Thank you, NoAgnes, for the brilliant question and for being a Regency Reader!
Author Regina Jeffries did a brief post on this mysterious phrase a few years ago: Do You Know These Words and Phrases? | Every Woman Dreams… (reginajeffers.blog) She wasn’t able to find the precise etymology or meaning of this expression, although she lists a couple 19th century uses.
In my search I found reference in Tom and Herry, Pierce Egan’s satirical story originally published in 1821:
This led me to believe that its origins lay somewhere in the horse racing world, and I found this blog that talked of the cross and jostle practice. This referred to the early practice, later prohibited, of jockey’s interfering with competitors.
When just looking for “cross and jostle”, I indeed found many other references within the literature on horse racing:
I think it’s fair to assume its origins indeed came from horse racing and meant for one jockey to cross the tracks of another rider or attempt to jostle them. Separately, there are also examples of cross and jostle both being employed as slang terms for cheating or dishonesty.
An early 20th century tome on horse racing tells us more about the practice of crossing and jostling:
The Analysis of the Turf (1927)
At some point in time in the early to mid 19th century I believe it also was occasionally applied to mean crossing opponents and indeed, using means foul or fair to win more generally, like in conversation. I found reference in an 1888 dictionary to the definition: “cross and jostle applied to a race in which the riders cross each other’s paths and jostle each other getting to the winning post as they like by fair riding or foul also fig” which suggests the term was used figuratively (A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 1888).
Heyer also used the phrase in The Foundling to describe a footman’s impression of his master Duke’s ill treatment, in Cousin Kate to describe the poor condition of a groom, and in Cotillion as a satirical description of an argument. It obviously was a favored cant term by Heyer that would be later used by many Regency romance authors, some with more true sense of the etymology than others. Heyer was the only one who regularly applied “work” to the end of “cross and jostle”, which were contemporarily interchangeable in their order suggesting that many historical romance authors took it directly from her usage.
It’s important to note that in the Georgian and Regency eras, crossing and jostling were a legitimate part of horse racing, and it wasn’t until the late 1820s that rules against it as a practice became ubiquitous.
I hope that helps! We will be adding the term to Regency Cant edition 2 along with over a hundred new terms, so thanks for sharing!
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