Mr. and Mrs. Veneering were bran-new people, in a bran-new house, in a bran-new quarter of London. Everything about the Veneerings was spick and span new. All their furniture was new, all their friends were new, all their servants were new, their plate was new, their carriage was new, their harness was new, their horses were new, their pictures were new, they themselves were new, they were as newly married as was lawfully compatible with their having a bran-new baby.
In the Veneering establishment, from the hall chairs, with the new coat of arms, to the grand pianoforte with the new action, and upstairs again to the new fire-escape, all things were in a state of high varnish and polish.--C. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, ii. (1864).
Veneerings of Society (The), flashy, rich merchants, who delight to overpower their guests with the splendor of their furniture, the provisions of their tables and the jewels of their wives and daughters.
Venerable Bede (The). Two accounts are given respecting the word venerable attached to the name of this “wise Saxon.” One is this: When blind, he preached once to a heap of stones, thinking himself in a church, and the stones were so affected by his eloquence that they exclaimed, “Amen, venerable Bede!” This, of course, is based on the verse, Luke xix. 40.
The other is that his scholars, wishing to honor his name, wrote for epitaph:
Hæc sunt in fossa,
Bedæ presbyteri ossa;
but an angel changed the second line into “Bedæ venerabilis ossa” (672-735).
⁂The chair in which he sat is still preserved at Jarrow. Some years ago a sailor used to show it, and always called it the chair of the “Great Admiral Bede.”
Venerable Doctor (The), William de Champeaux (*-1121).