Also 8–9 tallio, 9 tally-o, talleyho. [app. an altered form of the Fr. taïaut (Molière, Les Fâcheux, 1662), tayau, tayaut (Furetière), used in deer-hunting; earlier Fr. equivalents were taho, tahou, theau, theau le hau, tielau, thialau, and thia hillaud (Godef.).
The various Fr. forms appear to be meaningless exclamations. Much conjecture has been spent in vainly trying to put a French meaning into the English form by finding in it taillis coppice, est allé is gone, hors out, etc.]
1. The view-halloo raised by huntsmen on catching sight of the fox. a. as int.
[Cf. 1756. Foote, Englishman returned fr. Paris. Sir Toby Tallyho (name of a roistering character).]
1772. R. Graves, Spir. Quixote (1783), I. 68. Jerry … with the utmost vociferation, in the fox-hunters’ language, cries out, ‘Tallio! Tallio! Tallio!’
1815. W. H. Ireland, Scribbleomania, 19. Then at it, my Pegasus, here’s whip and rein, Tally ho! Tally ho! dash it bold o’er the plain.
1835. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7), XI. 752. The view holloa of the hare is, ‘Gone away’: of a fox, ‘Tallyho.’
1859. Art Taming Horses, etc., x. 168. When a fox breaks cover near you,… don’t be in a hurry to give the ‘Tally-a-e-o!’ Ibid., 169. When he [the fox] is well away through the hedge of a good-sized field, halloo … ‘Tally-o aw-ay-o-o!’ giving each syllable very slowly…. If the fox makes a short bolt and returns, it is ‘Tally-o back!’ with the ‘back’ loud and clear. If the fox crosses the side of a wood when the hounds are at check, the cry should be ‘Tally-o over!’
1880. Hertfordshire Hunt, 14.
| Tally ho! he gets a view, the whole pack make a rush, | |
| Whoo, whoop, they get him; tear him up, a lady wants the brush. |
b. as sb.
1787. Generous Attachment, I. 115. One of his tallios would have sent them screaming out of their senses.
1830–83. R. Eg.-Warburton, Hunt. Songs (ed. 7), XXVII. i. Beasts of the chace that are not worth a Tally-ho!
1860. All Year Round, No. 71. 485. How the glad tally-hos, triumphant who-whoops,… come from the very hearts of the farmers.
c. attrib.
1857. H. Breen, Mod. Eng. Lit., 138. Perhaps the most characteristic style of all is the tally-ho, or Nimrodian style.
2. Originally, the proper name given to a fast day-coach between London and Birmingham, started in 1823; subsequently appropriated by other fast coaches on this and other roads, and treated somewhat as a common noun. Also tally-ho coach.
1831. T. Attwood, 9 Oct., in Life, xii. (1885), 184. I prefer your coming by the Safety Tally ho, because it puts up at the most convenient inn.
1849. De Quincey, Engl. Mail-Coach, Wks. 1862, IV. 299. Once I remember being on the box of the Holyhead mail, between Shrewsbury and Oswestry, when a tawdry thing from Birmingham, some ‘Tallyho’ or ‘Highflyer,’ all flaunting with green and gold, came up alongside of us.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, I. iv. Tally-ho coach … don’t wait for nobody. Ibid. His father … had resolved that Tom should travel down by the Tally-ho, which … passed through Rugby itself.
1866. Geo. Eliot, F. Holt, Introd. The mail still announced itself by the merry notes of the horn; the hedge-cutter … might still know the exact hour by the … apparition of the pea-green Tally-ho or the yellow Independent.
1903. C. G. Harper, Stage-coach & Mail in Days of Yore, II. ix., x., xiii. [much historical information].
b. U.S. A large four-in-hand coach or drag.
1882. Howells, in Longm. Mag., I. 55. There was a tally-ho coach which had been driven out from Boston.
1885. W. P. Breed, Aboard & Abroad, 127. Who could … not take a tour of eight or ten hours in tallyho or wagonette?
1895. Nebraska State Jrnl., 18 June, 4/2. A talleyho ride was taken by a large party of young people Friday afternoon.
