Chapter Wishing-bone to Wokey of W by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

rake, made her exit by the chimney, and rode through the air to the place of rendezvous. The assembled witches feasted together, and concluded with a dance, in which they all turned their backs to each other.

Witchcraft The epidemic demonopathy which raged in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries.

Witenagemot The Anglo-Saxon parliament.

“The famous assembly of our forefathers was called by various names [as] Mycel Gemot (or great meeting); the Witenagemot (or meeting of the wise); and sometimes the Mycel Gethealit (or great thought).- Freeman: The Norman Conquest i. 3.

Witham You were born, I suppose, at Little Witham. A reproof to a noodle. The pun, of course, is on little wit. Witham is in Lincolnshire.

“I will be sworn she was not born at Wittham, for Gaffer Gibbs says she could not turn up a single lesson like a Christian”- Sir Walter Scott Heart of Mid-Lothian, chap. xxxii.

   Puns of this sort are very common. (See Bedfordshire, Nod, Dunce, Cripplegate, Shanks' Nag etc.)

Withe (1 syl.). When Delilah asked Samson what would effectually bind him he told her “green withes,” but when she called in the Philistines he snapped his bonds like tow. Also spelt with. A boy, being asked what part of speech is with, replied a noun, and being reproved for ignorance made answer: “Please, sir, Samson was bound with seven withs.”

“It seems impossible that Samson can be held by such green withes [i.e. that a great measure can be carried by such petty shifts].”- The Times.

Withers of a Horse (The) are the muscles which unite the neck and shoulders. The skin of this part of a horse is often galled by the pommel of an illfitting saddle, and then the irritation of the saddle makes the horse wince. In 1 Henry IV., ii. 1, one of the carriers gives direction to the ostler to ease the saddle of his horse, Cut. “I prythee, Tom, beat Cut's saddle the poor jade is wrung on the withers,” that is, the muscles are wrung, and the skin galled by the saddle. And Hamlet says (iii. 2):

“Let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung.”

   That is, let those wince who are galled; as for myself, my withers are not wrung, and I am not affected by the “bob.”

Within the Pale (See under Pale. )

Witney (Oxfordshire) is the Anglo-Saxon Witen-ey, the island of Wisemen- i.e. of the Witenagemot or national parliament.

Wittington (See Whittington. )

“Beneath this stone lies Wittington,
Sir Richard rightly named,
Who three times Lord Mayor served in London,
In which he ne'er was blamed.
He rose from indigence to wealth
By industry and that,
For lo! be scorned to gain by stealth
What he got by a cat.”
Epitaph (destroyed by the fire of London).

Witwold A Sir Jerry Witwold. A pert, talkative coxcomb, vain of a little learning; one who swims with the stream of popular opinion, and gives his judgment on men and books as if he were Sir Oracle. A great pretender to virtue and modesty, like Mr. Pecksniff, but always nosing out smut and obscenity, which he retails with virtuous indignation.

Wives of Literary Men The following literary men, among many others, made unhappy marriages:

ADDISON. ARISTOTLE. BACON (LORD). BOCCACCIO. BYRON. DANTE. DICKENS. DURER (ALBERT). EURIPIDES. GARRICK. HAYDN. HOOKER. JOHNSON (DR.). JONSON (BEN). KNOX.

LILLY (second wife). LYTTON. MILTON (first wife). MOLIÈRE. MORE. PITTACUS. RACLNE. ROUSSEAU (J. J.). SCALIGER (both wives) SHAKESPEARE. SHELLEY (first wife). SOCRATES. STEELK. STERNE. WYCHERLEY (first wife)