1814.] Mr. Jennings on the Somerset Dialect. vince, which I beg leave to quit, in ob. serving that the sounds of S and F are more commonly converted into the sounds of and in the western, than in the northern or eastern parts of the county: I would add, that I think him much mistaken in supposing, that the difference of the language consists rather in pronun ciation, than in the use of provincial words; and the following list bears me out in my idea. Johnson was of the same opinion as your correspondent, but he knew nothing of the matter. What constitutes a peculiarity of idiom on this side the Parret, is the sound which is commonly given to the letter a, in such words as fall, tall, call, ball, &c. the a being sounded exactly like the a in father: another peculiarity is, that of attaching to many verbs in the infinitive mood, as well as to some other parts of different conjugations, the letter y. Thus, it is very cominon to say, I can't sewy, I can't nursy, he can't reapy, he can't sawy; as well as to sewy, to nursy, to reapy, to sawy, &c. but never, I think, without an auxiliary verb, or the sign of the infinitive to. I am very much disposed to believe that this arises from an inclination to give the infinitives of verbs an uniform termination, as in the French and many other languages: I am not aware that this observation has ever been before made. Other peculiarities might be mentioned; but I cannot see the importance of extending these remarks, as it is not very probable that a second Burns should ever arise in this county to give celebrity to, and immortalize, in song, its different dialects; none of them having, it must be admitted, any thing strikingly melodious to recominend them. However, although the sounds might not be worth preserving, yet words assuredly are, if different from those in use in other parts of the island, With this view, and with the attempt to see how far it might be practicable to introduce the Somersetshire idiom into the lighter species of poetry, the following Vocabulary was collected many years ago, and now, with recision and revision, is much at the service of the readers of the Monthly Magazine. I beg leave, at the same time, to inform them, that I have never felt myself sufficiently inspired to write even one solitary stanza in this native dialect. my Some of the words which your Taunton correspondent has mentioned, are common here; I have not, therefore, repeated them. It will be borne in mind, that in the MONTHLY MAG. No. 261. $31 following vocabulary I have given the Ar, verb, to ask; this corruption is, I believe, common in other parts of England. Banehond, v. To signify intention, to intimate. Bee-but, Bee-lippen.} s. A bee hive. Begummers! interject. A term of asseveration; No, begummers! Yes, begummers! Perhaps a corrupted oath-By god mothers? Betwit, v. To upbraid, to repeat a past circunstance aggravatingly. Bescummer, v. To foul with a dirty li quid; to besmear. Bibble, o. To drink often, to tope. Bote, part. and past tense of To buy. s. Bolting-cloth. Bunt, Crips, adj. Crisp. This is a very common corruption; we have claps for clasp, haps for hasp, &c. which were they all noted would swell this vocabulary to an enormous size. Clear and sheer, adv. Completely, totally. Couth, . To bane; applied to sheep, Crowsty, adj. Crusty, snappish, surly. Daver, v. To fall down, to fade, to droop. Desperd, ado. Very, extremely. vexed. Dirsh, s. A thrush. Drang, s. A narrow path. Dring, v. To throng, to press as in a crowd. Drow, v. To dry. The hay don't drowy at all. Drowth, s. Dryness, thirst. Dudder, o. To deafen with noise, to Dunch some. tic. Heft, s. Weight. Hitch, v. To hang up as upon a hook, to affix temporarily; in a neuter sense, to be attached temporarily. Much has been written upon this word, and many correspondents of the Monthly Magazine have tried their hands at it. I wrote a paper expressly to explain it, but I suppose that it was mislaid. Its use and meaning are well understood here. We frequently say to a friend, "HITCH UP your horse while you stay" to a lady, "Take care, or the brambles will hitch in your cloaths." If any person will give himself the trouble to add the word up to hitch in the famous couplet of Pope, the sense will become obvious enough. Hoke, o. To wound with horns, to rude. Sar, v. To earn, to get. Shord, s. A gap in a hedge; a stopshord, a stop-gap. Single-stick, s. A game; to the disgrace of this county, too well known ;sometimes called Back-sword. Scrunch, v. I know not any synonym in our language for this word. The idea of crushing and bringing closer together is evidently implied, accompanied also