| 词汇 | john o’groat-s house |
| 词源 | John O’Groat’s house. From John O’Groat’s [house] to the Land’s End is a colloquial expression for from one end of Brit- ain to the other. The house in question once stood on the northeastern coast of Scotland, having been built by John de Groat, who settled there with his two brothers from Holland in about 1500. The brothers’ descendants eventually grew to eight families and quarrels began over the matter of precedency when they met each year at John O’Groat’s. Old John solved this problem neatly by building an eight-sided room with a door to each side and an eight-sided table, so that each family would be at the “head of the table.” A small green knoll in the vicinity of Duncansby Head is said to be the site of the house. It is not the northernmost point of Scotland, as is often claimed. |
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