Chapter XXVI: Appendix: I

A GLOSSARY OF SOME OF THE PROVINCIALISMS USED IN THE NEW FOREST.

I could easily have expanded the following glossary to three times its size, but my object is to give only some specimens of those words which have not yet found their way into, or have not been fully explained in Mr. Halliwell’s or Mr. Wright’s dictionaries of provincialisms. The following collection is, I believe, the first ever made of the New Forest, or even, with the exception of the scanty list in Warner,[292] of Hampshire provincialisms, which of course to a certain extent it represents,—more especially those of the western part of the county. A separate work, however, would be needed to give the whole collection, and the following examples must here suffice.

Of course I do not say that all these words are to be found only in the New Forest. Many of them will doubtless be elsewhere discovered, though they hitherto, as here, have escaped notice. The time, however, for assigning the limits of our various provincialisms and provincial dialects has not yet arrived.

The use of the personal pronoun “he,” as, throughout the West of England, applied to things alike animate and inanimate, and the substitution of “thee” for you, when the speaker is angry, or wishes to be emphatic, may be here noticed. In the Forest, too, as in parts of Berkshire, a woman when employed upon out-door work is sometimes spoken of in the masculine gender, as the Hungarians are falsely said to have done of their queen on a certain memorable occasion. The confusion of cases which has been noticed by philologists is here, as in other parts of England, rather the result of ignorance than a peculiar character of the dialect.

Adder’s-Fern. The common polypody (_Polypodium vulgare_), so called from its rows of bright spores. The hard-fern (_Blechnum boreale_) is known as the “snake-fern.”

Allow, To. To think, suppose, consider. This word exactly corresponds to the American “guess” (which, by the way, is no Americanism, but used by Wiclif in his Bible: see Luke, ch. vii. v. 43), and is employed as often and as indefinitely in the New Forest. If you ask a peasant how far it is to any place, his answer nearly invariably is, “I allow it to be so far.” “Suppose,” in Sussex, is used in much the same way.

Bell-heath. _See_ Red-heath.

Bed-furze. The dwarf furze (_Ulex nanus_), which is very common throughout the Forest.

Black-heath. _See_ Red-heath.

Black-heart, The. The bilberry (_Vaccinium Myrtillus_), the “whimberry” of the northern counties, which grows very plentifully throughout the Forest. It is so called, by a singular corruption, the original word being hartberry, the Old-English _heorot-berg_, to which the qualifying adjective has been added, whilst the terminal substantive has been lost, and the first totally misapprehended. To go “hearting” is a very common phrase. (See _Proceedings of the Philological Society_, vol. iii. pp. 154, 155.)

Brize. To press. “Brize it down,” means, press it down. Is this only another form of the old word prize, preese, to press, crowd?

Boughy. A tree, which instead of running up straight is full of boughs, is said to be “boughy.” It is also used generally of thick woods. Akin to it is the old word buhsomenesse, boughsomeness, written, as Mr. Wedgwood notices (_Dictionary of English Etymology_, p. 285), buxomeness by Chaucer.

Bower-Stone, A. A boundary-stone. Called a “mere-stone” in some of the Midland Counties. Perhaps from the Keltic _bwr_, an inclosure, intrenchment; just as manor is said to be from _maenawr_, a district with a stone bound.

Bound-Oak. _See_ Oak, Mark-.

Brownies, The. The bees. _See_ chap. xvi., p. 185.

Brow. Mr. Halliwell and Mr. Wright give this as a Wiltshire word, in the sense of brittle. In the New Forest it is applied only to short, snappy, splintering timber of bad quality.

Buck, The. The stag-beetle, so called from its strong horn-like _antennæ_. The children, when catching it, sing this snatch—

“High buck,
Low buck,
Buck, come down.”

It is also called pinch-buck. The female is known as the doe. _See_ “Bryanston Buck,” in Mr. Barnes’s _Glossary of the Dorsetshire Dialect_, appended to his _Poems of Rural Life_.

Bunch, A. A blow, or the effects of a blow; and then a blotch, burn, scald, pimple, in which latter senses “bladder” is also often used. The verb “to bunch,” to strike, is sometimes heard. _See_ Wedgwood (vol. i. p. 269, and vol. ii. p. 263) on its allied forms. Used by Pope, _Iliad_, bk. ii. 328.

