New blood must be pumped into the veins and arteries of the S.P.Q.R.--G.A. Sala (Belgravia, April, 1871).
Spotswood (Lady). A singular letter to this lady (widow of Governor Spotswood of Virginia) is preserved in the family. It was written by Rev. John Thompson, rector of St. Mark’s Church, Culpepper County, Virginia, and contains an elaborate and apparently dispassionate argument for marrying a clergyman. The only outbreak of loverly feeling is in the expressed hope that if he should convince her reason, she will “keep him no longer in suspense and misery, but consummate his happiness” (1742).
Sprackling (Joseph), a money-lender and a self-made man.
Thomas Sprackling, his brother and equal in roguery.--Wybert Reeve, Parted.
Spregner (Louis), Annette Veilchen’s bachelor.--Sir W. Scott, Anne of Geierstein (time, Edward IV.).
Sprightly (Miss Kitty), the ward of Sir Gilbert Pumpkin of Strawberry Hall. Miss Kitty is a great heiress, but stage-struck, and when Captain Charles Stanley is introduced she falls in love with him, first as a “play-actor,” and then in reality.--I. Jackman, All the World’s a Stage.
Spring (A Sacred). The ancient Sabines, in times of great national danger, vowed to the gods “a sacred spring” (ver sacrum), if they would remove the danger. That is, all the children born during the next spring were “held sacred,” and at the age of twenty were compelled to leave their country and seek for themselves a new home.
Spring-Heel Jack. The marquis of Waterford, in the early part of the nineteenth century, used to amuse himself by springing on travellers unawares, to terrify them; and from time to time others have followed his silly example. Even so late as 1877-8, an officer in her majesty’s service caused much excitement in the garrisons stationed at Aldershot, Colchester, and elsewhere by his “spring-heel” pranks. In Colchester and its neighborhood the tales told of this adventurer caused quite a little panic, and many nervous people were afraid to venture out after sunset, for fear of being “sprung” upon. I myself investigated some of the cases reported to me, but found them for the most part Fakenham ghost tales.
Springer (The). Ludwig Margrave, of Thuringia, was so called, because he escaped[escaped] from Giebichenstein, in the eleventh century, by leaping over the river Saale.
Sprowles (The). New England village parvenus.