England. So called because, as Shakespeare has it, it is “hedged in with the main, that water-wallëd bulwark” (King John, ii. 1).
“This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands.”
Shakespeare: King Richard II., ii. 1.
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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.
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