Jacob’s Staff

An instrument for taking heights and distances.

“Reach then a soaring quill, that I may write

As with a Jacoh’s staff to take her height.”

Cleveland: The Hecatomb to his Mistress.

The Apostle James is usually represented with a staff.

“As he had travelled many a summer’s day

Through boiling sands of Arabie and Ynd;

And in his hand a Jacob’s staff to stay

His weary limbs upon.”

Spenser: Faërie Queene, book i. can to vi. 32–35.

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