Chapter Windmill Street to Wishart of W by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

and buried, his daughter is married, his native village has been remodelled, and America has become independent. (Washington Irving.)

Wint-monath [Wind-month. ]. The Anglo-Saxon name for November.

Winter, Summer We say of an old man, “His life has extended to a hundred winters;” but of a blooming girl, “She has seen sixteen summers.”

Winter's Tale (Shakespeare). Taken from the Pleasant History of Dorastus and Fawnia by Robert Green. Dorastus is called by Shakespeare Florizel and Doricles, and Fawnia is Perdita. Leontes of the Winter's Tale is Egistus in the novel, Polixenes is Pandosto, and Hermione is Bellaria.

Wipple-tree or Whipultre. Mentioned in Chaucer's Knight's Tale, is the cornel-tree or dogwood (Cornus sanguinea) (= whiffle-tree, from whiffle = to turn).

Wisdom-tooth The popular name for the third molar in each jaw. Wisdom-teeth appear between 17 and 25.

Wisdom of Many and the Wit of One (The) This is Lord John Russell's definition of a proverb.

Wise (The)
   ALBERT II., Duke of Austria, called The Lame and Wise. (1289, 1330-1358.)
   ALFONSO X. (or IX.) of Leon, and IV. of Castile, called The Wise and The Astronomer. (1203, 1252-1285.)
   ABEN- ESRA, a Spanish rabbi, born at Toledo (1119-1174.)
   CHARLES V. of France, called Le Sage. (1337, regent 1358-1360, king 1364-1380.)
   CHE-TSOU, founder of the fourteenth dynasty of China, called Hou- pe-lae (the model ruler), and his sovereignty The Wise Government. (1278-1295.)
   COMTE DE LAS CASES, called Le Sage. (1766-1842.)
   FREDERICK, Elector of Saxony. (1463, 1544-1554.)
   JOHN V. of Brittany, called The Good and Wise. (1389, 1399-1442.)
   Nathan the Wise. A drama by Lessing, based on a story in the De-cameron. (Day x., Novel 3.)

Wise as a Serpent This refers to the serpent which tempted Eve, or more probably to the old notion that serpents were extremely wise.

Wise as Solomon (See Similes. )

Wise as the Mayor of Banbury A blundering Sir William Curtis. The mayor referred to insisted that Henry III. reigned in England before Henry II.
   The following is a fact which happened to myself in 1880. I was on a visit to a country mayor of great wealth, whose house was full of most exquisite works of art. I was particularly struck with a choice china figure, when the mayor told me how many guineas he had given for it, and added, “Of course you know `who' it is meant for. It is John Knox signing Magna Charta.”

Wise as the Women of Mungret At Mungret, near Limerick, was a famous monastery, and one day a deputation was sent to it from Cashel to try the skill of the Mungret scholars. The head of the monastery had no desire to be put to this proof, so they habited several of their scholars as women, and sent them forth to waylay the deputation. The Cashel professors met one and another of these “women,” and asked the way, or distance, or hour of the day, to all which questions they received replies in Greek. Thunder- struck with this strange occurrence, they resolved to return, saying, “What must the scholars be if even the townswomen talk in Greek?”

Wise Men or Wise Women. Fortune-tellers.

Wise Men of Greece (See Seven Sages )

Wise Men of the East The three Magi who followed the guiding star to Bethlehem. They are the patron saints of travellers (See Magi, Seven Sages )