Whoa!, Blue Monday (1806)

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THE STRANGER IN IRELAND:
OR, A TOUR IN THE SOUTHERN AND WESTERN PART OF THAT COUNTRY
IN THE YEAR 1805
by John Carr
Philadelphia: Samuel F. Bradford
1806

Pg. 10:  The mist which almost perpetually envelopes the head of this mighty mountain, is by the natives called its _night-cap_.
(OED has 1626, then 1817--ed.)

Pg. 24:  The Irish drivers set their horses in motion much in the same way as we do, by the word "gee," an important word which, as well as that of "whoa," have been too much in constant use to have had much illustration.  Dr. Johnson defines the accelerating word "gee" to be "a term amongst waggoners, to make their horses go faster;" but does not recur to the radical word.  Ge, or geh, seems to be the imperative of the German verb gehen, to go; a word by which, with an accompanying stroke of the whip, a horse thoroughly understands that he is to advance.  The retarding word "whoa," we are told, was formerly applied to valorous knights and comabtants in armour, or _harness_, as it was called, and hence degraded to horses _in harness_.  When the king, as president at tilts and tournaments, threw down his baton as the signal of discontinuance, the heralds cried out, in the Danish language, to the combatants, "ho," that is, stop.  When a jingle-driver wishes his horse to go to the right, he cries "hup, hup;" when to the left, "wey, wey;" and when to stop, "phthrowh."
(OED has "whoa" from 1840 and 1843--ed.)

Pg. 148:  An Irish breakfast is always a bountiful one, and contains, exclusive of cold meats, most excellent eggs and honey...stirabout, a sort of hasty pudding made of oaten meal.

Pg. 163:  This is a general national trait; and a grievous imprecation in the Irish language is, "May your burial be foresaken;" they have another very figurative malediction, "May the grass grow green before your door."

Pg. *167:  ...at those subterranean _tables d'hotes_ in the _diving cellars_ of St. Giles's, in London...
(A dive?--ed.)

Pg. 174:  For want of employment, the common people had recourse to drinking; and, instead of fasting, it soon became a common proverb, "_Heute blauer fraff Montag_; To-day is feasting Monday," and was soon distinguished by debauchery, tumult, and even bloodshed; in consequence of which an edict was published in 1731, by virtue of which the custom of keeping Blue Monday was abolished entirely.
(OED has "Blue Monday" only from 1801--ed.)