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Wise as the Mayor of Banbury

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A blundering Sir William Curtis. The mayor referred to insisted that Henry III. reigned in England before Henry II.

The following is a fact which happened to myself in 1880. I was on a visit to a country mayor of great wealth, whose house was full of most exquisite works of art. I was particularly struck with a choice china figure, when the mayor told me how many guineas he had given for it, and added, “Of course you know ‘whoʹ it is meant for. It is John Knox signing Magna Charta.”

 

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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.

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Winkle (Rip van)
Wint-monath [Wind-month]
Winter, Summer
Winter’s Tale (Shakespeare)
Wipple-tree or Whipultre
Wisdom-tooth
Wisdom of Many and the Wit of One (The)
Wise (The)
Wise as a Serpent
Wise as Solomon
Wise as the Mayor of Banbury
Wise as the Women of Mungret
Wise Men or Wise Women
Wise Men of Greece
Wise Men of the East
Wise Men of Gotham (The)
Wiseacre
Wisest Man of Greece
Wish-wash
Wishy-washy
Wishart (George)