Chapter IX: Introduction (7)

*=Gilliflower-grass=. _Carex glauca_, L., and _Carex panicea_, L.--N.W., obsolete.

'In Bradon Forest growes ... a blew grasse they call
July-flower grasse, which cutts the sheepes mouthes, except in
the spring.'--AUBREY'S _Nat. Hist. Wilts_, p. 49, ed. Brit.

*=Gipsy-nut=s. Hips and haws.--S.W. (near Trowbridge.)

=Girls=. _Add_:--S.W. (Deverill.)

=Good liver=. A person who lives an exceptionally good and pious life.--N.W.

=Good-living=. Leading a very pious life. 'Her wur allus a good-living sart o' a 'ooman.'--N.W.

=Grained=. _Add_:--~Grinted~ in Berks.

=Gramfer= (or =Granfer=) =Grig=. A woodlouse. At Deverill, S.W., children try to charm it into curling up, when held in the hand, by singing:--

'Granfer Grig killed a pig,
Hung un up in corner;
Granfer cried and Piggy died,
And all the fun was over.'

=Granny= (or =Granny's=) =Nightcap=. _Add_:--*(5) _Geum rivale_, L., Water Avens.--S.W. (Little Langford.)

=Grigger cake=. Fine paste spread thin like a pancake, and baked on a gridiron over a mass of glowing wood-coals.--S.W.

=Ground=. _Add_:--S.W.

*=Gubbarn=. _Dele_ 'Should not this be _adj._ instead of _n._?' and _add_:--Also used in Glouc. as a noun.

=Guss=. (2) _Add_:--S.W.

=Hack=. (1) _Add_:--To hoe; frequently used in S. Wilts.

=Hackle=. (2) _Add_:--~Hackle~, and sometimes ~Shackle~, are used at Deverill, while elsewhere in S. Wilts ~Bee-hackle~ is the word employed.

=Hames=. _Dele_ 'in drawing,' and add 'with staples to take the traces.'

=Hand=. (3) _Add_:--S.W. (Deverill.)

=Hand-staff=. _Add_:--S.W. (Deverill.)

=Hanging-post=. _Add_:--S.W. (Deverill), where ~Har~ is seldom used.

=Hanglers=. _Add_:--In Deverill, a hook used for this purpose is known as 'a hangles.'--S.W.

=Har=. _Add_:--S.W. (Deverill, occasionally.)

=Harl=. _Add_:--~Hardle~ is also used in S. Wilts.

*=Harvest-man=. A kind of Spider with long legs.--S.W. (Deverill.)

=Heal=. _Add_:--A house is said to be 'unhealed,' or uncovered, when the thatch has been stripped off by a storm.--S.W. (Deverill.)

=Hearken-back=. To recall.--N. & S.W.

=Heartless=. _Add_:--S.W. (Deverill.)

=Heaver=. _Add_:--'Van, heavier, caffin or caving rudder, the winnowing fan and tackle' (D.).

=Hill-trot=. _Add_:--*(3) _Anthriscus sylvestris_, Hoffm., Wild Beaked-Parsley.--S.W. (Charlton.)

*=Hitch off=. To release horses from work.--S.W.

*=Honey-pot=. A children's game, in which one child lifts another.--S.W.

=Hop-about=. _Add_:--S.W.

*=Hopped=. Cracked, as a boiler, by heat.--S.W. (Deverill.)

=Huck down=. To beat down in bargaining. 'I hucked un down vrom vive shillin' to vower an' zix.' Formerly used at Clyffe Pypard, but not known there now.--N.W.

=Huckmuck=. (3) _Add_:--S.W. (Deverill). _Add_:--(4) _v._ To mess about.--S.W.

*=Hun-barrow= (or =-barrer=). A tumulus.--S.W.

*=Hunger-bane=. To starve to death. See ~Bane~.--Obsolete.

'At Bradfield and Dracot Cerne is such vitriolate earth ...
[which] makes the land so soure, it bears sowre and austere
plants ... At summer it hunger-banes the sheep: and in winter
it rotts them.'--AUBREY'S _Nat. Hist. Wilts_, p. 35, ed. Brit.

*=Idle=. Full of fun.--S.W.

=It=. Sometimes used in a peculiar way, as 'We'm best be gwain, hadn't it?' or, 'We can aal on us ha' a holiday to-day, can't it?'--S.W.

