Chapter Logres to Long Tail of L by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Meg and her daughters. In the neighbourhood of Penrith, Cumberland, is a circle of 67 (Camden says 77) stones, some of them ten feet high, ranged in a circle. Some seventeen paces off, on the south side, is a single stone, fifteen feet high, called Long Meg, the shorter ones being called her daughters. (Greek, Megas, great.)

“This, and the Robrick stones in Oxfordshire, are supposed to have been erected at the investiture of some Danish kings, like the Kingstoler in Denmark, and the Moresteen in Sweden.”- Camden: Britannta.

Long Odds The odds laid on a horse which has apparently no chance of winning the race. Any similar bet.

Long Parliament The parliament which assembled November 3rd, 1640, and was dissolved by Cromwell on April 20th, 1653; that is, 12 1/2 years.

Long Peter Peter Aartsen, the Flemish painter; so called on account of his extraordinary height. (1507- 1573.)

Long Run In the long run. Eventually. Here “long run” is not the correlative of a “short run,” but the Latin adverb demum, ultimately; in French, “A la longue. ”

Long-Sword (Longue épée). William, the first Duke of Normandy. (Died 943.)

Long Tail Cut and long tail. One and another, all of every description. The phrase had its origin in the practice of cutting the tails of certain dogs and horses, and leaving others in their natural state, so that cut and long tail horses or dogs included all the species. Master Slender says he will maintain Anna Page like a gentlewoman. “Ah!” says he-

“That I will, come cut and long tail under the degree of a squire [i.e. as well as any man can who is not a squire].”- Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor, iii. 4.