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The next in The Guardian's Top 10 Dictionaries is this collection of Victorian slang and fleetingly popular expressions, many I would guess of narrow usage. There can't be many dictionaries that open with the stated hope that it's not too dull.
As always, examples from browsing:
"Absolutely True - Absolutely false, from the title of a book, the statements in which, of a ghostly character, were difficult of acceptation."
"Blue o'clock in the morning - Pre-dawn, when the black sky gives way to purple."
"Chuck a yannep - To throw a penny." (Spell the last word backwards.)
"Farthing-faced chit - Small, mean-faced, as insignificant as a farthing."
"Long-tailed bear - One of the evasions of saying 'you lie'. From the fact that bears have no tails."
"Runner - Technical name for dog-stealer."
"True inwardness - Reality. One of the principal shapes of literary jargon produced in the '90s. Probably the only serious survival of the aesthetic craze of the '80s."
"Who took it out of you? - Meaning wholly unknown to people not absolutely of lower class."
James Redding Ware (1832-1909) was born in London and seems to have lived there his entire life. Ware (the name is a pseudonym) published many detective novels, including what's believed to have been the first with a female detective, and the usual miscellany that indicates a working writer (journalism, plays, how-to books, and so on).
