Brewer's: Growlers

and Crawlers. The fourwheel cabs; called “growlers” from the surly and discontented manners of their drivers, and “crawlers” from their slow pace

“Taken as a whole, the average drivers of hansom cabs ... are smart, intelligent men, sober, honest, and hardworking. ... They have little ... in common with the obtrusive, surly, besotted drivers of the `growlers' and `crawlers.' ” —Nineteenth Century, March, 1893, p. 473

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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