=Jack-and-his-team=. _Add_:--S.W. (Deverill); also ~Jack-and-his-team-goin'-to-pit~, the constellation's motion seeming to be from Deverill towards Radstock collieries, as if it were a farmer's team going by night to fetch coal thence.--S.W. (Deverill.)

=Jag=. _Add_:--(2) 'Wull, to be shower, they chrysantums is beautiful! They be aal in a jag!' i.e. all out in large heads of flowers.--N.W. (Clyffe Pypard.)

=Jerry-shop=. A 'Tommy-shop,' conducted on the truck system, now illegal. Much used about Swindon at the time the railway was being made there.--Obsolete.

*=Jiffle=. _Add_:--Mr. F. M. Willis writes us that he once heard this word used in connexion with a horse, when a bad rider who was pulling its head about was told not to jiffle it.

=Job=, or =Jobble about=. To do little jobs. 'I cain't do moor'n jobble about now.'--N.W.

*=July-flower grass=. See *~Gillyflower-grass~.

=Kiss-me-quick=. _Add_:--S.W. (Deverill.)

=Lady-cow=. _Add_:--S.W.

=Lily=, or =Lilies=. _Add_:--*(3) _Ranunculus aquatilis_, L., Water Crowfoot.--S.W. (Charlton.)

=Linnard=. A linnet, as 'a brown linnard,' 'a green linnard.' Formerly used at Clyffe Pypard, where, however, it is obsolete, the pronunciation there now being distinctly _Linnut_. Conversely, _orchard_ becomes _archet_.--N.W. (Clyffe Pypard, &c.)

=Long-winded=. _Add_:--S.W. (Deverill.)

=Lords-and-Ladies=. _Add_:--The purple spadices are the 'Lords,' and the yellow or very light-coloured ones the 'Ladies.'

=Maggotty-pie=. _Add_:--At Deverill, thirty years ago, there was a nursery rhyme as follows:--

'Hushaby, baby, the beggar shan't have 'ee,
No more shall the maggotty-pie;
The rooks nor the ravens shan't carr' thee to heaven,
So hushaby, baby, by-by.'

=Mandrake=. _Bryonia dioica_, L., White Bryony. The root is popularly supposed to be Mandrake.--N.W. (Clyffe Pypard, Heddington.)

=Mask=. To collect acorns. A variant of _mast_.--N.W. (Potterne.)

=Melt=. The spleen of a pig, which forms a favourite dish when stuffed.--N. & S.W.

*=Milkmaid's-Way=. The Milky Way.--S.W. (Deverill.)

=Mimp=. To make believe, to sham. 'Look at she a-settin' up ther, mimpin'!' idling, playing the fine lady.--N. & S.W.

*=Min=. An exclamation, used like '_snaw_, as 'I'll ketch thee, min!'=Note that well. See Barnes, _Glossary to Poems_.--S.W. (Deverill.)

*=Monkey Must=. _Melampyrum arvense_, L., Cow-wheat.--N.W. (Heddington.)

=Mump=. To sulk. 'How ter'ble mumping she do look!'--N.W.

=Nammet-bag=. A luncheon-bag.--S.W.

=Neck-headland=. _Add_:--Common at Deverill.--S.W.

=Noddy=. Weakly, ailing.--N.W.

=Nog=. _Add_:--Also used of a lump of cheese, &c.--S.W.

=Not-cow=. _Add_:--S.W.

=Nuncheon=. _Add_:--About Salisbury Nuncheon is between 10 and 10.30 a.m., and again at 4 p.m., and is a very small meal, merely a piece of bread and glass of beer, while Nammet is at 12, and is equivalent to dinner.

=Off=. 'A can't be off puttin' up a covey o' pa'tridges, if so be as a goes whoam athert Four-Acre,' i.e. he cannot possibly help doing it.--N.W.

=Out=. _n._ The outcome or result of an attempt to do a thing. 'A offered vor to do some draishin', but a made a ter'ble poor out on't,' i.e. he had little to show for his labour.--N.W.

=Parson's nose=. A goose's tail, when served up at table.--N.W. (Clyffe Pypard.)

=Peter Grievous=. _Add_:--Children who look as if they thought themselves sadly 'put upon' by their elders are said to be 'Peter-grievous.'

=Pigs=. (2) _Add_:--In Berks woodlice are called _Church-pigs_.

