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Worthies II (1840) 447: The air of Marshland [...] is none of the wholesomest [...] strangers coming hither are clapt on the back in an ague. [...] When such prisoners have paid the bailiff’s fee and garnish, and with time [...] they become habituated to the air. Worthies (1840) II 225: ‘Bean-belly Leicestershire’ [...] Those in the neighbouring counties use to say merrily, ‘Shake a Leicestershire yeoman by the collar, and you shall hear beans rattle in his belly’. Worthies (1840) II 398: ‘This is the way to Beggar’s-bush.’ It is spoken of such who use dissolute and improvident courses, which tend to poverty; Beggar’s-bush being a tree notoriously known, on the left hand of London road from Huntingdon to Caxton. Worthies (1840) II 451: Thus, beginning on a good bottom left him by his father. Worthies (1840) III 115: bristol milk; this metaphorical milk, whereby xeres or sherry Sack is intended. Worthies (1840) I 226: Cambridgeshire Camels. Worthies (1840) II 447: ‘A Yarmouth capon’. That is, a Red-herring [...] I believe few Capons (save what have more fins than feathers) are bred in Yarmouth. But, to countenance this expression, I understand that the Italian Friers (when disposed to eat the flesh on Fridays) call a Capon ‘piscem è corte,’ (a fish out of the coop). Worthies (1840) I 399: A Plymouth Cloak. That is a Cane or a Staffe, whereof this the occasion. Many a man of good extraction, comming home from far Voiages, may chance to land here, and being out of sorts, is unable for the present time and place to recruit himself with Cloaths. Here (if not friendly provided) they make the next Wood their Drapers shop, where a Staffe cut out, serves them for a covering. Worthies (1840) II 313: ‘A Middlesex clown’ Some English words, innocent and inoffensive in their primitive notion, are bowed by custom to a disgraceful sense. Worthies (1840) I 497: Essex calves. Worthies II (1840) 447: The air of Marshland [...] is none of the wholesomest [...] strangers coming hither are clapt on the back in an ague. [...] When such prisoners have paid the bailiff’s fee and garnish, and with time [...] they become habituated to the air. Worthies (1840) II 348: ‘All goeth down Gutter-lane’ [...] Common people (we must speak with the volge, and think with the wise) call it Guttur-lane, pleading for their mis-pronouncing it, that the narrow form thereof is like the throat or gullet. Worthies (1840) II 347: ‘He is only fit for Ruffian’s-hall’. A ruffian is the same with a swaggerer, so called because endeavouring to make that side to swag or weigh down, whereon he engageth. Worthies (1840) III 53: No county in England hath such a heap of castles together. Worthies II (1840) 40: This is generally taken in a good and grateful sense, for the mutual return of favours received. [...] However, sometimes Hertfordshire kindness may prove to be Hertfordshire cruelty. Worthies (1840) II 125: A jack of Dover. I find the first mention of this proverb in our English Ennius, Chaucer, in his poem to the cook: ‘And many a jack of Dover he had sold, / Which had been two times hot, and two times cold’. Worthies (1840) II 413: ‘As long as Megg of Westminster.’ This is applied to persons very tall, especially if they have hop-pole height, wanting breadth. Worthies (1840) II 55: One... made a wanton or a nestle cock of. Worthies (1840) II 446: ‘Norfolk dumplings’ This cannot be verified of any dwarfish or diminutive stature of people in this county [...] it relates to the fare they commonly feed on. Worthies (1840) III 92: ‘The Beggars of Bath’ [...] Although oil of whip be the proper plaister for the cramp of laziness, yet some pity is due to impotent persons. Worthies (1840) II 108: At last he undertook to travel into the East Indies by land, mounted on an horse with ten toes. Worthies (1840) II 222: It was not long before he [Campian] was caught by the Setters of the Secretary Walsingham, and brought to the Tower. Worthies (1840) II 114: Many would never be indicted spinsters, were they spinsters in deed; nor some to so public and shameful punishments, if painfully employed in that vocation. Worthies (1840) I 453: ‘Stabb’d with a Brydport dagger.’ That is, hanged, or executed at the Gallowes; the best, if not the most hemp (for the quantity of ground) growing about Brydport. Worthies (1840) III 7: A coin worth sixpence, corruptly called tester.