Sir Francis Head, Bart., in his _Stokers and Pokers_, remarks:—“During
the construction of the present London and North Western Railway, a
landlady at Hillmorton, near Rugby, of very sharp practice, which she had
imbibed in dealings for many years with canal boatmen, was constantly
remarking aloud that no navvy should ever “do” her; and although the
railway was in her immediate neighbourhood, and although the navvies were
her principal customers, she took pleasure on every opportunity in
repeating the invidious remark.
“It had, however, one fine morning scarcely left her large, full-blown,
rosy lips, when a fine-looking young fellow, walking up to her, carrying
in both hands a huge stone bottle, commonly called a ‘grey-neck,’ briefly
asked her for ‘half a gallon of gin;’ which was no sooner measured and
poured in than the money was rudely demanded before it could be taken
away.
“On the navvy declining to pay the exorbitant price asked, the landlady,
with a face like a peony, angrily told him he must either pay for the gin
or _instantly_ return it.
“He silently chose the latter, and accordingly, while the eyes of his
antagonist were wrathfully fixed upon his, he returned into her measure
the half gallon, and then quietly walked off; but having previously put
into his grey-neck half a gallon of water, each party eventually found
themselves in possession of half a gallon of gin and water; and, however
either may have enjoyed the mixture, it is historically recorded at
Hillmorton that the landlady was never again heard unnecessarily to boast
that no navvy could _do_ her.”