Sportsman's slang; a new dictionary of terms used in the affairs of the turf, the ring, the chase and the cock-pit, with those of bon-ton and the varieties of life / interspersed with anecdotes and whimsies, with tart quotations and rum-ones, with examples, proofs and monitory precepts, useful and proper for novices, flats and yokels, by Jon Bee [pseud].

  • Badcock, John, active 1816-1830
Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sportsman's slang; a new dictionary of terms used in the affairs of the turf, the ring, the chase and the cock-pit, with those of bon-ton and the varieties of life / interspersed with anecdotes and whimsies, with tart quotations and rum-ones, with examples, proofs and monitory precepts, useful and proper for novices, flats and yokels, by Jon Bee [pseud]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Medicine as of Law, of Chemistry and of Trade, each making tip his long alphabetical account to the day of publication. But, alas ! to little purpose did those dingy pioneers in the forest of words work at radix and stemmata, from stem to branch, to twig and leaf; vainly did they pursue their still receding labours, and exhaust by their pertinacity the midnight oil 1 Scarcely were the sheets thrown off at press when the Slang whcmgers, each in his degree, set to work and inun- dated with novelties each separate science, lest the public should become as wise as the professors—and these lose their And make us rather bear those ills we have, Than fly to others that we know nought of. Thrice happy are we, however, that our dependance for victory over the simply learned in languages, rests not upon the defensive position just now thrown up as a kind of outwork to our actual appui. “ Happy, happy, happy tawney Moor!” Proof positive is at hand; i. e. derivate proof, and this, in equity, must be received as legal proof, according to the laws of the republic of word peckers. The definition of the word is its origin : better and better still. Slangs are the greaves with which the legs of convicts are fettered in our prisons,* having acquired that name from the manner in which they were worn, or borne about, by the several occupants. Those irons being in weight from one to four stone (from 12 lb. to 50 lb.) each set, required a sling of string [hemp, worsted, or silk] to support them off the ground, so that the garnished person might move his pins about from post to pillar, from the ward to the court, thence to the common room, to the sessions-house, and finally the press-yard—whereat they usually fell off his legs—and he too fell a few minutes thereafter—“ good bye. Jack.” In performing those evolu- tions, as is well known to many—whom we name not—those greaves, irons, fetters, or darbies—call them what we like—[in fact, call them as we may, neversomuch, they seldom come, unless we enact some clever thing or other to get into their good graces]—each movement occasions a musical clanking or clang, differing from its preceding bar, as the sling or string may support the appendages more or less tightly; and then each alternate bar would sound either upon the slack-ened side of the irons or at the sling side—going a sling slang ; sling slang.” If the occupant for the time being, happened, in merry pin, to hop on one leg—as did often happen, the sound would be all ‘ sling, sling, sling,’ or e slang, slang, slang,’ according to the leg hopped-on or hopped-off; and, as the string (of hemp, worsted, or silk,t) already had the name of sling applied to it * The information may be of service to literary larcenere—book pirates, that within a few years the same favour was extended to simple culprits merely ; but whether the reformation of Newgate extends to all jails non-constat. t True; as is that part of the legend, respecting rogues of the last century, which tells that certain highwaymen ‘ wore silver fetters’—To appearance and in effect they were silver : the richer thieves rubbed over their irons the solution of grain tin in aqua regia, which gave these aij evanescent whiteness.'