E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Under-spur-leather.
An understrapper; a subordinate; the leather strap which goes under the heel of the boot to assist in keeping the spur in the right place.
1
“Everett and Dangerfield … were subordinate informers—a sort of under-spur-leathers as the cant term went.”—Sir W. Scott: Peveril of the Peak, chap. xii.
