Ivy Bush Like an owl in an ivy-bush. Having a sapient, vacant look, as some persons have when in
their cups; having a stupid vacant stare. Owls are proverbial for their judge-like solemnity, and ivy is the
favourite plant of Bacchus. Gray, in his Elegy, refers to the Owl and the Ivy.
"From yonder ivy-mantled towerIvy Lane (London). So called from the houses of the prebendaries of St. Paul, overgrown with ivy, which once stood there.
The moping owl doth to the moon complain
Of such as, wandering near her secret bower,
Molest her ancient solitary reign."
Stanzs 3.
Ixion A king of the Lapithæ, bound to a revolving wheel of fire in the Infernal regions, for his impious presumption
in trying to imitate the thunder of heaven. (Greek mythology.)
The treadmill is sometimes called "Ixion's
Wheel."