subs. (old).—1. A stupid fellow.
pr. 1697. Merrie conceited Jests of George Peele [NARES]. He, after a distracted countenance and strange words, takes this BULFINCH by the wrist, and carried him into the privy, and there willed him to put in his head, but while he had written his name and told forty.
2. (hunting).—A high thick hedge; one difficult to jump or rush through. [Most authorities agree this term = ‘bull-fence,’ i.e., a fence capable of preventing cattle from straying.] Hence, as verb. = to leap a horse through such a fence.
1832. The Quarterly Review, March, 226. The BULL-FINCH fence … is a quickset hedge of perhaps fifty years’ growth, with a ditch on one side or the other, and so high and strong that [one] cannot clear it.
1864. G. A. LAWRENCE, Guy Livingstone, ix. The third is a teaser—an ugly black BULL-FINCH with a ditch on the landing side, and a drop into a ploughed field.
1868. OUIDA, Under Two Flags, iii. Right in front of that Stand was an artificial BULLFINCH that promised to treat most of the field to a purler, a deep ditch dug and filled with water, with two towering black-thorn fences on either side of it.
18[?]. C. KINGSLEY, Life, II., 56. Sit down in your saddles and race at the brook, then smash at the BULLFINCH.
1880. The Times, Nov. 2, 4, 5. They are almost invariably attired in double-stitched shooting coats, that will stand the ordeal of BULL-FINCHES and brambles.
1889. Man of the World, June 29. See Harrington, the belted earl, bear down an opponent in the jousts, charging with lance or sword as if he were riding at a South Notts BULL-FINCH.
