaldee, abba. For many centuries after the Conquest, the “gentry” taught their children to use the word “papa,” but this custom is now almost gone out.

Papal Slippers (The) are wrought with a cross of rubies over each instep.

Paper So called from the papyrus or Egyptian reed used at one time for the manufacture of a writing material. Bryan Donkin, in 1803, perfected a machine for making a sheet of paper to any required length.

Paper a House (To), in theatrical phraseology, means to fill a house with “deadheads,” or non-paying spectators, admitted by paper orders. The women admitted thus, not being dressed so smartly as the paying ones, used to cover their shoulders with a “scarlet opera cloak,” often lent or hired for the occasion.

Paper King John Law, the projector of the Mississippi Scheme. (1671-1729.)

Paper Marriages Weddings of dons, who pay their fees in bank-notes.

Paper-stainer (A). An author of small repute.

Paphian Relating to Venus, or rather to Paphos, a city of Cyprus, where Venus was worshipped; a Cyprian; a prostitute.

Papimany The country of the Papimans; the country subject to the Pope, or any priest-ridden country, as Spain. (Rabelais: Gargantua and Pantagruel, iv. 45.)

Papyra The goddess of printing; so called from papyrus, the Nile-reed, from which at one time paper was made, and from which it borrows its name.

“Till to astonished realms Papyra taught
To paint in mystic colours sound and thought,
With Wisdom's voice to print the page sublime,
And mark in adamant the steps of Time.”
Darwin: Loves of the Plants, canto ii

Papyri Written scrolls made of the Papyrus, found in Egypt and Herculaneum.

Par (A). A newspaper paragraph. (Press slang.)

Par (At). Stock at par means that it is to be bought at the price it represents. Thus, £100 stock in the 2½ per cent. quoted at par would mean that it would require £100 to invest in this stock; if quoted at £105, it would be £5 above par; if at £95, it would be £5 below par. (Latin, par, equal.)

Paracelsists Disciples of Paracelsus in medicine, physics, and mystic sciences. A Swiss physician. (1493-1541.)

Paraclete The advocate; one called to aid or support another. (The word paraclete is from the Greek para-kaleo, to call to; and advocate is from the Latin ad-voco, the same thing.)