[Evans, Leicestersh. Gloss. (1881) suggests a corruption of bull-fence. If it was so, the origin must have been forgotten before bull-finch fence was said.] A kind of hedge (see quot.).
1832. Quart. Rev., March, 226. The bull-finch fence … is a quickset hedge of perhaps fifty years’ growth with a ditch on one side or the other, and so high and strong that [one] cannot clear it.
1857. Kingsley, in Life, xvi. (1879), II. 56. Race at the brook, Then smash at the bullfinch.
1880. Times, 2 Nov., 4/5. Double-stitched shooting coats, that will stand the ordeal of ‘bull-finches’ and brambles.
Hence Bullfinch v. intr., to leap a horse through such a hedge.
1837. Gambler’s Dream, III. 208. A fox hunter who must bullfinch out [of] a field in Northamptonshire, looks out for a little daylight between the twigs.