*=Pimple=, =Pumple=. The head. Used by children.--S.W. (Deverill).

*=Pisty-poll=. A child riding with his legs on your shoulders is said to be carried 'a pisty-poll.'--S.W. (Deverill.)

=Ploughing terms=. The first furrows ploughed are those 'veered out' to mark the 'lands.' On each side of this 'veering out' furrow a fresh furrow is ploughed, turning the earth into it. This is 'topping up,' or 'shutting the top up,' and becomes the centre and highest point of the 'land.' When the 'lands' have been all but ploughed, there remains between them a strip, two furrows wide, still unploughed. This is 'the Ent,' and is halved by the plough, one half being turned up one way, and the other half the other way. There remains then a furrow just twice the ordinary width. The plough is taken down this, and half of it is turned up again on one side, the result being a narrow furrow some inches deeper than any other, called the 'Zid-furrer' or Seed-furrow.--N.W. (Clyffe Pypard.)

=Plumb=. 'A plumb man,' an upright man, one who always keeps his word.--N.W. (Clyffe Pypard.)

*=Polly Dishwasher=. _Motacilla_, The Wagtail.--S.W. (Deverill.)

*=Pot-hangel=. The same as Hanglers, q.v.--S.W. (Deverill.)

=Prick-timber=. _Euonymus Europaeus_, L., Spindle-tree.--N. & S.W., obsolete.

'Prick-timber ... is common, especially in North Wilts. The
butchers doe make skewers of it,--because it doth not taint the
meate as other wood will doe: from whence it hath the name of
prick-timber.'--AUBREY'S _Nat. Hist. Wilts_, p. 56, ed. Brit.

=Purry=. Turnips sometimes get quite 'purry,' i.e. become spongy and bad and full of holes. Perhaps a contraction of _purrished_ (perished).--N.W.

*=Quag=. _n._ A shake, a state of trembling. 'He's all of a quag with fear.'--S.W.

*=Quean=. _Add_:--S.W. (Deverill.)

=Quob=. (2) _Add_:--S.W. (Deverill.)

=Quobble=. _n._ and _v._ After being a long while at the wash-tub a woman's hands are apt to get 'all in a quobble,' or 'ter'ble quobbled,' that is, shrivelled and drawn and wrinkled up. See ~Sob~.--N.W.

=Ramblers=. Potatoes left by chance in the ground, which come up again the next year.--N.W.

*=Rammil-cheese=. Cheese made of raw unskimmed milk.--S.W.

=Ramp=. _Add_:--(2) _v._ To rage, as 'My bad tooth just about ramped aal laas' night.'--N.W.

=Ramping=. _Add_:--(2) Of pain, violent, raging. 'I wur in that rampin' pain, I didn't know whur to get to.'--N.W.

*=Rook-worm=. A cockchafer grub.--Obsolete.

'I have heard knowing countreymen affirme that rooke-wormes,
which the crows and rookes doe devour at sowing time, doe turn
to chafers.'--AUBREY'S _Nat. Hist. Wilts_, p. 67, ed. Brit.

*=Round market=. See quotation.

'Warminster is exceeding much frequented for a round
corn-market on Saturday.'--AUBREY'S _Nat. Hist. Wilts_, p. 114,
ed. Brit.

=Ruck=. (1) _n._ A crease in a stocking, &c.--N.W. (2) _v._ To crease or wrinkle up. 'My shirt wur aal rucked up under my arms, an' I cudden' kip un down nohow.'--N.W. (3) Hence, to rub and gall. 'Thuck ther new boot hev a-rucked she's heel ter'ble bad.'--N.W.

*=Ruddock=. _Sylvia rubecula_, Robin Redbreast. In common use at Warminster, though unknown a few miles away.--S.W.

*=Rumpled-skein=. _Add_:--Used of a tradesman's books, when badly kept and hard to balance.--N.W. (Glouc. bord.)

=Sankers=, =Shankers=, or =Sinkers=. Stockings without feet.--N.W. See _The Scouring of the White Horse_, ch. vi. p. 128.

=Sar=. _Add_:--*(3) To earn. See note on Akerman, in Ellis's _English Dialects_, p. 29.

=Scrinchet=. A scrap of food, a shred of stuff, &c.--N.W. (Huish.)

=Scroop=. (1) _n._ A saving or miserly person.--N.W. (2) _v._ To save up, to screw and scrape.--N.W.

