Chriss-cross Row (row to rhyme with low).

The alphabet in a hornbook, which had a cross at the beginning and end.

And science quite the fashion;

Our grandams learnt the Chriss-cross Row,

L—d, how their daughters dash on.”

Anon. in the Eaglet.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.