Canvas is a coarse, unbleached cloth made from hemp or flax and used for sails, tents, etc. When prepared for portrait-painting it is classed as kit-cat, 28 by 36 inches, three-quarters, 25 by 30; half-length, 40 by 50; bishop's half-length, 44 or 45 by 56;
bishop's whole length, 58 by 94. Research Canvas
The cat and fiddle is a popular British public house sign. The sign owes its origins to being a corruption of Caton le fidele which actually means Caton, governor of Calais, and not the cat and the fiddle! Research Cat and Fiddle
A cat burglar is a burglar characterised by climbing buildings so as to enter through the upper levels, as distinct from a common burglar who breaks in through any convenient point. Research Cat Burglar
The term 'grinning like a Cheshire cat' is coined to describe a wide cheesy smile. The term originates from olden times when cheese was made in the form of cats in Cheshire, and hence the term provides the allusion to a cheesy grin. The phrase was popularised in the book 'Alice in Wonderland' where the character of the Cheshire cat, a cat with a persistent wide smile, occurs. Research Cheshire Cat
A club, a select number of persons in the habit of meeting for the promotion of some common object, as social intercourse, literature, politics, etc. It is a peculiarly English institution, which can scarcely be said to have taken root in any other country except America. The coffee-houses of the 17th and 18th centuries are the best representatives of what is meant by a modern club, while the clubs of that time were commonly nothing but a kind of restaurants or taverns whero people resorted to take their meals. But while anybody was free to enter a coffeehouse, it wao absolutely necessary that a person should have been formally received as a member of a club, according to its regulations, before he was at liberty to enter it.
Among the earliest of the London clubs was the Kit-cat Club, formed in the reign of Queen Anne, among whoso forty members were dukes, earls, and the leading authors of tho day. Another club formed about the same time was the Beefsteak Club. Originally these two cluba had no pronounced political views, but in the end they began to occupy themselves with politics, the Kit-cat Club being Whig, and the Beefsteak Club Tory. Perhaps the most celebrated club of the 18th century was that which was first called The Club par excellence, and numbered among its members Dr. Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Edmund Burke, Oliver Goldsmith, Edward Gibbon, and others.
Clubs are often provided with reading-room and library, and formerly a smoking-room, billiard-room, coffee-room, dining-room, drawing-room, etc, and also may have a certain number of bed-rooms. Besides being convenient for social intercourse, members may obtain their meals in them, served in the best style and at moderate cost. New members are admitted by ballot, and pay a certain entrance fee as well as an annual subscription. Research Club
A palindrome is a word, phrase or sentence the letters of which read the same left to right as right to left, such as 'was it a catI saw'. Research Palindrome
In grammar, a sentence is one or more clauses. A simple sentence contains a single clause. For example 'the dog barked.' A compound sentence contains two or more clauses joined by conjunctions, such as 'the dog barked and the dog ran after the cat.' A complex sentence is one in which a main clause is joined with a subordinate clause by a conjunction, such as for example 'the dog barked because it saw the cat', or one or more relative clauses (a clause which starts with a pronoun: who, whom, which, that) such as for example: 'the dog, who was called Rex, barked'. Research Sentence
Tom and Jerry are cartoon-film characters that were created in 1939 by American animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. The typically violent scenarios show Jerry the mouse getting the better of Tom the cat. A total of 154 short cartoon films were made, three of which won Academy Awards, and a full length film was also made. Research Tom and Jerry
The Abyssinian Cat (RabbitCat) is a breed of domestic shorthaired cat, possibly descended from antiquity. In modern times, it was imported from Abyssinia to Britain in the 1860s. The coat of the usual variety is ruddy brown with each hair ringed with two or three darker coloured bands. It has a medium-length body, long, slender legs, large wide set ears, and deep gold or green eyes. It resembles cats that appear in ancient Egyptian wall paintings. The breed was recognised in Britain 1882 and is now most widely bred in the USA. There are many varieties of Abyssinian Cat. Research Abyssinian Cat
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Canvas
