Bred from a navvy stock, Old Nelly had wandered over the world for many years, from one mining camp to another.
"Reminiscences of a South African Pioneer"
W. C. Scully
Using the right hand as a fulcrum and keeping it stationary, each navvy slowly lifted his pick with the left half-way up, about on a level with his waistcoat, when the point of the pick was barely two feet above the ground.
"Hodge and His Masters"
Richard Jefferies
You have worked him like a navvy, and never given him enough pocket money to keep him in tobacco even.
"The Pioneers"
Katharine Susannah Prichard