1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, ii., 1. You are one of those horse-leeches that gave out I was dead in Turnbull Street.
3. (old).—A horse-doctor; also a quack.
1594. Nashe, Terrors of the Night (Grosart, iii., 250). Whereas his horse-leech … will give a man twenty guineas in one.
1597. Hall, Satires, ii., 4. No horse-leech but will look for larger fee.
Horse-marines, subs. (common).—A mythical corps, very commonly cited in jokes and quizzies on the innocent. [The Jollies (q.v.) or Royal Marines, being ignorant of seamanship, have always been the butt of blue-jackets.] Tell that to the marines (or horse-marines) the sailors won’t believe it = a rejoinder to an attempt at imposition or credulity. Often amplified with when they’re riding at anchor. See also Bingham’s Dandies.
1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. xxi. ‘Come, none of your quizzing, my old buck,’ said Sir Bingo—‘what the devil has a ship to do with horse’s furniture?—Do you think we belong to the horse-marines?’
c. 1870. Broadside Ballad, ‘Captain Jinks.’ I’m Captain Jinks of the Horse-Marines.
1886. Stephens and Yardley, Little Jack Sheppard, p. 3. They may tell that yarn to the horse marines, For we bean’t such fools as we looks.
1886. Tinsley’s Mag., Apr., 321. Owing to a singular deviation from the ordinary functions of cavalry, the 17th Lancers were once christened the horse marines.
1892. Wops the Waif [Horner’s Penny Stories], ch. i., p. 1. Oh, nothink, eh! You’d better tell that to the hoss marines; I’ve lived a sight too long in Shoreditch to take that in.