| John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919. |
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| Page 1049 |
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| | | Appendix. (continued) |
| | | 10439 | | Hobson’s choice. |
Tobias Hobson (died 1630) was the first man in England that let out hackney horses. When a man came for a horse he was led into the stable, where there was a great choice, but he obliged him to take the horse which stood next to the stable-door; so that every customer was alike well served according to his chance,—from whence it became a proverb when what ought to be your election was forced upon you, to say, “Hobson’s choice.”—Spectator, No. 509.
- Where to elect there is but one,
’T is Hobson’s choice,—take that or none.
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| 10440 | | Intolerable in Almighty God to a black beetle. |
| Lord Coleridge remarked that Maule told him what he said in the “black beetle” matter: “Creswell, who had been his pupil was on the other side in a case where he was counsel, and was very lofty in his manner. Maule appealed to the court: ‘My lords, we are vertebrate animals, we are mammalia! My learned friend’s manner would he intolerable in Almighty God to a black beetle.’” (Repeated to a member of the legal profession in the United States.) |
| 10441 | | It is a far cry to Lochow. |
| Lochow and the adjacent districts formed the original seat of the Campbells. The expression of “a far cry to Lochow” was proverbial. (Note to Scott’s “Rob Roy,” chap. xxix.). |
| 10442 | | Lucid interval. |
| Francis Bacon: Henry VII. Sidney: On Government, vol. i. chap. ii. sect. 24.Thomas Fuller: A Pisgah Sight of Palestine, book iv. chap. ii. South: Sermon, vol. viii. p. 403.John Dryden: MacFlecknoe.Mathew Henry: Commentaries, Psalm lxxxviii.Samuel Johnson: Life of Lyttelton.Edmund Burke: On the French Revolution. |
| 10443 | | Nisi suadeat intervallis. |
| Bracton: Folio 1243 and folio 420 b. Register Original, 267 a. |
| 10444 | | Mince the matter. |
| Cervantes: Don Quixote, Author’s Preface.William Shakespeare: Othello, act ii. sc. 3 William King: Ulysses and Teresias. |
| 10445 | | Months without an R. |
| It is unseasonable and unwholesome in all months that have not an R in their name to eat an oyster.—Samuel Butler: Dyet’s Dry Dinner. (1599.) |
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