wishes under the mask of ready submission or even zealous attachment. A great majority both of clergy and laity yielded to the times, and of these temporising conformists it cannot be doubted that many lost by degrees all thought of returning to their ancient fold. But others, while they complied with exterior ceremonies, retained in their private devotions their accustomed mode of worship.—HALLAM.

Cheer. Used by the old writers for countenance,' as well as in its modern sense.

And then he rode with dreary cheer.-CHAUCER.

Casten wrathly the cheer downward to the earth.-Id.

For if ony man is an heerer of the word and not a doer, this schal be likened to a man that biholdith the cheer of his birth in a myrrour.-WICLIF's Bible, James i.

Sir Roger, after the laudable custom of his ancestors, always keeps open house at Christmas. I learn from him that he has killed eight fat hogs for this season, that he has dealt about his chines very liberally, and that he had sent a string of hog's puddings and a pack of cards to every poor family in the parish. I have often thought, says Sir Roger, that it happens well that Christmas should fall in the middle of winter; it is the most dead uncomfortable time of the year, when the poor would suffer very much from their poverty and cold if they had not good cheer to support them.-ADDISON.

Chepe.

'Market' seems to have been the meaning of this obsolete noun. Good-chepe,' like bon marché, was something well-bought, while a bargain in favour of the seller was said to be ill-chepe,' or dear. The first only of these two terms has passed into the modern word 'cheap.'

That in all borough-towns and through-fares there should be hostellers having stables, and chambers, and bread and ale, and all other food, after the chepes of the country.-Statute of James I.

He'll not get anything good chepe that is afraid to ask the price.-RAY.

From the 19th of January to the 2nd of February inclusive is exactly fifteen days, during which time I have written a volume. A volume at cheapest is worth a thousand pounds. This is working at the rate of twenty-four thousand a year, but then we must not bake buns faster than people have the appetite to eat them: they are not essential to the market like potatoes.—— Sir W. SCOTT.

Chest. Chaucer and other writers down to the time of Milton use this word for a 'coffin.'

Nor can he be at rest within his sacred chest,

Naught but profoundest hell can be his shroud.-MILTON. I look upon a playhouse as a world within itself. They have lately furnished the middle region with a new set of meteors in order to give the sublime to many modern tragedies. I was there last winter at the rehearsal of the new thunder, which is much more deep and sonorous than any hitherto made use of. Their lightnings are made to flash more briskly than heretofore, their clouds are better furbelowed and more voluminous, not to mention a violent storm lock'd up in a great chest that is designed for the Tempest.-Spectator.

Chop. Old writers employed this word in the sense of 'bandying,' either in bargaining or argument.

And whereas you charge me with malapertness, in that I presume to chop logike with you being governour, by answering your snappish quid with a knappish quo. I wold wish you to understand, now that you put me in mind of the distinction, that I as a subject honour your roiall authoritie, but as a nobleman I despise your dunghill gentilitie.-HOLINSHED.

The chopping of bargains, when a man buys not to hold, but to sell again, grinds upon the seller and the buyer.-BACON.

Let not the counsel at the bar chop with the judge.—Id.

Clergy. Once, learning; of which the clergy so long had a monopoly.

Of craftes both and of clergie,

Among the which is poesie.-Gower.

An ounce of mother's wit is worth a pound of clergie.-RAY.

The progress of the ecclesiastical authority gave birth to the memorable distinction of the laity and of the clergy, which had been unknown to the Greeks and Romans. The former of these appellations comprehended the body of the Christian people; the latter, according to the signification of the word, was appropriated to the chosen portion that had been set apart for the service of religion.-GIBBON.

Clerk. Formerly, a clergyman, and hence also a man of learning. Blackstone attributes the modern meaning of the word to the fact that all the inferior offices of the law-courts were held by the lower clergy.

The greatest clerks ben not the wisest men.-CHAUCER.

The Good Patron. He expects nothing of the clerk, he presented but his prayers to God, respectful carriage towards him, and painfulness in his calling.-FULLER.

