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Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—D

Downright Dunstable

Very blunt, plain speaking. The present town of Dunstable is at the foot of the Chiltern Hills, in Bedfordshire. There was somewhere about the same site a Roman station called Magionium or Magintum, utterly destroyed by the Danes, and afterwards overgrown by trees. Henry I. founded the present town, and built there a palace and priory.

“If this is not plain speaking, there is no such place as downright Dunstable.” —Sir W. Scott: Redgauntlet, chap. xvii.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894

Downstairs

Downright