PHRASES, &c. ‘Who goes worse shod than the SHOEMAKER’S WIFE’ (B. E.) = an excuse for the lack of something one ought to possess; IN THE SHOEMAKER’S STOCKS = ‘pincht with straight shoes’ (B. E.); SHOE-MAKER’S PRIDE = creaking shoes; SHOE-MAKER’S HOLIDAY (see quot. 1793, and cf. CRISPIN’S HOLIDAY).
1793. European Magazine, 172. There was nothing which he [Oliver Goldsmith] enjoyed better than what he used facetiously to term a SHOEMAKER’S HOLIDAY.… Three or four of his intimate friends rendevoused at his chambers to breakfast about ten o’clock in the morning; at eleven they proceeded, by the City Road and through the fields, to Highbury Barn to dinner; about six o’clock in the evening they adjourned to White Conduit House to drink tea; and concluded the evening by supping at the Grecian or Temple Exchange coffee houses, or at the Globe in Fleet Street…. The whole expenses of this day’s fête never exceeded a crown, and … oftener from three-and-sixpence to four shillings, for which the party obtained good air and exercise, good living, the example of simple manners, and good conversation.
