Page:Memoirs James Hardy Vaux.djvu/472

Rh PATTER, to talk; as, He patters good flash, &c.

PATTER’D, tried in a court of justice; a man who has undergone this ordeal, is said to have stood the patter.

PEAR-MAKING, inlisting in various regiments, taking the bounty, and then deserting.

PENSIONER, a mean-spirited fellow who lives with a woman of the town, and suffers her to maintain him in idleness in the character of her fancy-man.

PETER, a parcel or bundle, whether large or small; but most properly it signifies a trunk or box.

PETER-HUNTING, traversing the streets or roads for the purpose of cutting away trunks, &c., from travelling carriages; persons who follow this game, are from thence called peter-hunters, whereas the drag more properly applies to robbing carts or wagons.

PETER-HUNTING-JEMMY, a small iron crow, particularly adapted for breaking the patent chain, with which the luggage is of late years secured to gentlemen’s carriages; and which, being of steel, case-hardened, is fallaciously supposed to be proof against the attempts of thieves.

PETER-THAT, synonymous with Stow-that.

PICK-UP, to accost, or enter into conversation with any person, for the purpose of executing some design upon his personal property; thus, among gamblers, it is called picking up a flat, or a mouth: sharpers, who are daily on the look-out for some unwary countryman or stranger, use the same phrase; and among drop-coves, and others who act in concert, this task is allotted to one of the gang, duly qualified, who is thence termed the