The Newgate Jig

by Ann Featherstone

  Highway, the: Ratcliffe Highway, a mile-long road in the East End of London which, by the nineteenth century, had become infamous for its resorts of crime, prostitution, ratting and dog-fighting

  Hook it, macaroni!: Get off (the stage), leave. Macaroni was a term often applied to Italians, or people who were of a Mediterranean appearance

  Last Confession: sold by street-vendors at public executions, these purported to be the life story and crimes told by the guilty offender

  Lumper: a man who loads and unloads ships

  Make a fist of Bordeaux!: see Draw claret!

  Methody: Methodist, disapproving of the theatre Newgate jig: a hanging

  Talking fish: a sea lion, frequently found in penny exhibitions

  Three-legged mare: the gallows

  Sheeney: a Jew

  Stretched: to be hung