[Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift]@TWC D-Link bookGulliver’s Travels CHAPTER VIII 25/60
The countries about the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea and its adjoining waters. [4] _Mrs._: it was formerly the custom to call unmarried women Mrs. [5] _The South Sea_: the Pacific Ocean. [6] _Van Diemen's Land_: N.W.from Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) and in latitude 30 degrees 2 minutes would be in Australia or off the West Coast. [7] _Cable's length_: about six hundred or seven hundred feet. [8] _Buff jerkin_ a leather jacket or waistcoat. [9] _Small_: weak, thin. [10] _Signet-royal_: the king's seal. [11] _Half-pike_ a short wooden staff, upon one end of which was a steel head. [12] _Stang_: an old word for a perch, sixteen feet and a half, also for a rood of ground. [13] _Chairs_: a sedan chair is here meant.
It held one person, and was carried by two men by means of projecting poles. [14] _Crest_: a decoration to denote rank. [15] _Lingua Franca_: a language--Italian mixed with Arabic, Greek, and Turkish--used by Frenchmen, Spaniards, and Italians trading with Arabs, Turks, and Greeks.
It is the commercial language of Constantinople. [16] _Imprimis_: in the first place, (pr.) im pri' mis. [17] _Lucid_: shining, transparent. [18] _Yeomen of the guards_: freemen forming the bodyguard of the sovereign. [19] _Pocket perspective_: a small spy-glass or telescope. [20] _Trencher_: a wooden plate or platter. [21] _Corn_: such grains as wheat, rye, barley, oats. [22] _Quadrant_: an instrument long used for measuring altitudes. [23] _Skirt_: coat-tail. [24] _Alcoran_ the Koran or Mohammedan Bible. [25] _Embargo_: an order not to sail. [26] _Discompose them_: displace them. [27] _Puissant_: powerful. [28] _Junto_: a body of men secretly united to gain some political end. [29] _Pulling_: plucking and drawing, preparatory to cooking, [30] _Meaner_: of lower rank. [31] _Portion_: the part of an estate given to a child. [32] _Domestic_: the household and all pertaining thereto. [33] _Exchequer bills_: bills of credit issued from the exchequer by authority of parliament. [34] _Close chair_: sedan chair. [35] _Cabal_: a body of men united for some sinister purpose. [36] _Lee side_: side sheltered from the wind. [37] _Ancient_: flag, corrupted from ensign. [38] _Downs_: A famous natural roadstead off the southeast coast of Kent, between Goodwin Sands and the mainland, south of the Thames entrance. [39] _Black Bull_: inns in England are often named after animals with an adjective descriptive of the color of the sign; as, _The Golden Lion, The White Horse_. [40] _Towardly_: apt, docile. [41] _Straits of Madagascar_: Mozambique Channel. [42] _The line_: the equator. [43] _Hinds_: peasants; rustics. [44] _Pistoles_: about three dollars and sixty cents. [45] _Trencher-side_: up to his trencher or wooden plate. [46] _Discovering_: Showing. [47] _From London Bridge to Chelsea_: about three miles as the birds fly. [48] _Pillion_: a cushion for a woman to ride on behind a person on horseback.
_From London to St.Alban's_: about twenty miles. [49] _Pumpion_: pumpkin. [50] _Parts_: accomplishments. [51] _Sanson's Atlas_: a very large atlas by a French geographer in use in Swift's time. [52] _As good a hand of me_: as much money of me. [53] _Moidore_: a Portuguese gold piece worth about six dollars. [54] _Guineas_: an obsolete English gold coin, of the value of five dollars. [55] _Phoenix_: a bird of fable said to live for a long time and rise anew from its own ashes. [56] _Cabinet_: a private room. [57] _Scrutoire_: a writing-desk. [58] _Waiting_: attendance on the king. [59] _Lusus naturae_: a freak of nature. [60] _Royal Sovereign_: one of the great ships of Swift's time. [61] _Dunstable lark_: large larks are caught on the downs near Dunstable between September and February, and sent to London for luxurious tables. [62] _Drone_: the largest tube of a bag-pipe, giving forth a dull heavy tone. [63] _Gresham College_, in London, is named after the founder, an English merchant, who died in 1579. [64] _The square of_: as large as the square of. [65] _Salisbury Steeple_: this is about four hundred feet high. [66] _Battalia_: the order of battle. [67] _Espalier_: a lattice upon which fruit-trees or shrubs are trained. [68] _Scull_: a short oar. [69] _Starboard or larboard_: right or left. [70] _Corking-pin_: a larger-sized pin. [71] _Stomacher_: a broad belt. [72] _Varlet_: knave. [73] _Levee_: a ceremonious visit received by a distinguished person in the morning. [74] _Spinet_: a stringed instrument, a forerunner of out piano. [75] _Closet_: private room. [76] _Signal_: memorable. [77] _Chancery_: a high court of equity. [78] _Glossing_: commenting. [79] _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_ was born about the middle of the first century, B.C.; he endeavored in his history to relieve his Greek countrymen from the mortification they had felt in their subjection to the Romans, and patched up an old legend about Rome being of Greek origin and therefore their "political mother." [80] _Ideas, entities, abstractions, transcendentals_, words used in that philosophy which deals with thinking, existence, and things beyond the senses. [81] _Mercurial_: active, spirited. [82] _Composition_: compact, agreement. [83] _Progress_: an old term for the travelling of the sovereign to different parts of his country. [84] _Tumbrel_: a rough cart. [85] _Page_: a serving-boy, and especially one who waits on a person of rank. [86] _Quarry_: prey. [87] _Squash_: shock, concussion. [88] _To rights_ speedily. [89] _To make_ To get alongside. [90] _Phaeton_ a son of Apollo who was dashed into the river Endanus for his foolhardiness in attempting to drive the steeds of the sun for one day. ADVERTISEMENTS Heath's Home and School Classics. FOR GRADES I AND II. Mother Goose: A Book of Nursery Rhymes, arranged by C.Welsh.In two parts.
Illustrated by Clara E.Atwood.Paper, each part, 10 cents; cloth, two parts bound in one 30 cents. Craik's So Fat and Mew Mew.
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