Holland

The country of paradoxes. The “houses are built on the sand;” the sea is higher than the shore; the keels of the ships are above the chimney-tops of the houses; and the cow’s tail does not “grow downward,” but is tied up to a ring in the roof of the stable. Butler calls it:

“A land that rides at anchor and is moored,

In which they do not live, but go aboard.”

Description of Holland.

(See also Don Juan, canto x. 63.)

Holland. A particular kind of cloth; so called because it used to be sent to Holland to be bleached. Lawn is cloth bleached on a lawn; and grass-lawn is lawn bleached on a grass-plat.

Bleaching is now performed by artificial processes.

· ·

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

Holland

See Also: