Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a town or village.

1688		R. Holme Academy of Armory Ch. iii item 68c: Canting Terms used by Beggars, Vagabonds, Cheaters, Cripples and Bedlams. A vile, a Town.
1703		Hell Upon Earth 6: Vil, a Town.
1741		Canting Academy, or the Pedlar’s-French Dict. 117: Market-Town A ville.
1753		J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 30: Three or four persons go to the Fair or Market, and put in at the first Ken (or House) they come to in the Vile (Town).
1786		Whole Art of Thieving n.p.: A rum Vile for the File or Lift to Pitter-lay or Leather-lay; [...] a good town for the pick-pockets or shop-lifters, to steal Portmanteaus or leather-bags.
1791		‘Flash Lang.’ in Confessions of Thomas Mount 19: A town, a vile.
1821		D. Haggart Autobiog. 89: I [...] walked rapidly along the back-street, and round a great part of the voil, till I came to the back of the King’s Arms Inn.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 35: Voil – town.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835].
1849		Leamington Spa Courier 4 Aug. 4/5: Take my advice quit the Voil and share the Whacks regular.
1852		Kendal Mercury 17 Apr. 6/1: I gathered up my sticks and vent to another part of the voil (town), got half a bull (2s. 6d.) and hooked it.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 114: VILLE, or vile, a town or village.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859].
1891		F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 416: We made a long road back to vile.
1919		H.B. Law 2nd Army Air Service Bk n.p.: It was an ideal place for fatigue details with no ‘villes’ to slip off to.
1922		(con. 1917–18) S.V. Benét Beginning of Wisdom 239: Stout manicured Middle Western clubwomen made pilgrimages of gush from their ‘burgs’ and ‘villes.’.
1929		Advertiser (Adelaide) 25 Oct. 32/7: The best of the ‘woolholes’ (workhouses) are given honorable mention, and all the 'ganny vials’ (towns where the police dislike hawkers and tramps) are listed.
1972		T. O’Brien If I Die in a Combat Zone (1980) 11: Captain says we’re gonna search one more ville today.
1987		(con. 1967) Bunch & Cole Reckoning for Kings (1989) 91: When we go in that vill, I’ll be crawling your ass like we were married.