1664. H. Peacham, Worth of a Penny, in Arber’s Garner, vol. VI., p. 249. Some men … when they have met with a gold mine, so brood over and watch it, day and night, that it is impossible for Charity to be regarded, Virtue rewarded, or Necessity relieved.
1830 Tennyson, Dream of Fair Women, p. 274. Gold-mines of thought—to lift the hidden ore.
1882. Thormanby, Famous Racing Men, p. 81. Mendicant … ran nowhere in the Cup … in reality she was destined to prove a gold mine, for ten years afterwards she brought her owner £80,000 through her famous son, Beadsman.
1883. Sat. Review, 28 Apr. 533/2. His victory proved a gold mine to the professional bookmakers.
1887. Froude, Eng. in West Indies, ch. v. Every one was at law with his neighbour, and the island was a gold mine to the Attorney-General.
Golgotha, subs. (old).—1. The Dons’ gallery at Cambridge; also applied to a certain part of the theatre at Oxford. [That is, ‘the place of skulls’: Cf., Luke xxiii. 33, and Matthew xxvii. 33, whence the pun: Dons being the heads of houses.]
1730. Jas. Miller, Humours of Oxford, Act ii., p. 23 (2nd ed.). Sirrah, I’ll have you put in the black-book, rusticated,—expelled—I’ll have you coram nobis at Golgotha, where you’ll be bedevilled, Muck-worm, you will.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1791. G. Huddesford, Salmagundi, (Note on, p. 150). Golgotha, ‘The place of a Scull,’ a name ludicrously affixed to the Place in which the Heads of Colleges assemble.
1808. J. T. Conybeare in C. K. Sharpe’s Correspondence (1888), i., 324. The subject then, of the ensuing section is Oxford News … we will begin by golgotha … Cole has already obtained the Headship of Exeter, and Mr. Griffiths … is to have that of University. [[174]]