NOTES ON ESSEX DIALECT AND FOLK-LORK. "] T 



of foresight on my part. At meetings of the Club called for inspection of 

 the Forest (e.g-., on April 27th, 1889, E.N., vol. iii., p. 164) I have repeatedly 

 strongly objected to tlie exaggerated statements inserted from time to time in the 

 newspapers, and demonstrated to scores of people the want of knowledge in the 

 writers of the condition of the woods, and I say emphatically that these state- 

 ments did not, nor do not, represent my views, nor, as far as I know, those of any 

 of the "founders of the Club." I do not often obtrude my own opinions upon 

 my readers, but this question of forest management is a matter of importance, and 

 I will not permit members or non-members of the Club to misrepresent my own 

 or my colleagues' views with regard to a district which has possessed the deepest 

 interest for me during the greater part of my life. — W. COLE.] 



NOTES ON ESSEX DIALECT AND FOLK- 

 LORE, WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE 

 DIVINING-ROD. 



By GEORGE DAY, F.R.M.S. 



[Read February 24.th, iSg4.'\ 



A LTHOUGH traces of folk-lore may be found in almost every 

 subject connected with the history and development of man- 

 kind, it may be well to commence with a definition of the phrase. 



Dr. Johnson tells us that " folk " is properly a collective noun, 

 and has no plural, except by modern corruption : yet he wrote, 

 "Folks want me to go to Italy." Walker says that "folks" is the 

 proper orthography. The expressive phrase " folk-lore," is said by 

 French, in his " English Past and Present," to be borrowed from the 

 German ; but in this he appears to be wrong. Mr. W. T. Thorns in 

 "Notes and Queries" for October 6th, 1872, distinctly claims to 

 have coined it. The word was first used in "The Athenceum" for 

 August 22nd, 1846, in an article written by Mr. Thorns, and signed 

 " Ambrose Melton." But the general idea of the words is some- 

 thing like that given by Webster in his "Dictionary," viz., "rural 

 tales, legends, or superstitions " ; and, to my mind, the words explain 

 themselves, if we take '•'■folk " to mean the general community or 

 people, and /ore to signify learning in general, as opposed to science 

 —that is ascertained knowledge. We get, then, " folk-lore " — f/ie 

 common knoivledge of the people — popular learning and ideas on all 

 matters connected with man and his surroundings ; or the popular 

 explaiiatioTi of observed facts. 



Folk-lore is becoming more and more studied, and year by year 

 it is receiving greater attention. Its object is to collect, classify, and 

 preserve survivals of popular beliefs, and to trace them as far as 

 possible to their original sources. This is no easy matter. School- 



