Chapter Shoe-loosed to Shot in the Locker of S by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Shoreditch, according to tradition, is so called from Jane Shore, who, it is said, died there in a ditch. This tale comes from a ballad in Pepys' collection; but the truth is, it receives its name from Sir John de Soerdich, lord of the manor in the reign of Edward III.

“I could not get one bit of bread
Whereby my hunger might be fed. ...
So, weary of my life, at length
I yielded up my vital strength
Within a ditch ... which since that day
Is Shoreditch called, as writers say.”

   Duke of Shoreditch. The most successful of the London archers received this playful title.

“Good king, make not good Lord of Lincoln Duke of Shoreditch!”- The Poore Man's Peticion to the Kinge. (1603.)

Shorne (Sir John) or Master John Shorne, well known for his feat of conjuring the devil into a boot. He was one of the uncanonised saints, and was prayed to in cases of ague. It seems that he was a devout man, and rector of North Marston, in Buckinghamshire, at the close of the thirteenth century. He blessed a well, which became the resort of multitudes and brought in a yearly revenue of some £500.

“To maister John Shorne, that blessed man borne,
For the ague to him we apply.
Which juggleth with a bote; I beschrewe his herte rote
That will trust him, and it be I.”
Fantassie of Idolatrie.

Short My name is Short. I'm in a hurry and cannot wait.

“Well, but let us hear the wishes (said the old man); my name is short, and I cannot stay much longer.”- W. Yeats: Fairy Tales of the Irish Peasantry. p. 240.

Short Stature (Noted Men of). Aetius, commander of the Roman army in the days of Valentinian; Agesilaus (5 syl.) “Statura fuit humili, et corpore exiguo, et claudius altero pede” (Nepos); Alexander the Great, scarcely middle height; Attila, “the scourge of God,” broad-shouldered, thick-set, sinewy, and short; Byron, Cervantes, Claverhouse, Condé the Great, Cowper, Cromwell, Sir Francis Drake, Admiral Kepple (called “Little Kepple”), Louis XIV., barely 5 feet 5 inches; Marshal Luxembourg; nicknamed “the Little”; Mehemet Ali, Angelo; Napoleon I., le petit caporal, was, according to his school certificate, 5 feet: Lord Nelson, St. Paul, Pepin le Bref, Philip of Macedon (scarcely middle height), Richard Savage, Shakespeare; Socrates was stumpy; Theodore II., King of the Goths, stout, short of stature, very strong (so says Cassiodorus); Timon the Tartar, self-described as lame, decrepit, and of little weight; Dr. Isaac Watts, etc.

Shot Hand out your shot or Down with your shot - your reckoning or quota, your money. (Saxon, sceat; Dutch, schot.) (See Scot And Lot .)

“As the fund of our pleasure, let us each pay his shot.” Ben Jonson.

   He shot wide of the mark. He was altogether in error. The allusion is to shooting at the mark or bull's-eye in archery, but will now apply to our modern rifle practice.

Shot in the Locker I haven't a shot in the locker - a penny in my pocket or in my purse. If a sailor says there is not a shot in the locker, he means the ship is wholly without ammunition, powder and shot have all been expended.