Chapter Spiritual Mother to Spread-eagle Oratory of S by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

January.
   For Ireland and Scotland there are special game-laws. (See Time Of Grace.)
   N.B. Game in England: hare, pheasant, partridge, grouse, and moor-fowl; in Scotland, same as England, with the addition of ptarmigan ; in Ireland, same as England, with the addition of deer, black-game, landrail, quail, and bustard.

Spouse (Spouze, 1 syl.) means one whom sponsors have answered for. In Rome, before marriage, the friends of the parties about to be married met at the house of the woman's father to settle the marriage contract. This contract was called sponsalia (espousals); the man and woman were spouses. The contracting parties were each asked, “An spondes ” (Do you agree?), and replied “Spondeo ” (I agree).
   Spouse of Jesus. “Our seraphic mother, the holy Teresa,” born at Avila in 1515, is so called in the Roman Catholic Church.

Spout Up the spout. At the pawn-broker's. In allusion to the “spout” up which brokers send the articles ticketed. When redeemed they return down the spout- i.e. from the store-room to the shop.

“As for spoons, forks, and jewellery, they are not taken so readily to the smelting-pot, but to well-known places where there is a pipe [spout] which your lordships may have seen in a pawnbroker's shop. The thief taps, the pipe is lifted up, and in the course of a minute a hand comes out, covered with a glove, takes up the article, and gives out the money for it.”- Lord Shaftesbury: The Times, March 1st, 1869.

Sprat To bait with a sprat to catch a mackerel. To give a small thing under the hope of getting something much more valuable. The French say, “A pea for a bean.” (See Garvies .)

Spread-eagle (To). To fly away like a spread-eagle; to beat. (Sporting term.)

“You'll spread-eagle all the [other] cattle in a brace of shakes.”- Ouida: Under Two Flags, chap. ix.

Spread-eagle Oratory “A compound of exaggeration, effrontery, bombast, and extravagance, mixed with metaphors, platitudes, threats, and irreverent appeals flung at the Almighty.”(North American Review, November, 1858.)