234 Contributions towards a Wiltshire Glossary. 
it progresses to contain a certain number of words which we our- 
selves have not as yet met with, or which for some reason or other 
we have omitted to include, and we have also passed over a good 
many which appear in the earlier Glossaries, as being in general 
use or merely local pronunciations of ordinary English. 
Mr. Slow’s works may be consulted as giving a large number of 
the latter, which it appeared to us to be undesirable to repeat, 
except in the few cases where some special interest seemed to attach 
to the word, either from its oddity or from the manner in which it 
might serve to illustrate some law of language or local survival of 
an obsolete form. ‘'wo or three examples, for instance, are quite 
sufficient to illustrate the substitution of » for 7, as in avore, or of a 
for 0, as in carn, while mint for mite is noticeable as preserving the 
original form of the word, long disused in ordinary speech. 
With these exceptions, however, we may, perhaps, be accused of 
having shown too great a tendency towards the side of mercy, 
rather than that of severity, in deciding what to include and what 
to reject. Were the line drawn too sharply, mnch that is of 
interest from a strictly philological point of view might possibly 
be passed by, as being otherwise of little or no value. It is perhaps 
as well, therefore, in dealing with such matters to bear in mind the 
old Wiltshire story of the man who, when he went hedging, made 
it his rule to cut his stakes rather longer than at first glance seemed 
necessary, ‘‘bekase anybody cou’d cut ’em sharter if a’ wanted to, 
but a’ cou’dn’t make um no longer if they was cut too shart.” 
Our work may probably now claim to represent very fully and 
fairly the peculiar characteristics and range of our Wiltshire folk- 
speech, so far as may be done within the limits which have of necessity 
been imposed upon us from the outset. The raw materials have 
been collected and put roughly into shape, and it now rests with — 
the trained philologist to select and arrange from a scientific point 
of view, and so to give permanent form and value to them. 
No doubt there are still many Wiltshire expressions that have 
so far escaped our researches, and we shall be very glad to be 
informed of any such that may be known to our readers, so as to 
render the Glossary as complete as possible. 
