Chapter Pigwiggin to Pin of P by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Pillar Saints or Stylites. A class of ascetics, chiefly of Syria, who took up their abode on the top of a pillar, from which they never descended. (See Stylites .)

Pillar to Post Running from pillar to post - from one thing to another without any definite purpose. This is an allusion to the manege. The pillar is the centre of the riding ground, and the posts are the columns at equal distances, placed two and two round the circumferance of the ring.

Pillars of Heaven (The). The Atlas Mountains are so called by the natives.

Pillars of Hercules (The). The opposite rocks at the entrance of the Mediterranean Sea, one in Spain and the other on the African continent. The tale is that they were bound together till Hercules tore them asunder in order to get to Gades (Cadiz). The ancients called them Calpe and Abyla; we call them Gibraltar Rock and Mount Hacho, on which stands the fortress of Ceuta (Kutah).

Pillory The following eminent men have been put in the pillory for literary offences:- Leighton, for tracts against Charles I.; Lilburn, for circulating the tracts of Dr. Bastwick; Bastwick, for attacking the Church of England; Warton the publisher; Prynne, for a satire on the wife of Charles I.; Daniel Defoe, for a pamphlet entitled The Shortest Way with Dissenters, etc.

Pilot according to Scaliger, is from an old French word, pile (a ship).

Pilot Balloon (A). A political feeler; a hint thrown out to ascertain public opinion on some moot point.

“As this gentleman is in the confidence of ministers, it is fair to assume that he was deputed to start this statement as a pilot balloon.”- Newspaper leader, 1885.

Pilot Fish So called because it is supposed to pilot the shark to its prey.

Pilot that weathered the Storm (The). William Pitt, son of the first Earl of Chatham. George Canning, in 1802, wrote a song so called in compliment to William Pitt, who steered us safely through the European storm stirred up by Napoleon.

Pilpay' or Bidpay. The Indian Æsop. His compilation was in Sanskrit, and entitled Pantcha-Tantra. Khosru (Chosroes) the Great, of Persia, ordered them to be transiated into Pehlvi, an idiom of Medish, at that time the language of Persia. This was in the middle of the sixth century.

Pimlico (London). At one time a district of public gardens much frequented on holidays. According to tradition, it received its name from Ben Pimlico, famous for his nut-brown ale. His tea-gardens, however, were near Hoxton, and the road to them was termed Pimlico Path, so that what is now called Pimlico was so named from the popularity of the Hoxton resort.

“Have at thee, then, my merrie boyes, and beg for old Ben Pimlico's nut-brown ale.”- Newes from Hogsdon (1598).

Pimlico To walk in Pimlico. To promenade, handsomely dressed, along Pimlico Path.

“Not far from this place were the Asparagus Gardens and Pimlico Path, where were fine walks, cool arbours, etc., much used by the citizens of London and their families.”- Nat. Hist. Surrey, v. 221.

Pin (A). A cask holding 4 1/2 gallons of ale or beer. This is the smallest of the casks. Two pins = a firkin or 9 gallons, and 2 firkins = a kilderkin or 18 gallons.

Pin Not worth a pin. Wholly worthless.
   I don't care a pin, or a pin's point. In the least.
   The pin. The centre; as, “the pin of the heart” (Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, ii. 4). The allusion is to the pin which fastened the clout or white mark on a target in archery.
   Weak on his pins. Weak in his legs, the legs being a man's pegs or supporters.
   A merry pin. A roysterer.
   We are told that St. Dunstan introduced the plan of pegging tankards to check the intemperate habits of the English in his time. Called “pin- tankards.”
   In merry pin. In merry mood, in good spirits. Pegge, in his Anonymiana, says that the old tankards were divided into eight equal parts, and each part was marked with a silver pin. The cups