=Seed-furrow=. See ~Ploughing terms~.

=Serve=. See ~Sar~.

=Shacketty=. Ricketty, shaky.--N.W.

*=Shackle=. The straw covering of a hive. A sibilated form of _Hackle_, q.v.--S.W. (Deverill.)

=Shail=. To walk crookedly or awkwardly, to shamble along.--N.W. (Clyffe Pypard.)

*=Shame-faced Maiden=. _Add_:--*(2) _Ornithogalum umbellatum_, L., Spiked Star of Bethlehem.--S.W. (Little Langford.)

=Shankers=. See ~Sankers~.

=Shatter=. To scatter, to sprinkle. 'Shatter th' pepper well auver'n, do 'ee!'--N.W.

=Shattering=. A sprinkling. 'Put just a shatterin' on't.'--N.W.

*=Shirpings=. The rough grass and weeds by the river banks, which cannot be mown with the scythe, and have to be cut afterwards with a sickle.--S.W. (Salisbury.)

=Short=. Tender. Roast mutton ought to 'eat short.'--N.W.

*=Shreeving=. Picking up windfalls, &c., in an orchard.--S.W.

=Shrimpy=. Shrivelled, poor.--N. & S.W.

*=Shrovy=. Puny, as 'What a shrovy child!' Cp. _Shrievy_, applied in Hants to stuff with some of the threads pulled out.--S.W. (Deverill.)

=Shucky=. Rough, jolty: used of roads when the surface is frozen and rutty.--N.W.

=Shuffle=. To hurry along. 'I wur shufflin' to get whoam avore dree.' Cf. ~Shuffet~.--N.W.

=Sinkers=. See ~Sankers~.

=Slink=. Bad diseased meat.

*=Sloot=. To defraud.--N.W. (Berks bord.)

=Slox=, =Slocks=. (2) To wear out clothes by careless use of them. Compare ~Hock about~.--N.W.

*=Slut's-farthings=. Small hard lumps in badly kneaded bread.

=Snake-stones=. Fossil Ammonites.--N.W., occasionally still used.

'About two or three miles from the Devises are found in a pitt
snake-stones (_Cornua ammonis_) no bigger than a sixpence, of a
black colour.'--AUBREY'S _Nat. Hist. Wilts_, p. 45, ed. Brit.

'In this parish [Wootton Bassett] are found delicate
snake-stones of a reddish gray.'--JACKSON'S _Aubrey_, p. 204.

=Snug=. Well, in health, comfortable. 'I be main glad to hire as your missus be so snug [is doing so well] a'ter her confinement.'--N.W.

=Sob=. To sodden with wet. Cf. ~Sobbled~.--N.W.

*=Split-house=. A joint tenancy?

'Whereas we ... being inhabitants of the town of Marlborough
... have ... for many years past, fed and depastured our mares
and geldings, two to each inhabitant not being certificate
men nor split houses, in the said earl's Forest of Savernak,
&c.'--1790, Agistment Deed as to Savernake Forest, quoted in
Waylen's _History of Marlborough_, p. 421.

=Spray=. To splay a sow, when set aside for fattening.--N.W.

*=Squailings=, =Squailens=. Ungathered apples.--S.W.

=Staid=. _Add_:--Sometimes applied to an old horse or other animal.

*=Stars-and-garters=. _Ornithogalum umbellatum_, L., Star of Bethlehem.--N.W. (Heddington.)

=Starvation cold=. Extremely cold. See ~Starve~.--S.W.

=Steart=. (1) _Add_:--Used at Salisbury by a gas-fitter of the small projection turned by the gas-key.

*=Stipe=, =Steip=. _Add_:--~Steep~.--S.W., still in use about Salisbury.

*=Strikes=. Segments of iron for wheel-binding.--S.W.

=Stubs=. (4) _Add_:--S.W.

=Studdly=. _Add_:--also ~Stoodly~.

*=Sucker= (_Zucker_). A spout from the roof.--S.W.

=Summer-folds=. Freckles which come in summer time.--N.W.

=Tear=. _Add_:--Mr. Powell writes us that at Deverill this is still used of breaking crockery, &c.--S.W.

=Teart=. (3) _Add_:--Acrimonious. _Tort_ in Aubrey.

'The North Wilts horses, and other stranger horses, when they
come to drinke of the water of Chalke-river, they will sniff
and snort, it is so cold and tort.'--AUBREY'S _Nat. Hist.
Wilts_, pp. 23-24, ed. Brit.

