Imatges de pàgina
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USED AT THE PRESENT DAY IN THE STREETS OF LONDON; THE UNIVERSITIES OF OXFORD
AND CAMBRIDGE; THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT: THE DENS OF ST. GILES;
AND THE PALACES OF ST. JAMES.

PRECEDED BY A

HISTORY OF CANT AND VULGAR LANGUAGE;

WITH

GLOSSARIES OF TWO SECRET LANGUAGES,

SPOKEN BY THE WANDERING TRIBES OF LONDON, THE COSTERMONGERS,
AND THE PATTERERS.

BY A LONDON ANTIQUARY.

John Camden Hottin

L

"Rabble-charming words, which carry so much wild-fire wrapt up in them."-SOUTH.

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LONDON:

PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND GREENING, GRAYSTOKE-PLACE,

FETTER-LANE, E.C.

8594

H83 1860

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

THE First Edition of this work had a rapid sale, and within a few weeks after it was published the entire issue passed from the publisher's shelves into the hands. of the public. A Second Edition, although urgently called for, was not immediately attempted. The First had been found incomplete and faulty in many respects, and the author determined to thoroughly revise and recast before again going to press. The present edition, therefore, will be found much more complete than the First; indeed, I may say that it has been entirely rewritten, and that, whereas the First contained but 3,000 words, this gives nearly 5,000, with a mass of fresh illustrations, and extended articles on the more important slang terms-HUMBUG, for instance. The notices of a Lingua Franca element in the language of London vagabonds is peculiar to this edition.

My best thanks are due to several correspondents for valuable hints and suggestions as to the probable etymologies of various colloquial expressions. One literary journal of high repute recommended a

468

division of cant from slang; but the annoyance of two indices in a small work appeared to me to more than counterbalance the benefit of a stricter philological classification, so I have for the present adhered to the old arrangement; indeed, to separate cant from slang would be almost impossible.

Respecting the HIEROGLYPHICS OF VAGABONDS, I have been unable to obtain further information; but the following extract from a popular manual which I have just met with is worth recording, although, perhaps, somewhat out of place in a Preface.

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Gipseys follow their brethren by numerous marks, such as strewing handfuls of grass in the day time at a four lane or cross roads; the grass being strewn down the road the gang have taken; also, by a cross being made on the ground with a stick or knife, the longest end of the cross denotes the route taken. In the night time a cleft stick is placed in the fence at the cross roads, with an arm pointing down the road their comrades have taken. The marks are always placed on the left-hand side, so that the stragglers can easily and readily find them."— Snowden's Magistrate's Assistant, 1852, p. 444.

Piccadilly, March 15th, 1860.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

IF any gentleman of a studious turn of mind, who may have acquired the habit of carrying pencils and notebooks, would for one year reside in Monmouth Court, Seven Dials; six months in Orchard Street, Westminster; three months in Mint Street, Borough; and consent to undergo another three months on the extremely popular, but very much disliked treadmill (vulgo the "Everlasting Staircase "), finishing, I will propose, by a six months' tramp, in the character of a cadger and beggar, over England, I have not the least doubt but that he would be able to write an interesting work on the languages, secret and vulgar, of the lower orders.

In the matter of SLANG, our studious friend would have to divide his time betwixt observation and research. Conversations on the outsides of omnibuses, on steamboat piers, or at railway termini, would demand his most attentive hearing, so would the knots of semi-decayed cabmen, standing about in bundles of

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