Chapter Lurch to Lyme-hound of L by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Lydian Poet (The). Alcman of Lydia. (Flourished B.C. 670.)

Lying Traveller (The). So Sir John Mandeville has been unjustly called. (1300-1372.)

Lying by the Wall Dead but not buried. Anglo-Saxon, wæl (death). He is lying with the dead.

Lying for the Whetstone Said of a person who is grossly exaggerating or falsifying a statement. One of the Whitsun amusements of our forefathers was the lie-wage or lie-match; he who could tell the greatest lie was rewarded with a whetstone to sharpen his wit. The nature of these contests may be illustrated by the following well-known extravaganza: one of the combatants declared he could see a fly on the top of a church-steeple; the other replied, “Oh yes, I saw him wink his eye.”

When Sir R. Digby declared he had seen the “philosopher's stone,” Bacon quizzically replied, “perhaps it was a whetstone.”

Lyme-hound and Gaze-hound. The stanch lyme-hound tracks the wounded buck over hill and dale. The fleet gazehound kills the buck at view.

“Thou art the lyme-hound. I am the gazehound. ... Thou hast deep sagacity and unrelenting purpose, a steady, long-breathed malignity of nature, that surpasses mine. But then, I am the bolder, the more ready, both at action and expedient. ... I say shall we hunt in couples?”- Sir W. Scott: Kenilworth, chap. iv