TO GO TO PAUL’S (or WESTMINSTER) FOR A WIFE, verb. phr. (old colloquial).—To go whoring: TO MOLROW (q.v.). [HALLIWELL: Old St. Paul’s was in former times a favorite resort for purposes of business, amusement, lounging, or assignations; bills were fixed up there, servants hired, and a variety of matters performed wholly inconsistent with the sacred nature of the edifice.] Hence PAUL’S-WALKERS = loungers; AS WELL-KNOWN AS PAUL’S = notorious.
1598. SHAKESPEARE, 1 Henry IV., ii. 4. This oily rascal is KNOWN AS WELL AS PAUL’S. Ibid. (1598), 2 Henry IV., i. 2, 58. I bought him in PAUL’S, and he’ll buy me a horse in Smithfield: an I could get me but a wife in the stews, I were manned, horsed, and wived.
1670. RAY, Proverbs, 254. Who goes to Westminster for a wife, to ST. PAUL’S for a man, and to Smithfield for a horse, may meet with a whore, a knave, and a jade.
1807. MOSER, European Magazine, July. The young gallants … used to meet at the central point, St. Paul’s; and from this circumstance obtained the appellation of PAUL’S WALKERS, as we now say Bond Street Loungers.