But upon this the great clerk Ovid.-Id.

But the most part of true gentlemen (I meane not these farming gentlemen, nor clarking knights) have little or nothing increased their rents.-BURNET.

The good clerk writeth a fair and swift hand, and is completely versed in the four first rules of arithmetic. He riseth early that he may be first at the desk: there is his post, there he delighteth to be. His first ambition is to be a good clerk, his next a good Christian and a good patriot.-C. LAMB.

Cling. An old meaning was 'to dry up,' 'to wither.'

If thou speak'st false

Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive

Till famine cling thee.-SHAKSPEARE, Macbeth, v. 5.

Can we not then trace in the faint lines of his youth an unsteady outline of the man? In the temperament of genius may

we not reasonably look for certain indications announcing the permanent character? Is not great sensibility born with irritable nerves? Will not the deep retired character cling to its musings ?-I. DISRAELI.

Clip. To cleave the air or sea. So a ship, in nautical phraseology, is called a 'clipper.'"

Had I the pinions of a clipping dove,

How I would climb the skies.-QUARLES.

One sees him in his retreat-between his study chair and his tulip beds, clipping his apricots and pruning his Essays. The statesman, the ambassador, no more-where in place of kings and fair ladies he pays his court to the Ciceronean Majesty, or walks a minuet with the epic muse, or dallies by the south wall with the ruddy nymph of gardens.—THACKERAY, on Sir William Temple.

Coat. Once applied to any covering for the body.

Acts of love may become arguments of a pious sadness, as the charitable coats that Dorcas made were to the widows.J. TAYLOR.

Dr. Johnson. The horror which the sectaries felt for cards, Christmas ale, plum porridge, mince pies, and dancing bears, excited his contempt. To the arguments urged by some very worthy people against showy dress he replied with admirable sense and spirit, 'Let us not be found when our Master calls us, stripping the lace off our waistcoats, but the spirit of contention from our souls and tongues. Alas! Sir, a man who cannot get to heaven in a green coat will not find his way thither in a gray one.'-MACAULAY.

Coffin. Applied by Ben Jonson and Shakspeare to certain culinary coverings in the form of pie-crust.

Why, thou says't true, it is a paltry cap!
A custard-coffin and bauble, a silken pie.
I love thee well in that thou lik'st it not.

SHAKSPEARE, Taming of the Shrew, iv. 3.

54

COLLATION-COLLEGE.

The Rebel Lords. At last the Earl of Kilmarnock knelt down, and after five minutes dropped his handkerchief, the signal, and his head was cut off at once, and was received in a scarlet cloth by four of the undertaker's men kneeling, who wrapped it up and put it into the coffin with the body. Orders having been given not to expose the heads, the scaffold was immediately new strewn with sawdust, the block new covered, the executioner new dressed, and a new axe brought. Then came old Balmerino, treading with the air of a general.—HORACE WALPOLE.

Collation. The old meaning of a 'discourse' or 'conference' has quite disappeared.

Yet wot I, quod this Marquis softely,

That in thy chamber I, and thou, and shee

Have a collacion, and wost thou why?-CHAUCER.

The collation consisted of beef and plantain-quash folded in plantain leaves, pombe served as tea, coffee and beer for the king. In consequence of our talking together in the boat, the king became playful and familiar, catching hold of my beard. As the rolling of the boat unsteadied him, he led the band of drums, and showed himself a thorough musician.-SPEKE'S Central Africa

College. Applied by Dryden to a swarm of bees. A warrior train,

That like a deluge pour'd upon the plain :

On barbed steeds they rode in proud array,

Thick as the college of the bees in May.-DRYDEN.

A marked distinction in dress, dinners, luxury, and in some colleges discipline, shows betimes the value attached to wealth and wealth only, and the younger son learns to the full extent of the lesson that he is worth so many thousands less than his elder brother. It is obvious that these distinctions, so sudden and so marked, must occasion an embarrassment and coolness in the continuance at college of friendships formed at school. The young are commonly both shy and proud.-LYTTON.