Chapter Pilot that Weathered the Storm to Piper of P by Brewer's Readers Handbook

and had to earn his living as a clerk. His friend Herbert Pocket used to call him “Handel,” because Handel wrote the Harmonious Blacksmith.—Dickens: Great Expectations (1860).

Pipchin (Mrs.), an exceedingly “well-connected lady,” living at Brighton, where she kept an establishment for the training of children. Her “respectability” chiefly consisted in the circumstance of her husband having broken his heart in pumping water out of some Peruvian mines (that is, in having invested in these mines, and being let in). Mrs. Pipchin was an ill-favoured old woman, with mottled cheeks and grey eyes. She was given to buttered toast and sweetbreads, but kept her children on the plainest fare.—Dickens: Dombey and Son (1846).

Pipe (The Queen’s), the dock kiln in the centre of the great east vault of the wine-cellars of the London docks. This is the place where useless and damaged goods that have not paid duty are burnt.

Pipe and Dance. As you pipe I must dance, I must accommodate myself to your wishes. To “pipe another dance” is to change one’s bearing, to put out of favour. J. Skelton speaking of the clergy, says their pride no man could tolerate, for they “would rule king and kayser,” and “bryng all to nought;” but, if kings and nobles, instead of wasting their time on hunting and hawking, would attend to politics, he says—

They would pype you another daunce.
   —Spencer: Colyn Clout (1460–1529).

Piper (Tom), one of the characters in a morris-dance.

So have I seen
Tom Piper stand upon our village green,
Backed with the May-pole.
   —W. Browne: Shepherd’s Pipe (1614).

Piper (Paddy the), an Irish piper, supposed to have been eaten by a cow. Going along one night during the “troubles,” he knocked his head against the body of a dead man dangling from a tree. The sight of the “iligant” boots was too great a temptation; and as they refused to come off without the legs, Paddy took them too, and sought shelter for the night in a cowshed. The moon rose, and Paddy, mistaking the moon-light for the dawn, started for the fair, having drawn on the boots and left the “legs” behind. At daybreak, some of the piper’s friends went in search of him, and found, to their horror, that the cow, as they supposed, had devoured him (with the exception of his legs)—clothes, bags, and all. They were horror-struck, and of course the cow was condemned to be sold; but while driving her to the fair, they were attracted by the strains of a piper coming towards them. The cow startled, made a bolt, with a view, as it was supposed, of making a meal on another piper. “Help, help!” they shouted; when Paddy himself ran to their aid. The mystery was soon explained over a drop of the “cratur”, and the cow was taken home again.—Lover: Legends and Stories of Ireland (1834).