Chapter Races to Ragnarok of R by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Races to Ragnarok

Races (Lengths run).
   (i) Under a mile and a half:-
   The Newmarket Stakes, 1 mile 2 furlongs.
   The Prince of Wales's Stakes (at Leicester), rather less.
   The Eclipse Stakes, 1 1/4 mile.
   The Kempton Park Stakes, 1 1/4 mile.
   The Lancashire Plate (at the September Manchester meeting) is only 7 furlongs.
   In 1890 the Duke of Portland won all these five races; Ayrshire won two of them, and Donovan the other three.
   (ii) Long distances (between 1 1/4 and 3 miles):-
   The Great Northampton Stakes, 1 1/4 mile.
   Ascot (Gold Vase), 2 miles.
   Ascot (Gold Cup), 2 1/2 miles.
   Ascot (Alexander Plate), 3 miles.
   The Chester Cup, 2 1/4 miles.
   The Great Metropolitan Stakes (in the Epsom Spring Meeting), 2 1/4 miles.
   The Hardwicke Stakes, the Goodwood Cup, 2 1/2 miles (in July), and the Doncaster Cup, 2.634 miles (in September), are long races.

Rachaders The second tribe of giants or evil genii, who had frequently made the earth subject to their kings, but were ultimately punished by Shiva and Vishnoo. (Indian mythology.)

Rache A “setter,” or rather a dog said to hunt wild beasts, birds, and even fishes by scent. The female was called a brache- i.e. bitch-rache. (Saxon, raecc; French, braque.)

“A leyshe of ratches to renne an hare.”- Skelton: Magnificence

Rack A flying scud, drifting clouds. (Icelandic, rek, drift; verb, recka, to drive.)

“The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And ... leave not a rack behind.”
Shakespeare: Tempest, iv. 1.

   Rack. The instrument of torture so called was a frame in which a man was fastened, and his arms and legs were stretched till the body was lifted by the tension several inches from the floor. Not unfrequently the limbs were forced thereby out of their sockets. Coke says that the rack was first introduced into the Tower by the Duke of Exeter, constable of the Tower, in 1447, whence it was called the “Duke of Exeter's daughter.” (Dutch, rak; verb, rakken, to stretch: Danish, rag; Anglo-Saxon, reac.)

Rack-rent The actual value or rent of a tenement, and not that modified form on which the rates and taxes are usually levied. (Saxon, raecan, to stretch; Dutch, racken.)

“A rent which is equivalent, or nearly equivalent in amount, to the full annual value of the land, is a rack- rent.”- Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. xx. p. 403.

Rack and Manger Housekeeping.
   To lie at rack and manger. To live at reckless expense.

“When Virtue was a country maide,
And had no skill to set up trade,
She came up with a carrier's jade,
And lay at rack and manger.”
Life of Robin Goodfellow. (1628.)

Rack and Ruin Utter destitution. Here “rack” is a variety of wrack and wreck.

“The worst of all University snobs are those unfortunates who go to rack and ruin from their desire to ape their betters.”- Thackeray: Book of Snobs, chap. xv. p. 87.

Racket Noise or confusion, like that of persons playing racket or tennis.

Racy Having distinctive piquancy, as racy wine. It was first applied to wine, and, according to Cowley, comes to us from the Spanish and Portuguese raiz (root), meaning having a radical or distinct flavour; but probably it is a corruption of “relishy” (French, reléché, flavourous).

“Rich, racy verse, in which we see
The soil from which they come, taste, smell, and see”
Cowley.

Racy Style Piquant composition, the very opposite of mawkish.

Radcliffe Library (Oxford). Founded by Dr. John Radcliffe, of Wakefield, Yorkshire. (1650-1714.)

“When King William [III] consulted [Radcliffe] on his swollen ankles and thin body, Radcliffe said, `I would not have your Majesty's two legs for your three kingdoms.' ”- Leigh Hunt: The Town, chap. vi.

Radegaste A tutelary god of the Slavi. The head was that of a cow, the breast was covered with an aegis, the left hand held a spear, and a cock surmounted its helmet. (Slavonic mythology.)