E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Gascona’de (3 syl., g hard).
Talk like that of a Gascon—absurd boasting, vainglorious braggadocio. It is said that a Gascon being asked what he thought of the Louvre in Paris, replied, “Pretty well; it reminds me of the back part of my father’s stables.” The vainglory of this answer is more palpable when it is borne in mind that the Gascons were proverbially poor. The Dictionary of the French Academy gives us the following specimen: “A Gascon, in proof of his ancient nobility, asserted that they used in his father’s house no other fuel than the bâtons of the family marshals.”
