to ride backwards up Holburn Hill走向绞刑架

【使用地区】：英国

【释义】：

To go to one’s own hanging．Up until 1784，the year of the last execution at Tyburn in London，condemned men would go to the gallows riding backwards on a horse all the way up Holburn Hill，which rose steeply from Newgate Prison to the gallows at Tyburn．This was probably done to prevent the condemned from being shocked with a distant view of the gallows．

此短语意为“受绞刑”。直到1784年最后一次在伦敦的Tyburn施刑，受刑的犯人都倒骑在马背上，一直从新门监狱(Newgate Prison)驮到设立在Holburn山上的Tyburn绞架边。这样做可能是为了避免受刑的人从很远就看见绞刑架而受到惊吓。