Vernon,

mentioned by Thomson in his Summer, was Admiral Edward Vernon, who attacked Carthageʹna in 1741; but the malaria reached the crew, and, as the poet says—

“To infant weakness sunk the warrior’s arms.”

Diana Vernon. An enthusiastic Royalist of great beauty and talent. (Sir Walter Scott: Rob Roy.)

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.