Cammock, The. (From the Old-English _cammec_, _cammoc_, _cammuc_.) The various species of St. John’s-wort, so plentiful in the neighbourhood of the New Forest; then, any yellow flower, as the fleabane (_Pulica dysenterica_) and ragwort (_Senecto Jacobæa_). In Dorsetshire, according to Mr. Barnes, it only means the rest-harrow (_Ononis arvensis_).

Cass, A. A spar used in thatching, called in the Midland and North-Western Counties a “buckler.” Before it is made into a cass, it is called a “spargad.”

Cattan, A. A sort of noose or hinge, which unites the “hand-stick” to the flail. It is made in two parts. The joint which joins the “hand-stick” is formed of ash or elm, whilst that which fits the flail is made of leather, as it is required to be more flexible near the part which strikes the floor. Mr. Wright and Mr. Halliwell give as a North-country word the verb “catton,” to beat, with which there is evidently some connection.

Childag, A. A chilblain. Often called simply a “dag,” and “chilbladder.”

Cleet, A. More generally used in the plural, as “cleets.” Iron tips on a shoe. Hence we have the expression, “to cleet oxen,” that is, to shoe them when they work.

Close. Hard, sharp. “It hits close,” means it hits hard.

Cothe. (From the Old-English “coða, coðe.”) A “cothe sheep,” means a sheep diseased in its liver. The springs in the New Forest are said “to cothe” the sheep—that is, to disease their livers. Hence we have such places as “Cothy Mead,” and “Cothy Copse.” Mr. Barnes (as before) gives the form “acothed,” as used in Dorsetshire.

Crink-crank. “Crink-crank words” are long words—_verba sesquipedalia_—not properly understood. (See _Proceedings of Philological Society_, vol. v. pp. 143-148.)

Crow-peck, The. The Shepherd’s needle (_Scandix-pecten Veneris_); called also “old woman’s needle.” There is a common saying in the New Forest, that “Two crow-pecks are as good as an oat for a horse;” to which the reply is, “That a crow-peck and a barley-corn may be.”

Crutch, A. (From the Friesic _kroek_, connected with the Old-English _crocca_, our crock). A dish, or earthenware pipkin. We daily in the New Forest and the neighbourhood hear of lard and butter crutches. The word “shard,” too, by the way, is still used in the Forest for a cup, and housewives still speak of a “shard of tea.”

Cuttran, A. A wren; more commonly called a “cutty;” which last word Mr. Barnes gives in his _Glossary of the Dorsetshire Dialect_, p. 331, but which is common throughout the West of England. As Mr. Barnes, p. 354, observes, the word is nothing more than cutty wren;—the little wren. (_See_ “Kittywitch,” _Transactions of Philological Society_, 1855, p. 33.)

Decker, or Dicker, To. One of the old forms of to deck; literally, to cover; from the Old-English “þeccan;” in German, _decken_. It now, however, only signifies to ornament or spangle. A lady’s fingers are said to be deckered with rings, or the sky with stars.

Deer’s-Milk. Wood-spurge (_Euphorbia amygdaloides_). So called from the white viscous juice which exudes from its stalks when gathered.

Dount, To. To dint, or imprint. Formed, as Mr. Wedgwood remarks, of the kindred words, dint, dent, dunt, by an onomatopoëtic process. We find the word in an old song still sung in the New Forest, “A Time to remember the Poor:”—

“Here’s the poor harmless hare from the woods that is tracked,
And her footsteps deep dounted in snow.”

Dray, A. A prison; “the cage” of the Midland districts. Curiously enough the old poet William Browne, as also Wither, speaks of a squirrel’s nest as a “dray”—still used, by-the-by, in some counties—which in the New Forest is always called a “cage.” In this last sense Mr. Lower adds it to the glossary of Sussex provincialisms (_Sussex Archæological Collections_, vol. xiii., p. 215). I may further note that at Christmas in the Forest, as in other wooded parts of England, squirrel-feasts are held. Two parties of boys and young men go into the woods armed with “scales” and “snogs” (see chap. xvi. p. 182), to see who will kill the most squirrels. Sometimes as many as a hundred or more are brought home, when they are baked in a pie. Their fur, too, is sought after for its glossiness.

Drum, Ivy-, An. The stem of an ivy tree or bush, which grows round the hole of another tree.

