E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Amaurote,
a bridge in Utopia. Sir Thomas More says he could not recollect whether Raphael Hyghloday told him it was 500 paces or 300 paces long; and he requested his friend Peter Giles, of Antwerp, to put the question to the adventurer.
1
“I cannot recollect whether the reception room of the Spaniard’s Castle in the Air is 200 or 300 feet long. I will get the next aeronaut who journeys to the moon to take the exact dimensions for me, and will memorialise the learned society of Laputa.”—Dean Swift: Gulliver’s Travels.
