Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 5.pdf/36

 Newcome, subs. (common).—A new arrival; a fresh face: as a freshman at college; a new midshipman; a new baby. Also Johnnie Newcome.

1821. Egan, Life in London, Nocturnal Hells. There were some new-*comes. [The name given to any new faces or persons among the usual visitants in a gambling house].

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, etc., s.v. Newcome Johnny.

New-drop, subs. (old).—See quot.

1788. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. New drop. The scaffold used at Newgate for hanging criminals; which dropping down, leaves them suspended. By this improvement, the use of that vulgar vehicle, a cart, is entirely left off.

New England of the West, subs. phr. (American).—The State of Minnesota. [Many New Englanders settled there].

Newgate, subs. (old).—A gaol: specifically the prison for the City of London: see quots. 1592 and 1823. Also Newman's Hotel (or tea-gardens: man's (Old Cant.) = a place). Hence, Newgate-bird (or Newgate-nightingale = a thief, sharper, or gaol-bird; Newgate (or Tyburn) collar, fringe, or frill = a collar-like beard worn under the chin; Newgate-frisk = a hanging; Newgate-knocker = a lock of hair like the figure 6, twisted from the temple back towards the ear (chiefly in vogue 1840-50—see Aggerawators); Newgate-*ring = moustache and beard as one, without whiskers; Newgate-saint = a condemned criminal; to dance the Newgate-hornpipe = to be hanged; Newgate-solicitor = a pettifogging attorney; Born on Newgate-steps = of thievish origin; as black as Newgate = very black; Newgate seize me = 'the gaol be my portion'; Newman's-lift = the gallows.

c.1531. Copland, Hyeway to Spyttel-*hous [Hazlitt, Pop. Poet, iv., 41]. By my fayth, nyghtyngales of Newgate: These be they that dayly walkes and jettes.

1592. Nash, Pierce Penilesse Newgate a common name for all prisons as homo is a common name for a man or woman.

1598. Shakspeare, 1 Henry IV., iii., 3. Must we all march? Yes, two and two, Newgate fashion.

1607. Dekker, Jests [Grosart, Works (1886), ii., 343]. Our Newgate-bird spreading his Dragon-like wings, beheld a thousand Synnes.

1677. Thomas Otway, Cheats of Scapin, i., 1. Newgate-bird what a trick hast thou played me in my absence.

1732. Ozell, Miser, i., 3. Out of my House, thou sworn Master-Catpurse, true Newgate-bird.

1823. Grose, Vulg. Tongue [Egan], s.v. Newman's-hotel.

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, etc., s.v. Newgate. A house of entertainment for rogues of every description The name itself has been naturalized in Dubliu, as also in Manchester, where the sessions-house is modernized into New Bailey. The old building stood across the entrance to Newgate Street; and probably had its name from having been the newest of all the gates that then choked up the accesses to the metropolis. Ibid. Newgate Steps, figurative for a low or thievish origin. Before 1780, these steps were much frequented by rogues and ws connected with the inmates of that place: some might be said to have received their education there, if not their birth. Ibid. As black as Newgate is said of a street Lady's lowering countenance, or of her muslin-dress, when either is changed from the natural serene. Ibid. Newgate seize me if I do, there now! is an asseveration of the most binding nature, when both parties may be following the same course of life.

1829. Maginn, The Pickpocket's Chaunt [Farmer, Musa Pedestris (1896), 105], xiii. And we shall caper a-heel and toeing a Newgate hornpipe some fine day.