Drunch, To. To draw up, press, squeeze. We find the substantive “drunge,” with which it is evidently connected, given in Wright as a Wiltshire pronunciation for pressure, or crowd. Mr. Barnes also, in his _Glossary of the Dorsetshire Dialect_, p. 235, gives the forms “dringe” or “drunge,” to squeeze or push.

Elam, An. An handful of thatch. Common both in the New Forest and Wiltshire. In the former three elams make a bundle, and twenty bundles one score, and four scores a ton. In the latter the measurement is somewhat different, five elams forming a bundle.

Fessey. (From the Old-English _fús_, ready, prompt, quick). Proud, upstart. In the glossaries of Wright and Halliwell we find “fess” given as the commoner form.

Fetch, To. Used with reference to churning butter. “To fetch the butter,” means, to raise the cream into a certain consistency.

Fire-bladder. A pimple, or eruption on the face. _See_ “bunch.”

Flisky. Small, minute. Used especially of misty rain.

Flitch, or quite as often Fritch. (From the Old-English _flit_, or _geflit_). Not only as explained in the glossary of Wiltshire, impertinent, busy, but, by some _boustrophêdon_ process, good-humoured. “You are very flitch to-day,” that is, good-natured.

Fluders. Worms, which on certain land get into the livers of sheep, when the animal is said to be “cothed.” Called also “flukes,” and “flounders.” _See_ the word “cothe.”

Gait, A. A crotchet, or, as the vulgar expression is, a maggot. Used always in a deprecatory sense. When a person has done anything foolish he says, “this is a gait I have got.” Doubtless, identical with “get” in Wedgwood, vol. ii. p. 144.

Gettet. Sprung, or slightly cracked. Used throughout the West of England.

Giggle, To. To stand awry or crooked. Said especially of small things, which do not stand upright.

Glutch, To. (From the French en-gloutir). Not simply, to swallow or gulp, as explained in the glossaries, but more especially to stifle a sob.

Gold-heath, The. The bog-moss, (_Sphagnum squarrosum_), which is used in the New Forest to make fine brooms.

Gold-withey, The. The bog-myrtle, or English mock-myrtle (_Myrica Gale_), mentioned in Mr. Kingsley’s New Forest ballad,—

“They wrestled up, they wrestled down,
They wrestled still and sore;
Beneath their feet, the myrtle sweet,
Was stamped in mud and gore.”

It grows in all the wet places in the Forest, and is excessively sweet, the fruit being furnished with resinous glands. It is said to be extensively used in drugging the beer in the district.

Graff, or grampher. _See_ Wosset.

Gross. Often used in a good sense for luxuriant, and applied to the young green crops, just as “proud,” and “rank,” or rather “ronk,” as it is pronounced, are in the Midland Counties.

Gunney. To look “gunney” means, to look archly or cunning. There is also the verb “to gunney.” “He gunneyed at me,” signifies, he looked straight at me. From the French _guigner_.

Hacker, furze-, The. The whinchat, so called from its note, which it utters on the sprays of the furze.

Hame. There is a curious phrase, “all to hame,” signifying, broken to pieces, used both here and in Wiltshire. Thus the glass, when broken, is said to be “all to hame,” that is, “all to bits.” The metaphor has been taken from “spindly” wheat on bad ground running to halm, from the Old-English _healm_, now the West-Saxon peasant’s “hame.” “All to,” I may add, is used adverbially in its old sense of entirely, quite, as we find it in Judges ix. 53.

Harl, The. The hock of a sheep.

Harvest-Lice. The seeds of the common agrimony (_Agrimonia eupatoria_) and “heriff” (_Galium Aparine_). _See_ Clivers, chap. xv. p. 166.

Hell. A dark place in the woods. _See_ chap. x. p. 110.

Herder. A sieve. _See_ chap. xvi. p. 185, foot-note.

Hill-trot, The. The wild carrot (_Daucus Carota_), used also in Wiltshire. Most probably a corruption of eltrot, eldrot, oldroot, and so from the Old-English. These last forms are given in Mr. Barnes’ _Glossary of the Dorset dialect_, p. 336.

Hoar-withey. The whitebeam (_Sorbus Aria_), which, with its white leaves, is very conspicuous in the Forest. We find the word used in the perambulation of the Forest in the twenty-second year of Charles I.,—“by the road called Holloway, and from thence to Hore-withey, in the place whereof (decayed) a post standed in the ground.” It is exactly the same as the “har wiðig” of the Old-English. It is called also, but more rarely, the “white rice.” _See_ chap. xvi. p. 183.