with some kind of noise; a person may be said to scrunch an apple or a biscuit if in eating it he made a noise; so a pig in eating acorus; agreeably to this idea Mr. Southey has used the word in Thalaba: "No sound but the wild, wild wind, Skir-devil, s. A black martin, a swift. Skrent, v. To burn, to singe: an irre. gular verb. Skrent, part. Burnt, singed. Skeer, o. To mow lightly over: applied to pastures which have been sum mer eaten, never to meadow land. Skeerings, s. pl. Hay which has been made in pasture land. Skram Spry, o. To become chapped by cold. Stote, s. A weasel; a Fare or Vare is also a species of weasel, but I am not naturalist sufficient to distinguish them. Suent, adj. Even, smooth, plain. Swankum, v. To walk to and fro in an idle and careless manner. Swop, v. To exchange one thing for another, to barter. Tallet, s. The garret, the floor next the roof. Tack, s. A shelf. here withy-wine; and sometimes ladies'smock, no doubt from the delicate whiteness of its flowers. The single and double daffodil are both called bell-flowers, from their shape. The hedera terrestris, or ground ivy, is called hay-maidens; but your readers are surely weary by this time of Zomerzetshire. But, should their appetite for Somersetshire words still continue unabated, I can assure them that even now a great many have occurred to my memory since the above list was written, which if they desire to manche must be conveyed to them in a future communication. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. PERHAPS there is no evil more con ducive to human misery, more degrading to man, and at the same time so contemptible and mischievous, as superstition. Every generation has been se dulous in fostering this disgusting hydra. Taffety, adj. Dainty, nice, delicate; There is no country but what has felt its applied to the taste for food. Tang, v. To tie. Than, adv. Then. Tilty, adj. Testy, soon offended. Scourge, and drank of its poison. Britain herself claims no exemption from it. It is, however, with no small degree of pleasure, we behold its declension in this kingdom. We had indulged a hope of its speedy annihilation, but how are we Peat cut out in deceived? It is distressing to learn, that this desolating evil has lately been extensively great in the west of England. The town and neighbourhood of Tiverton, in Devonshire, seems to be the destined place of its periodical visitations. The following circumstance, while it evinces the amazing credulity of the people of the west, will, no doubt, excite the ridicule and indignation of every enlightened mind. Tutty, s. A flower, a nosegay. Unket, adj. Dreary, dismal, lonesome, Vang, v. To receive, to earn. Vitious, adj. Spiteful, revengeful. Wood-quist, s. A wood-pigeon, Wrumple, v. To discompose, to rumple. Wrumple, s. A rumple. The names of plants, herbs, trees, and flowers, would furnish another list of no trifling length; thus the common species of convolvulus, called bind weed, is called A few weeks since, Ann Taylor, a child about 10 years old, the daughter of a respectable yeoman, living in the parish of Tiverton, being ill, lay six days in a state of insensibility, apparently dead. During her lying in this state of suspended animation, she had a dream, which the family calls a trance in the printed account they have so widely circulated. This dream abounds with incoherent and excessive absurdities, interspersed with a few pious reflections. Her request, when she awoke, and the extraordinary cir cumstances which happened after her decease, are thus related by her father, in a printed letter, which has obtained a most enormous sale: "When she recovered from her stupor, she requested some one would write down all she had to unfold, and, 1 charged the person who did it, as she might be put on 2 $2 her her oath, not to add or diminish a word, nor to ask her a question, which I know was duly attended to. Then she earnestly requested all might be printed, and desired I would get it done. I endeavoured to evade it by putting some papers in the room merely to satisfy her mind, but she soon discovered it was not the thing. She then said, if it were not printed, my sins would never be forgiven. As she continued urging me to it, I went for that purpose the next day, and even went so far as the printer's door, but was ashamed to go in, as I was convinced the world would ridicule it. I returned to my home; and, she renewing her inquiries, I told her, it was not yet done-but that it should;' she replied, but too late. The next day, (notwithstanding it was Sunday), I was obliged to go and request that some might be printed early the following morning. I returned and told her, but she again said, it will be too late.' She died the same evening at seven o'clock. The next morning her voice was distinctly and repeatedly heard, in a shrill tone, by the person who wrote the relation, making her former enquiry. Between ten and twelve, the men came to put her in the coffin: and, when performed, the whole family assembled to dinner; but, wonderful to relate, her voice was again heard, saying, "Father, it is not printed. Had I been alone, I should have considered it was my agitated mind that deceived me; but all present heard it, and the men became as if they were thunderstruck." This was beard and solemnly attested, by no less than six witnesses. With the exception of the servant girl, who wrote the dream, and is supposed by several to have practised some deception, no suspicion attaches to the veracity of any of the parties, all of whom concur in one testimony. This relation has been diffused all over the west of England, and has been credited by no less than half its population. Such deplorable credulity led to the publication of a sermon on the subject, entitled, "The Question of Apparitions and Supernatural Voices considered; a Sermon occasioned by the extraordinary circumstances which immediately followed the death of Ann Taylor, delivered in Steps Meeting, Tiverton, June 26, 1814, by the Reverend W. Vowles." A more complete refutation of the popular not.on of ghosts, apparitions, &c. never appeared. The reverend author, in the commencement of his subject, has candidly introduced the opinions of his formidable opponents, Dr. Johnson, Addison, and Cumberland. These are demonstrably proved to be fallacious, and 5 unworthy the respect of an enlightened people. The unhappy tendency of superstitious principles is not passed over tions, urged from the Holy Scriptures, is in silence, and the argument for apparishewn to be indecorous, false, and unfounded. Under this last head, Mr. V. has noticed the supposed apparition of Samuel at Endor. From the uncircumstantial account in Scripture of the affair at Endor, it has been a matter of enquiry, whether the ghost of Samuel did appear or not? The question has been again agitated in Mr. Vowles's sermon, and I hope it may lead to some satisfactory discussion of the subject. THEODORE PARKHOUSE. Tiverton, Sept. 17, 1814. For the Monthly Magazine. BOTANIC MEMORANDA AND HABITATS. By J. WINCH. N. J. W. (ENANTHE pimpinilloides. On the sandy banks at the foot of the cliffs about Hastings, Sussex; Mr. J. Woods. ENANTHE erocata. Near Brockham and Dorking, Surrey; and by Loch Fine and Loch Long, in the West Highlands. N. J. W. Kendal, Westmorland; Mr. J. Woods. About Kirby Lonsdale and A CORIANDRUM sativum. Between Dorking and Ranmore Common, Surrey; near Marley Hill, Durham. N.J. W. CICUTA virosa. In ditches near Stirling, and at Loch-end near Edinburgh. N. J. W. In ditches and by waters at Low Park-end, near Nunwick, Northumberland; Wallis. A very likely Habitat. SCANDIX odorata. Stackhouse and other places near Kendal, Westmorland; Mr. Windsor. By every brook and river in the north and north-west of the county of Durham, undoubtedly indigenous. See Winch's Guide, vol. i. p. 28. SCANDIX cerefolium. By the road side near the Red-Heugh, Gateshead, Durham; Mr. Robertson. Probably the outcast of a garden. IMPERATORIA ostruthium. wick, Scotland; Mr. Hooker. Broth SMYRNIUM olusatrum. About the ruins of old castles and monasteries, Northumberland and Durham. N. J. W. ANE HUM faniculum. Kent, pientiful. N. J. W.-St. Vincent's rocks, Bristol; Mr. Thompson. PIMPINELLA Saxifraga, B. PIMPINELLA dissecta. Sibth 102.This is Pimpinella dioica, of Mr. Hutton; mentioned 1814.] - Population of Salop. 335 mentioned as growing near Keswick, in Yorkshire; Mr. Windsor.-Between PIMPINELLA magna. Ribble side in Mr. Lister's field, below the bridge between Settle and Rathe, and near Newton in Bolland, Yorkshire; Mr. Windsor. -Hill above Matlock, Derbyshire; N. J. W. APIUM graveolens. Mr. Thompson. Near Bristol; VIBURNUM lantana. This shrub, though common in the south, does not appear indigenous in the north of England, even on our calcareous soils. N. J. W. SAMBUCUS ebulus. Near Close House, SAMBUCUS nigra, Laciniatis foliis. Kelhoe, at the edge o the Cave, Yorkshire, Mr. Windsor; near Earsden, Northumberland. N. J. W. TAARIX gallica. On the sandy banks at the foot of the cliffs about Hastings, and on the Castle-hill, Sussex; Mr. J. Woods. PARNASSE palustris. Dwarf specimens of this plant frequently occur on the sands of the Northumberland and Durham sea-coast. N. J. W. POPULATION OF SALOP, by the Returns of 1811. |