Chapter M to MacGregor of M by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

geese, but the one served at table was so tough that the king exclaimed, “MacFarlane's geese like their play better than their meat.”

MacFlecknoe in Dryden's famous satire, is Thomas Shadwell, poet-laureate, whose immortality rests on the not very complimentary line, “Shadwell never deviates into sense.” (1640-1692.)
   N.B. Flecknoe was an Irish Roman Catholic priest, doggerel sonneteer, and playwright. Shadwell, according to Dryden, was his double.

“The rest to some slight meaning make pretence,
But Shadwell never deviates into sense.”
Dryden: MacFlecknoe, 19, 20.

MacGirdie's Mare used by degrees to eat less and less, but just as he had reduced her to a straw a day the poor beast died. This is an old Greek joke, which is well known to schoolboys who have been taught the Analecta Minora. (See Waverley, p. 54.)

MacGregor The motto of the MacGregors is, “E'en do and spair nocht,” said to have been given them in the twelfth century by the king of Scotland. While the king was hunting he was attacked by a wild boar, when Sir Malcolm requested permission to encounter the creature. “E'en do,” said the king, “and spair nocht.” Whereupon the strong baronet tore up an oak sapling and despatched the enraged animal. For this defence the king gave Sir Malcolm permission to use the said motto, and, in place of a Scotch fir, to adopt for crest an oak-tree cradicate, proper.
    Another motto of the MacGregors is- “Sriogal mo dhream.”
   Rob Roy MacGregor or Robert Campbell, the outlaw. A Highland freebooter, the hero of Sir Walter Scott's Rob Roy. His wife's name is Helen, and their eldest son Hamish. In the Two Drovers MacGregor or MacCombich (Robin Oig) is a Highland drover.