Hoo, To. To simmer, boil; evidently formed, like so many other words, by an onomatopoëtic process (_See_ chap. xvi. p. 186). There is also the phrase, “the kettle is on the hoo,” that is, to use a vulgarism, on the simmer, or boil.

Hoop, To go a. To go where you like. “He is going a hoop,” means, he is going to the bad.

Hum-water. A cordial which is made from the common horse-mint (_Mentha aquatica_). Does “hum” here mean strong, as it is used in some counties with reference to beer? _See_ chap. xv. p. 166.

Joseph’s Walking-stick. The Joseph’s-ladder of the Midland Counties, common in all the cottage gardens round the Forest. It is curious to notice, amongst our peasantry, the religious element in the names of both the wild and cultivated flowers derived from Catholic times. Thus we have ladies’ cushions, and ladies’ tresses, and St. Peter’s-wort, and St. John’s-wort, besides the more common plants, such as marygolds and ladysmocks, which every one can remember.

Kittering. Weak. The more North-country word “tuly” is also heard in the same sense.

Lance, To. To jump, leap, or bound. Used especially of the Forest deer, which in dry weather are said “to lance” over the turf.

Lark’s Lees, or Lease, A. A piece of poor land fit only for larks, or, as the peasantry of the Midland Counties would say, only “fit to bear peewits.” Mr. Halliwell gives the form “lark leers,” as a Somersetshire phrase; but the above expression may be daily heard in the New Forest.

Louster. Noise, disturbance. “What a louster you are making,” signifies, what a confusion you are causing.

Lug-stick. _See_ Rug-stick.

Mallace, The. The common mallow (_Malvus sylvestris_). Formed like bullace, and other similar words.

Margon. Corn chamomile (_Anthemis arvensis_). Called “mathan,” throughout the Anglian districts.

Mark-oak, _See_ Oak.

Mokin, or more generally in the plural, Mokins. Coarse gaiters for defending the legs from the furze. _See_ chap. xv. p. 162.

Muddle, To. To fondle, caress, to rear by the hand. Hence we obtain the expression “a mud lamb,” that is, a lamb whose mother is dead, which has been brought up by hand, equivalent to the “tiddlin lamb” of the Wiltshire shepherds. _See_ Wosset.

Oak, Mark-, A. The same as a “bound-oak,” or boundary oak or ash, as the case may be, so called from the ancient cross, or mark, cut on the rind. As Kemble notices (_The Saxons in England_, vol. i., appendix A. p. 480), we find in Cod. Dipl. No. 393, “on ðán merkeden ók,” to the marked oak, showing how old is the name. I have never met in the New Forest with an instance of a “crouch oak” (from _crois_), such as occurs at Addlestone in Surrey, and which is said to have been the “bound-oak” of Windsor Forest (_See_ _The Saxons in England_, as before, vol. i. chap. ii. p. 53, foot-note). The “bound-oak,” marked in the Ordnance Map near Dibden, has fallen, but we find the name preserved in the fine old wood of Mark Ash, near Lyndhurst. In the perambulation of the Forest in the 29th year of Edward I. we read of the Merkingstak of Scanperisgh. The various eagle-oaks in the Forest are comparatively modern, and must not be confounded with the eagle-oak mentioned by Kemble (as above, vol. i. p. 480).

Omary Cheese. An inferior sort of cheese, made of skim-milk, called in most parts of England “skim Dick.” _See_, further on, the word Rammel, and also Vinney, chap. xvi. p. 190.

Once. Sometime. “I will pay you once this week,” does not mean in contradistinction to twice, but I will pay you sometime during the week.

Overrunner, An. A shrew mouse, which is supposed to portend ill-luck if it runs over a person’s foot. In Dorsetshire it is called a “shrocop,” where the same superstition is believed. _See_ Barnes’ _Glossary of the Dorset Dialect_, p. 382.

Panshard, or Ponshard, A. Rage, anger. “You have no need to get in a panshard,” is a most common saying. _See_ “peel,” further on.

Patchy. Testy. Said of people who proverbially “blow hot and cold.”

Peel, A. A disturbance, noise. “To be in a peel,” means, to be in a passion. Used in much the same sense as the word “pelt,” which is rightly explained in the glossaries as anger, noise, rage, though it is, perhaps, more spoken of animals than “peel.” “What a pelt the dog is making,” that is, barking, would be said rather than “peel.”

Picked. Sharp, pointed. “A picked piece,” means a field with one or more sharp angular corners.

Pity. Love. “Pity is akin to love,” says Shakspeare, but in the West of England it is often the same.

Plash, A. A mill-head. Winkton is locally called Winkton Plash, this exactly corresponding to the Weringetone of _Domesday_, with its two mills “_ad aulam_.”

Puck, To. To put up sheaves, especially of barley and oats, which are called “pucks.” Used throughout the West of England in contradistinction to “hiling,” applied only to wheat, which is placed in “hiles.” In Dorsetshire, however, this last operation is called “stitching.” _See_ the word “stitch” in Mr. Barnes’ _Glossary of the Dorsetshire Dialect_, p. 391.

Quar, A. The udder of a cow or sheep, when hard after calving or lambing. Beer also is said to be “quarred,” when it drinks hard or rough.

Quat-vessel, The. The meadow-thistle (_Carduus pratensis_), which is common in the New Forest.

Rammel Cheese. The best sort of cheese, made of cream and new milk, in contradistinction to Omary, or Arnary, cheese, and Hasskin cheese.

Rammucky. Dissolute, wanton. “A rammucky man,” means a depraved character.

Ramward, or rather, ramhard. To the right. A corruption of framward, or fromward. So “toard,” or “toward,” means to the left, that is, towards you. Both words are used throughout the West of England, and are good examples of what Professor Müller would call “phonetic decay.” With them may be compared the sailor’s terms “starboard” and “larboard,” on which _see_ Wedgwood, _Dict. of English Etymology_, vol. ii., p. 310. _See_, too, Miss Gurney on the word “woash,” which in the Eastern Counties is equivalent to “ramward.” _Glossary of Norfolk Words_. _Transactions of the Philological Society_, 1855, p. 38.

Rantipole, The. The wild carrot (_Daucus carota_), so called from its bunch of leaves. Used also in Wiltshire. _See_ Hill-trot.

Red Heath. The three heaths which grow in the New Forest—_Erica tetralix_, _Erica cinerea_, and _Calluna vulgaris_,—are respectively known as the bell, black, and red heaths.

Reiaves. The boards or rails put round waggons, so as to enable them to take a greater load. Used throughout the West of England. _See_ Mr. Barnes’ Glossary under the word Riaves, p. 375.

Rick-rack. This is only used of the weather, as “rick-rack weather,” that is, stormy, boisterous weather, and far stronger in meaning than the more common phrase, “cazalty weather.” It is evidently from the Old-English _réc_, vapoury, cloudy weather, and well serves to explain the meaning of Shakspeare’s “rack,” a cloud, in the well-known passage in the _Tempest_ (Act iv. sc. 1), which has given rise to so much controversy. Miss Gurney (_Transactions of the Philological Society_, 1855, p. 35), notices that “rack” is used in Norfolk for mist driven by the wind.

Ronge, To. To kick, or play, said of horses.

Rubble, To. To remove the gravel, which is deposited throughout the Forest in a thick layer over the beds of clay or marl. The gravel itself is called “the rubblin.”

Rue. A row, or hedgerow. _See_ chap. v. p. 56. In the Forest some of the embankments, near which perhaps the Kelts and West-Saxons lived, are called Rew- and Row-ditch. I have, too, heard of attics being called “lanes,” possibly having reference to the “ruelle” by which the space between the curtains was formerly called.

Rug-stick, also called a Lug-stick. A bar in the chimney, on which “the cotterel,” or “iron scale,” or “crane,” as it is also called, to which the kettle or pot is fastened, hangs. We find the word still used in America as the “ridge-pole” of the house, which helps us at once to the derivation.

Scale, or squoyle. _See_ chap. xvi. p. 182.

Scull, A.(From the Old-English _scylan_, and so, literally, a division). A drove, or herd, or pack of low people, always used in an opprobrious sense. It is properly applied to fish, especially the grey mullet which visits the coast in the autumn, and so metaphorically to beggars who go in companies. Milton uses the word

“——sculls that oft
Bank the mid sea.”
_Paradise Lost_, Book vii.

