A purple patch

In the spirit of purple-ness:

I've just looked up what 'purple patch' actually means - as opposed to what I thought it might mean. Google and I thought more-or-less alike:

'To have a purple patch means to have an exceptionally good period in, say, that game of football. The origin here is a little obscure but could be based on the fact that Roman noblemen wore purple togas. They were clearly exceptional people, hence the analogy. Alternatively the emphasis may be on the patch since purple and other multicoloured areas were sometimes set into ancient illuminated texts and other ventures in order to make them look more distinguished than they truly were. In Horace's De Arte Poetica he says "Often to weighty enterprises and such as profess great objects, one or two purple patches are sewn on to make a fine display in the distance".'

How educational is that? On a Saturday as well.