Covent Garden ague

A reference to the brothels and prostitutes that were once common in and around Covent Garden in London.

Covent Garden ague (plural Covent Garden agues)

1. (archaic, British slang) A venereal disease; a sexually transmitted disease.

• Barnwell ague, Kentish ague, ladies' fever

• Covent Garden abbess, Covent Garden nun

• “Covent Garden ague” in Albert Barrère and Charles G[odfrey] Leland, compilers and editors, A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant, volume I (A–K), Edinburgh: The Ballantyne Press, 1889–1890, pages 275–276.
• Farmer, John Stephen (1891) Slang and Its Analogues‎, volume 2, page 193