Charley Bates’ Farm, or Garden.—See Bates’ farm.
Charley-Lancaster, subs. (rhyming slang).—A ‘handkercher.’
Charley-Pitcher, subs. (thieves’).—A prowling sharper who entices
greenhorns to take a hand in thimble-rigging, the three-card trick,
prick the garter, etc.
1859. G. A. Sala, Twice Round the Clock (2 p.m., par. 10), p. 160.
Even at remote country race-courses, you may find remnants of the
whilom swarming tribe of Charley-pitchers, the knavish gentry who
pursue the games of ‘under seven or over seven,’ ... or inveigle
the unwary with ‘three little thimbles and one small pea.’
1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, IV., 32, note. A
Charley-pitcher seems to be one who pitches to the Ceorla or
countryman, and hence is equivalent to the term Yokel-hunter.
1877. Besant and Rice, Son of Vulcan, pt. I., ch. ix. With them
marched the Charley-pitchers, who gained an honourable livelihood
with the thimble and the pea.
Charley-Prescot, subs. (rhyming slang).—A waistcoat. For synonyms, see
Fan.
Charley-Wag. To play the charley-wag (school-slang).—1. To absent
oneself from school without leave; to play truant. Variants are To
mouch; To wag; Fr., tailler or caler l’école; Spanish, hacer novillos,
and andar á la tuna.
1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 57.
Nothing could be done with him at school ... Joe being, in spite of
all entreaties, the greatest rapscallion and ringleader of all
mischief, and at all times readier to play the charley Wag than to
be the first in any prominent position in his class or form.