182 The New Forest : its History and its Scenery. 



jneaning, and imperceptibly pass from one stage to another. It 

 originally signified nothing but a shadow, and then the place 

 where the shadow rests. In this second meaning it more 

 particularly became associated with the idea of coolness, but 

 gradually, whilst acquiring that idea, quite contrary to Milton's 

 " unpierced shade " {Paradise Lost, B. iv. 245), lost the notion 

 of that coolness being caused by the interception of light and 

 heat. In this sense it was transferred to any place which was 

 cool, and so at last applied, as in the New Forest, to bare spots 

 without a tree, deriving their coolness either from the breeze 

 or the water. 



Another instance of the gradual change in the meaning of 

 words amongst provincialisms may be found in "scale," or 

 " squoyle." In the New Forest it properly signifies a short 

 stick loaded at one end with lead, answering to the "libbet" of 

 Sussex, and is distinguished from a " snog," which is only 

 weighted with wood. With it also is employed the verb 

 "to squoyle," better known in reference to the old sport of 

 *' cock-squoyling." From throwing at the squirrel the word was 

 used in reference to persons, so that "Don't squoyle at me " at 

 length meant, " Do not slander me." Lastly, the j^hrase, now 

 still common, "Don't throw squoyles at me," comes by that forced 

 interpretation of obtaining a sense, which nearly always reverses 

 the original meaning, to signify, "Do not throw glances at me." 

 And so in the New Forest at this day "squoyles" not unfre- 

 quently mean glances. 



There is, too, the word " hat," which in the Forest takes 

 the place of " clump," and is nearly equivalent to the Sussex 

 expression, " a toll of trees." I have no doubt whatever that the 

 word had its origin in the high-crowned hats of the Puritans, 

 the " long crown " of the proverb ; and in the first place referred 



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