Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a native of Essex, as used by those of Suffolk, who look down on their southern neighbours.

1617		J. Taylor ‘Iacke a Lent’ in Works (1869) I 116: It is Lents intent, that the innocent Lambe and the Essex calfe, should suruiue to weare the crest of their Ancestors: that the Goose, the Buzzard, the Widgeon, and the Woodcocke, may walke fearlesse in any market Towne.
1654		Witts Recreations Epigram No. 687: Oh were it not that some are wean’d too young, And some do suck (likes Essex Calves) too long.
1662		Fuller Worthies (1840) I 497: Essex calves.
1677		Behn Rover II i: Belv. Yet they are Whores tho this Essex Calf believe ’em Persons of Quality.
1707		Humours of a Coffee-House 9 July 10: This I know, he’s a great Essex Calf.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy IV 43: My Lord he cry’d a Hare, a Hare, but it proved an Essex Calf.
1739		Caledonian Mercury 19 Apr. 2/1: Our Purer Northern Air’s too sharp by half, / A Yorkshire Tike has bit this Essex Calf. / This dull-bed Rogue [etc.].
1794		Stamford Mercury 2 May 4/1: I swear by G—d ’tis beastly / Thus (like an Essex calf) to treat poor Priestly.
1825		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 9 Jan. 398/2: Mr. Brown—not Tom Brown the elder, nor Tom Brown the younger, nor John Brown the Essex calf.
1832		Essex Standard 20 Oct. 2/2: Our Startford Friend is mistaken. It was not an Essex Calf, but a Royston Crow, that made an attempt at a speech against Mr Baring, and got so shockingly laughed at.
1849		Paul Pry 8 Jan. 8/1: Paul Pry’s Curiosities [...] The out-and-out Essex Calf; an extraordinary animal, but obstinate—would not Budge an inch; and was brought to the show by railway.
1867		Sportsman 2 Nov. 2/2: Notes on News [...] [E]xplaining to the ‘Essex calves’ that a bishop is called a ‘Rt. Rev. Father in God’.
1872		Essex Newsman 7 Dec. 3/3: If a horse could not work eight or nine hours a day without being well fed, how could Hodge or an Essex calf be expected to.
1877		J. Diprose London Life 31: He will return home wiser than an Essex calf.
1884		Essex Standard 26 Apr. 6/1: An Essex Calf. Essex, you say, is famed for calves: / We thank you really for your pains, / For thus you show on our behalves, / We’re famous most for head and brains.
1890		Morn. Post (London) 22 Apr. Farmers would be glad to know what is the retail price for hay in London [...] Yours, etc, Essex Calf: .
1899		Cornishman 25 May 4/2: Among country nicknames is [...] Cambridgeshire camel, Essex calf, Norfolk dumpling.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
1913		Chelmsford Chron. 24 Oct. 7: It’s Essex Calf ’gainst Boer lout [...] Those gallant lads of our Regiment.

1. a calf.

1630		J. Taylor ‘Wit and Mirth’ 79: Essex calves, called lions.
1648		Mercurius Urbanicus 2-9 May cover: The Essex-Lyons Roaring came / With much Majestick-power.
1672		Poor Robin’s Almanac Mar. n.p.: Essex lyons there might be, / Which some name of calves do give.
a.1704		T. Brown A Collection of Letters in Works 1707–8 (1760) I 194: A man [who] so dextrously mimick’d the harmony of the Essex lions.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1834		‘Jack Downing’ Andrew Jackson 120: The Bullites, every one with a cag-mag, a piece of cow’s spouse, or an Essex lion in his wallet.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1878		Luton Times 12 July 7/5: ‘As valiant as an Essex lion’ — a calf.
1886		Bury & Norwich Post 21 Dec. 4/7: An ‘Essex lion’ is a calf, just as a ‘Cotswold lion’ is a sheep’.
1897		N. Platte Semi-wkly Trib. (NE) 14 May 3/3: An ‘Essex lion’ [is] a a calf.
1900		Reno (Nev.) Eve. Gazette 28 Apr. 2/2: The calf is an ‘Essex lion’.
1919		Free-Trader Jrnl (Ottowa, IL) 8 Dec. 7/3: Gastronomic Animals [...] An Essex lion is a calf.

2. a native of Essex, as used by those of Kent.

[1828		Bell’s Life in London 21 Sept. 3/1: In the ninth round the Essex Lion placed a tremendous hit under Pick’s ear, which dropped him senseless as the middle pier of Westminster Bridge.
1844		Durham Chron. 7 June 1/7: Mr Robert Baker, [...] the Essex lion, or, many farmers call him the gentleman in lion’s skin, of the Monopolists!!
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 124/2: Essex lion. Lion is a variant of calf. Not used in Essex, but against it; especially by superior gent, over the way, on the south side of the Thames. Interesting as showing intercounty hostilities, now passing away.

a ditch.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1874		Newcastle Courant 10 Apr. 3/6: An ‘Essex stile’ is a ditch, and an ‘Essex lion,’ a calf.
1897		N. Platte Semi-wkly Trib. (NE) 14 May 3/3: An ‘Essex stile’ is a ditch.
1902		Exeter & Plymouth Gaz. 4 Nov. 2/6: Perhaps it was the attractiveness of its stiles. ‘Essex stiles’ bering associated with Kentish miles and Norfolk wiles.