'This riverwater [Chalke stream] is so acrimonious, that
strange horses when they are watered here will snuff and snort,
and cannot well drinke of it till they have been for some time
used to it.'--_Ibid._ p. 28.

=Terrify=. *(3) _Add_:--This is a Gloucestershire use of the word.

*=Thee and Thou=. (1) 'He thee'd and thou'd us,' said of a clergyman who was very familiar with his flock.--S.W. (2) _v._ To abuse violently, to insult a person by addressing him in the second person singular. A man complained of the way in which his neighbours had been abusing him, the climax of it all being reached when they began to 'thee and thou' him.--N. & S.W.

=Thetches=. _Add_:--~Thatch~. _Vicia sativa_, L.--S.W. (Charlton.) All vetches are known as 'Thetches' or 'Thatches' in Wilts, being 'Blue,' 'Yellow,' or 'Red' Thetches according to the colour of the flower.

=Thread-the-needle=. A very complicated form of this children's game is played at Deverill, under the name of Dred-th'-wold-'ooman's-needle.--S.W.

*=Thunder-stones=. Nodules of iron pyrites. *~Hunder-stones~, q.v., may be merely a misreading of the MS.

'Thunder-stones, as the vulgar call them, are a pyrites; their
fibres do all tend to the centre. They are found at Broad
Chalke frequently.'--AUBREY'S _Nat. Hist. Wilts_, p. 40, ed.
Brit.

=Tine=. _Add_:--(6) To collect and burn couch and weeds in the fields.--N.W.

'What 'ould thy husband do ... if thee was too vine to turn
hay, or go tinin' or leazin'?'--_Dark_, ch. XV.

*=Tippertant=. A young upstart.--S.W.

*=Trip=. A brood or flock, as 'A vine trip o' vowels (fowls).' In a MS. in the Bodleian a herd of tame swine is defined as a _trip_, while one of wild swine is a _sounder_.--S.W. (Deverill.)

*=Tucky=. Sticky.--S.W.

*=Turning-the-barrel=. A game in which two children stand back to back, locking their arms behind them, and lifting each other by turns from the ground.--S.W. (Deverill.)

=Under-creep=. _v._ To get the upper hand of by deceit, to overreach any one.--S.W. (Britford and Harnham.)

*=Underground Shepherd=. _Orchis mascula_, L., Early Purple Orchis.--S.W. (Charlton.)

=Unhealed=. See ~Heal~.

=Vitty=. Close, closely. Cp. _fitly_, Eph. iv. 16.--N.W.

*=Warning-stone=. _Add_:--

'The bakers take a certain pebble, which they put in the
vaulture of their oven, which they call the warning-stone: for
when that is white the oven is hot.'--AUBREY'S _Nat. Hist.
Wilts_, p. 43, ed. Brit.

*=Water-sparrow=. _Salicaria phragmitis_, the Sedge Warbler. Cp. ~Brook-sparrow~.--S.W. (Deverill.)

=Whinnock=. To whimper.--N.W.

=Whinnocky=. A whinnocky child is one that is always ailing and whimpering.--N.W. (Clyffe Pypard.)

=White-livered=. _Add_:--S.W. (Deverill.)

=Winter-stuff=. Winter-greens.--N.W.

*=Witch-hazel=. _Ulmus montana_, Sm.

'In Yorkshire is plenty of trees, which they call elmes; but
they are wich-hazells, as we call them in Wilts.'--AUBREY'S
_Nat. Hist. Wilts_, p. 54, ed. Brit.

=Wrastle=. _Add_:--Measles, for instance, 'wrastles' all over the face very quickly.

*=Zwail=. To shake about: to swing the arms.--S.W. (Deverill, &c.)

SPECIMENS OF DIALECT

We have thought it advisable to supplement the brief examples of folk-talk which will be found in the body of this work by a few somewhat longer specimens, which may be taken as accurately representing the speech current at the present time among the villages in North Wilts. Mr. Slow has kindly added a similar specimen for South Wilts. The extracts from Akerman exemplify the North Wilts speech of some fifty or sixty years ago.

EXTRACTS FROM THE GENUINE REMAINS OF WILLIAM LITTLE[1].

By J. Y. AKERMAN.

(From _Wiltshire Tales_, pp. 165-179.)

[North Wilts.]