Chapter Covert-baron to Crawley of C by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Craigengelt (Captain), an adventurer and companion of Bucklaw.—Sir W. Scott: Bride of Lammermoor (time, William III.).

Cramp (Corporal), under captain Thornton.—Sir W. Scott: Rob Roy (time, George I.).

Crampart (King), the king who made a wooden horse which would go 100 miles an hour.—Alkmaar: Reynard the Fox (1498).

Cranbourne (Sir Jasper), a friend of sir Geoffrey Peveril.—Sir W. Scott: Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Crane (Dame Alison), mistress of the Crane inn, at Marlborough.

Gaffer Crane, the dame’s husband.—Sir W. Scott: Kenilworth (time, Elizabeth).

Crane (Ichabod), a credulous Yankee schoolmaster. He is described as “tall, exceedingly lank, and narrow-shouldered; his arms, legs, and neck unusually long; his hands dangle a mile out of his sleeves; his feet might serve for shovels; and his whole frame is very loosely hung together.”—W. Irving: Sketch-Book.

The head of Ichabod Crane was small and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like weather-cock perched upon his spindle neck to tell which way the wind blew.—Irving: Sketch-Book (“Legend of Sleepy Hollow).

Cranes . Milton, referring to the wars of the pygmies and the cranes, calls the former

That small infantry
Warred on by cranes.
   —Paradise Lost, i. 575 (1665).

Cranion, queen Mab’s charioteer.

Four nimble gnats the horses were,
Their harnesses of gossamere,
Fly Cranion, her charioteer.
   —Drayton: Nymphidia (1563–1631).

Crank (Dane), the papist laundress at Marlborough.—Sir W. Scott: Kenilworth (time, Elizabeth).

Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley. The following bill for their burning is in the British Museum:—

For 3 loads wood faggots, 125.; item, one load furze faggots, 3s. 4d.; item, for carriage, 2s.6d.; item, a post, 2s. 4d.; item, 2 chains, 3s. 4d.; item, 2 tables, 6d.; item, labourers, 2s. 8d.; total, £I 6s. 8d.

Crapaud (Johnnie), a Frenchman, as John Bull is an Englishman, Cousin Michael a German, Colin Tampon a Swiss, Brother Jonathan a North American, etc. Called Crapaud from the device of the ancient kings of France, “three toads erect, saltant.” Nostradamus, in the sixteenth century, called the French crapauds in the well-known line—

Les anciens crapauds prendront Sara.

(“Sara” is Aras backwards, a city taken from the Spaniards under Louis XIV.).

Cratchit (Bob or Robert), clerk of Ebenezer Scrooge, stock-broker. Though Bob Cratchit has to maintain nine persons on 15s. a week, he has a happier home and spends a merrier Christmas than his master, with all his wealth and selfishness.

Tiny Tim Cratchit, the little lame son of Bob Cratchit, the Benjamin of the family, the most helpless and most beloved of all. Tim does not die, but Ebenezer Scrooge, after his change of character, makes him his special care.—C. Dickens: A Christmas Carol (in five staves, 1843).