Shakspeare, too, speaks of “scaled sculls” (_Troilus and Cressida_, Act v. sc. 5). The expression “school of whales,” which we so often find in Arctic and whaling voyages is nothing but this word slightly altered. According to Miss Gurney’s Glossary of Norfolk words (_Transactions of the Philological Society_, 1855), the word “school” is applied to herrings on the south-eastern coast. Juliana Berners, in the _Boke of St. Albans_, curiously enough says that we should speak of “a sculke of foxes, and a sculle of frerys.”—Quoted in Müller’s _Science of Language_, p. 61.

Setty. Eggs are said to be “setty” when they are sat upon.

Shammock, To. To slouch. “A shammocking man” means an idle, good-for-nothing person. Applied also to animals. “A shammocking dog,” means almost a thievish, stealing dog, thus showing how the word is akin to shamble, scamble, which last verb also signifies to obtain any thing by false means.

Shear, after-, The. The second crop of grass. Called in the Midland Counties “the eddish,” and also the “latter-math,” or “after-math.”

Sheets’-axe, A. An oak apple. _See_ chap. xvi. p. 183.

Shelf, A. A bank of sand or pebbles, or shallow in a river, or even the ford itself. Milton uses the word in _Comus_:—

“On the tawny sands and shelves.”

Hence we got the adjective “shelvy,” also in common use, and employed by Falstaffe—“The shore was shelvy and shallow” (_The Merry Wives of Windsor_, Act iii., sc. 5). It is this latter word, which Mr. Halliwell and Mr. Wright must mean instead of “shelly,” and which they define as “an ait in a river.” The word is probably from the same Scandinavian root as shoal.

Shim. Lean. “He’s a shim fellow,” that is, thin. It is used, I see from Mr. Cooper’s glossary, for a shadow, in the western division of Sussex; and I think I have somewhere met with it in the sense of a ghost.

Shoak, Shock, Shuck, Off, To. To break off short. Thus gravel is said to shock off at any particular stratum, or “list,” or “scale,” as it would be called. _See_ the following word.

Shock, A. Not applied merely to corn, but to anything else. “A shock of sand” means a line or band of sand, called also a “list,” or “lissen,” or “bond,” or “scale,” and sometimes “drive:” which last, however, has a more particular reference to the direction of the stratum.

Size. Thickness, consistency. “The size of the gruel” means its consistency.

Skimmer-Cake, A. A small pudding made up from the remnants of another, and cooked upon a “skimmer,” the dish with which the milk is skimmed. Nearly equivalent to the “girdle-cake,” north of England.

Skrow. Shattered or battered.

Slab, A. A thick slice, lump, used like squab, which see. Thus we hear of “a slab of bacon,” meaning a large piece. Opposed to “snoule,” which signifies a small bit.—“I have just had a snoule,” means I have only had a morsel.

Slink, A. “A slink of a thing,” in which phrase the word is only found, is alike applied to objects animate or inanimate, and means either a poor, weak, starved creature, or anything which is small and not of good quality.

Slut, A. A noise, sound. “A slut of thunder,” means a clap or peal of thunder. It is in this sense that the word is most generally used.

Snake-Fern. The hard-fern (_Blechnum boreale_). _See_ “Adder’s-Fern.”

Sniggle, To. To snarl. _See_ chap. xvi., p. 186. Sniggle, A. An eel peculiar to the Avon. _See_ chap. xii., pp. 125, 126.

Spell, A. A fit, or start. Pain is said to come and go by “spells,” that is, by shocks at recurring intervals.

Spene, A. In its first sense, like the Old-English _spana_, an udder of a cow. In its second, the rail of a gate or stile.

Spine-Oak. The heart of oak. This phrase points to the true derivation of “heart of oak.” The common theory Mr. Wedgwood has rightly classed under the head of “_False Etymologies_.” _See_ _Transactions of the Philological Society_, 1855. No. 6, pp. 62, 63.

Spire-Bed, A. A place where the “spires,” that is, the reed-canary grass (_Phalaris arundinacea_), grow; exactly equivalent to the Old-English _hreod-bedd_. On the outskirts of the New Forest at Redbridge, formerly Redford—Hreodford, literally, the ford of reeds—the Test is to this day full of the same “spires,” from which our forefathers gave the place its name. The river Caundle, in Dorsetshire, still, too, full of spire-beds, tells of a similar derivation, not from the Teutonic, but the Keltic. The phrase “spire-bed,” or “spear-bed field,” is very common, meaning a particular field, near where the “spires” grow, which are used by plasterers and thatchers in their work.

