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A guide post, hand or finger post by the road side for directing travellers: compared to a parson, because, like him, it sets people in the right way. See Guide Post. He that would have luck in horse-flesh, must kiss a parson’s wife.
Definition taken from The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, originally by Francis Grose.
Park Pailing * Parson’s JourneymanNathan Bailey's 1736 Dictionary of canting and thieving slang
John S. Farmer's collection of canting songs and slang rhymes
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Francis Grose was independently wealthy, having inherited money from his father, a jeweller. Finding himself overspending, he published a number of books; his Provincial Glossary seems to have been the starting-point for the Vulgar Tongue reproduced here.