subs. (old).—‘A piece of spoiled timber in a coachmaker’s shop, like a saint, devoted to the flames’ (GROSE).
PHRASES and DERIVATIVES.—ST. ANTHONY’S PIGS (see quot. 1662); ST. GEOFFREY’S DAY = never (GROSE): see QUEEN DICK; ST. GILES’S BREED = ‘Fat, ragged, and saucy’ (GROSE); ST. GILES’S GREEK = cant, SLANG (q.v.), PEDDLER’S FRENCH (GROSE); ST. LAWRENCE’S TEARS (see quot. 1874); ST. LUBBOCK’S DAY = a bank-holiday; ST. LUKE’S BIRD = an ox (GROSE); ST. MARGET’S ALE = water: see ADAM’S ALE; ST. MARTIN’S EVIL = drunkenness; ST. MARTIN’S RING = a copper-gilt ring; ST. MARTIN’S LACE = imitation gold lace, stage tinsel: see quot. 1607 (DEKKER); ST. MONDAY = ‘a holiday taken on Monday to recover from the effects of the Sunday’s rest’ (GROSE): whence MONDAYISH = lazy: see COBBLER’S SUNDAY and SHOEMAKER’S HOLIDAY; ST. NICHOLAS (see NICHOLAS); ST. PATRICK (or ST. PATRICK’S WELL) = the best whiskey; ST. JOHN TO BORROW (see BORROW); TO DINE WITH ST. ANTHONY (cf. DUKE HUMPHREY); RIDING ST. GEORGE = ‘the woman uppermost in the amorous congress, that is the dragon on St. George’ (GROSE): whence ST. GEORGE A-HORSE-BACK = the act of kind (see quot. 1617); THE ’SPITAL STANDS TOO NIGH ST. THOMAS A’ WATERINGS = ‘Widows who shed most tears are sometimes guilty of such indiscretions as render them proper subjects for the public hospitals’ (HAZLITT); SAINT OF THE SAUCEPAN = an expert cook.
1600. Sir John Oldcastle, iv. 3. If ye burn, by this flesh, I’ll make you drink their ashes in SAINT MARGET’S ALE.
[?]. Plaine Percivall [BRAND, Observations on Popular Antiquities, II. 27, note]. I doubt whether all be gold that glistereth, sith SAINT MARTIN’S RINGS be but copper within, though they be gilt without.
1607. W. S., The Puritaine, i. 1. Here’s a puling … my mother weeps for all the women that ever buried husbands…. Alas! a small matter bucks a handkerchief; and sometimes THE SPITTLE STANDS TOO NIGH SAINT THOMAS A’ WATERINGS.
1607. DEKKER, Westward Ho! ii. 1. You must to the Pawn to buy lawn; to SAINT MARTIN’S for LACE.
1617. FLETCHER, The Mad Lover, i. 1.
| How our ST. GEORGES will BESTRIDE THE DRAGONS, | |
| The red and ramping dragons. |
1632. MASSINGER, The Fatal Dowry, iii. 1.
| Charal. You did not see him on my couch within, | |
| Like GEORGE A-HORSEBACK, on her, nor a-bed? |
1648. A Brown Dozen of Drunkards … By one that hath drunk at ST. PATRICK’S WELL [Title].
1662. FULLER, Worthies (London), i. 65. Nicholas Heath … noted for one of SAINT ANTHONIE’S PIGS therein (so were the Scholars of that school [City of London] commonly called, as those of St. Paul, Paul’s Pigeons).
1749. SMOLLETT, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 42. That SAINT OF THE SAUCEPAN … leaving him … to … his usual nap after dinner, we took away, and demolished the remainder with appetites worthy of our master. Ibid., Gil Blas (1812), II. viii. Comedians … do not travel a-foot, and DINE WITH ST. ANTHONY.
1791. J. LACKINGTON, Memoirs, Letter, iii. [Life, 1803]. While he was keeping SAINT MONDAY, I was with boys of my own age, fighting, cudgel-playing, wrestling, &c. &c.
1821. W. T. MONCRIEFF, Tom and Jerry, 5. Flash, my young friend, or slang, as others call it, is the classical language of the Holy Land; in other words, ST. GILES’S GREEK.
1874. English Mechanic and World of Science [DAVIES], 31 July, 501, 1. The familiar shower of shooting-stars [9th to 11th Aug.], known of old as S. LAURENCE’S TEARS, but now termed—rather more scientifically—the Perseides, from the point in the heavens whence they appear to radiate.
1882. MRS. J. H. RIDDELL, Weird Stories, 52, ‘The Open Door.’ We were always chaffing each other, playing practical jokes, telling stupid stories, scamping our work, looking at the clock, counting the weeks to next ST. LUBBOCK’S DAY, counting the hours to Saturday.
1884. Daily News, 22 July, 5, 3. It was evident that universal homage was being paid to SAINT MONDAY. Working London proclaimed a general holiday.
1902. Pall Mall Gazette, 26 July, 3, 1. It [Coronation day] will be the most memorable Bank Holiday that has yet figured in the annals of ST. John LUBBOCK.