Spith. (Another form of pith, from the Old-English “piða”). Strength, force.

Sprack. Not only quick, lively, brisk, active, as given in the glossaries, but neat, tidy. Used also in this last sense in Wiltshire.

Spratter. The common guillemot (_Uria troile_). In Norfolk (_see_ _Transactions of the Philological Society_, 1855, p. 37) we have “sprat-mowe,” for a herring-gull; and in Kent, “sprat-loon,” for one of the grebes.

Squab, A. Anything large. Thus “a squab of a piece,” is constantly used in this sense. In a different meaning it is confounded with squat. So a thick-set, heavy person is called a “squab.”

Squoyles. Glances. _See_ chap. xvi., p. 182.

Stabble. Marks, footprints, always used in the plural. This is another of those onomatopoëtic words which Mr. Wedgwood might add to the forms step, stamp, stipple, all derived by a similar process. (_See_ the Introduction to his _Dictionary of Etymology_, p. x.) In an old rhyme, common in the New Forest, upon a hailstorm, we find the word:—

“Go round the ricks,
And round the ricks,
And make as many stabble
As nine score sheep.”

Starky. Used particularly of land which is stiff or unworkable, especially after rain, and opposed to “stoachy,” which signifies muddy, as in the common expression, “What a dreadful stoachy piece of ground.”

Thrifty. Still used in its old derivative sense of thriving, and so flourishing. Once or twice I have heard it applied to physical health, in the sense of being well, or “pure,” as is the more common saying.

Tine, To. To tine a candle, does not now so much mean to light, from the Old-English _tendan_, to set on fire, as to snuff it.

Tuffet, A. A lump of earth, or hillock. Hence we have “tuffety,” in the sense of uneven, or covered with hillocks.

Tuly. Weak, ailing. More common in the north of England. _See_ “Kittering.”

Twiddle, To. To whistle. “The robins are twiddling,” is a common phrase, and which fact is said to be a sign of rain.

Vinney-Cheese. _See_ chap. xvi., p. 190.

Wag, A. A breath, a slight wind. “A wag of air,” means a gentle draught of air. In Dorsetshire we still have “wag-wanton” applied to the quaking-grass (_Briza media_). _See_ Barnes’ _Glossary of the Dorsetshire Dialect_, p. 404.

Wase, A. A very small bundle of straw, more particularly a wisp for cleaning a horse. Used also, according to Mr. Cooper, in Sussex.

Water-Tables. The side dikes along the road, which carry off the water. Common throughout the West of England.

Weald, To. To bring corn or hay into swathe, before putting it, as it is called, into “puck,” which see.

Wean-Gate, A. (From the Old-English _wæn-geat_, literally, the waggon-door.) The tail-board, or ladder of a waggon.

Well-Crook, A. A stick for ladling the water out of the shallow Forest pools and wells. Called in the Midland and Northern Counties a “lade-gorn;” and formerly “a well graper.” (_See_ Froude’s _History of England_, vol. i. p. 41, foot-note.)

Wimble, A. In addition to auger, as given in Wright and Halliwell’s dictionaries, an instrument with which to take up faggots or trusses of hay.

Wivvery. Giddy. “My head is wivvery,” is no uncommon expression. To wivver, given by Wright and Halliwell as used in Kent, is more especially employed here of the quivering flight of hawks, particularly of the kestrel and hen-harrier.

Wosset, A. A small ill-favoured pig. The smallest pig in a “trip,” to use a West-Country term for a litter, is known as the “doll,” the same as the “nessle-tripe” of Dorsetshire; whilst a pig brought up by hand is called a “graff,” or “grampher,” equivalent to “mud,” in the phrase “mud-lamb,” or “mud-calf,” as also “sock,” and “sockling,” and “tiddling,” used in various counties.

Yape, To. Not merely to gossip, as given by Mr. Cooper in his _Sussex Glossary_, but to loiter. To yape about is used very much as is shammock, which see.

Yaw, To. To chop, reap. Used of cutting corn, peas, or beans. “Hacking,” however, is generally the term applied to harvesting the last, when the reapers use two hooks, one to cut, and the other, an old one, to pull up the halm.