TO RIDE BACKWARDS UP HOLBORN HILL, verb. phr. (old colloquial).—To go to the gallows. [The way was thence to Tyburn, criminals riding backwards.—GROSE.]
1614. JONSON, Bartholomew Fair, ii., 1. Urs. … Up the heavy HILL—— Knock. Of HOLBOURN, Ursula, mean’st thou so? for what, for what, pretty Urse? Urs. For cutting halfpenny purses, or stealing little penny dogs out o’ the Fair.
1659. Harry White’s Humour (NARES). Item, he loves to ride when he is weary, yet at certaine times he holds it ominous to ride up HOLBORNE.
1695. CONGREVE, Love for Love, ii., 7. Sirrah, you’ll be hanged; I shall live to see you GO UP HOLBORN HILL.
