302 
Others, though provincial, are as well 
known in Leicestershire, for instance, as in 
Craven—as jist, cattle taken to graze— 
clam, to hunger, to starve. 
The book, again, is stuffed with proverbial 
phrases, familiar to every body, high and 
low ;—as, to have other fish to fry—to make 
Sish of one, and fowl of another—to burn 
one’s fingers—to burn daylight—to make 
ducks and drakes of one’s money — to 
make no bones of a thing—to stick in the 
gizzard—to grumble in his gizzard—in 
apple-pie order—in black and white—blind 
man’s holiday—to kick the bucket (an un- 
feeling phrase, adds the author, for to die)— 
to give the go-by ;—and others too coarse at 
present for common usage; as, to look as big 
as bull-beef—to make a bridge of one’s nose, 
which is used, he says, by a party of topers 
drinking out of a common vessel. Thus, if 
the first drink, and, by way of joke, offers 
to give the mug to the third, the second will 
exclaim, “‘ Stop thear, thou sall’nt make a 
brig 0’ my noaz.”” We have heard it used, 
by good authority, in the provinces, for 
“thrusting your nose where you have no 
business.” Of these phrases, generally, the 
use, not the origin, is explained. 
Here and there quaint phrases, still not 
peculiar to Crayen, are successfully illus- 
trated. Cater-cousins—quatre-cousins, or 
intimate friends, or near relatives, being 
within the first four degrees of kinship, 
(Blount). Jack Robinson—What a strange 
perversion of words will time frequently oc- 
casion ! (is the author’s exclamation). “ As 
soon as you can say Jack Robinson,” is a 
phrase common in every part of the kingdom ; 
but who would suppose that it is a corrup- 
tion of the following quotation ?— 
« A work it ys as easie fo be doone 
As ’tys to saye, Jack! robys on.” 
Old Play. 
Bishopp’d—the bishop has had his foot in 
it, &c. We were going to quote; but we 
perceive, by a second glance, the author has 
left the obscurity where he found it. 
We may say the same of bonfire. He talks 
of the Baal hills, as hillocks on the moor, 
where fires have formerly been, which he 
refers to the ancient idolatry of Baal; and 
then asks, “ Is not Baal-fire the true ety- 
mon of bonfire ?”” Mr. Todd (whose guesses 
are no worse than his dicta) supposes the 
primitive meaning to be a fire made of 
bones. This, notwithstanding his profound 
veneration for Mr. Todd, to whom he dedi- 
cates, does not satisfy the author. The 
Craven pronunciation baan for bone, chang- 
ing the letter for /, exactly corresponds 
with Baal. Here be proofs! Moreover, 
he doubts if a sufficient quantity of bones 
could be collected, on any public occasion, 
to make such a fire—but does not doubt 
whether bones, were they collected, would 
readily make a blaze. 1 
On the word fell, a hill, he again ques- 
tions his patron’s correctness, though not 
Monthly Review of Literature, 
[Sepr. 
without throwing a screen before him. Mr. 
Todd’s authority was— 
“© So shall the first of all our feZZs be thine ;” 
which, one Mr. Moor observed, was irrele- 
vant. The fell here mentioned (in the 
verse) is synonymous with the Craven word 
fall, or a crop of lambs. The following line 
confirms the supposition, as it relates solely 
to cows and goats :— 
«« And with the beestning of our goats and kine ;” 
which shews that, though Mr. Todd, with 
many another critic besides, can read one 
line, he cannot read two. 
Under the rose—a derivation is suggested 
from the Persian ander-raz, in secrecy. 
To patter, to speak hastily ; “ the people 
patter and praie” (Chaucer). Will not this 
come from repeating the paéer-noster, in the 
way in which such repetitions were and are 
notoriously performed ?—To peg away, “ to 
move hastily.” Has not this a reference to 
the game of cribbage ? 
We have no space to notice illustrations 
of sundry customs, particularly such as re- 
late to courtship and marriage. The pighul, 
or farthing candle—the pitchering—throw- 
ing the stocking, virgin garlands, &c.; nor 
of the dialogues—in which the author pro- 
fesses to furnish specimens of the dialect in 
its most immaculate elegance. 
Italy as it is, or Three Years in Italy ; 
1828.—This is another volume by the au- 
thor of “ Four Years in France.’’ The 
writer is well known as Mr. Best, who some 
years ago became somewhat conspicuous for 
his apostacy—rather a harsh term, to be 
sure—from the church of England, of which 
he was a minister, to the idolatries of the 
church of Rome. This very decisive act— 
the result of the purest conviction, however 
absurd it may sound to Protestant ears—no- 
body can by possibility impute such an act 
by such a man, so circumstanced, to sinister 
motives—deprived him of certain civil rights 
—-placed him, to a certain extent, in a state 
of degradation ; and, by the generosity of 
the world—by which must always be under- 
stood the reigning party—he found himself 
comparatively cut—curtailed of his fair pro- 
portions— his former acquaintance shying 
him—and, in imagination still more than in 
reality, a sort of outcast—a proscribed of- 
fender. Luckily for him, he was independent 
in fortune, and could go where he liked; 
and, accordingly, he withdrew with his 
family to the Continent, at once to screen 
himself and his children from mortifications, 
and educate them in a Catholic country. 
After a seven years’ residence in France and 
Italy, he returns to England, less sensitive 
perhaps than when he left it, and more ca- 
pable, we trust, of sustaining, without winc- 
ing, the arrogance of his orthodox contem- 
poraries. 
The ostensible motive for publication is 
his conviction of peculiar advantages for de- 
scribing Italy. His is not the narrative of a 
—, 
> =. oe a 
