1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1823. Bee, Dict. Turf etc., s.v. Herring-pond—the sea, the Atlantic; and he who is gone across it is said to be lagged, or gone a Botanizing.
1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 256, ed. 1854. You're too old a hand for the herring-pond.
1864. M. E. Braddon, Henry Dunbar, ch. xxv. You're not going to run away? You're not going to renounce the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and make an early expedition across the herring-pond—eh?
1884. Phillipps-Woolley, Trottings of a Tenderfoot. Everyone nowadays has read as much as he or she cares to about the voyage across the herring-pond.
1889. Notes and Queries, 7 S., vii., p. 36, c. 2. Terms which have lived in America, and again crossed the herring-pond with modern traffic.
1890. Punch, 6 Feb. Saturday.—My connection with war ended. Calculate I start to-morrow with the Show across the herring-pond, to wake up the Crowned Heads of Europe!
1891. Gunter, Miss Nobody, ch. xvii. If so, I'll—I'll cut him, when I cross the—er—herrin' pond.
1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger's Sweetheart, p. 119. I guess we have ruined one or two well-known authors, on the other side of the herring pond.
Hertfordshire-kindness, subs.
(old).—An acknowledgment, or
return, in kind, of favours received.
(But see quots., 1662, 1690, and
1738).
1662. Fuller, Worthies. This is generally taken in a good and grateful sense, for the mutual return of favours received: it being (belike) observed that the people in this county at entertainments drink back to them who drank to them.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hertfordshire-kindness, Drinking to the same Man again.
1717. Ned Ward, Wks., ii., 7. Then we were fain To use Hertfordshire-kindness, Here's to you again.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1738. Swift, Polite Conversations. Neverout. My Lord, this moment I did myself the honour to drink to your Lordship. Lord Smart. Why then that's Hertfordshire Kindness. Neverout. Faith, my Lord, I pledged myself: for I drank twice together without thinking.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hertfordshire Kindness, drinking twice to the same person.
Hewgag. The Hewgag, subs.
(American).—A name for an
undeterminate, unknown, mythical
creature.—Slang, Jargon, and
Cant.
Hey-gammer-cook. To play at
Hey-gammer-cook, verb. phr.
(venery).—To copulate. For
synonyms, see Greens and Ride.
1720. C. Johnson, Highwaymen and Pyrates, 'Margaret Simpson' (q.v.).
Hiccius Doccius, subs. phr. (Old
Cant).—A juggler; also a shifty
fellow or trickster.
1676. Shadwell, Virtuoso, ii., p. 19. I shall stand here till one of them has whipt away my Mistris about business, with a Hixius Doxius, with the force of Repartee, and this, and that, and Everything in the world.
1678. Butler, Hudibras, iii., 3, 579. At Westminster, and Hickses-Hall, And Hiccius Dockius play'd in all.
1688. Wycherley, Country Wife, iii. That burlesque is a Hocus-pocus trick they have got, which by the virtue of Hictius doctius, topsey-turvey, etc.
1812. Johnson, Eng. Dict., s.v. Hiccius doccius . . . a cant word for a juggler; one that plays fast and loose.
Adj. (old).—Drunk; slovenly. Also, Hickey (q.v.). For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.
1733. North, Examen, i., 3, 137 (1740). The author with his Hiccius-doxius delivery.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hicksius Doxius, Drunk.