Glossary of Provincialisms. 



[APP. 



in dry weather are said " to lance " over 

 the turf. 



LARK'S LEES, or LEASE, A. A piece 

 of poor land fit only for larks, or, as the 

 peasantry of the Midland Counties 

 would say, only " fit to bear peewits." 

 Mr. Halliwell gives the form "lark 

 leers," as a Somersetshire phrase ; but 

 the above expression may be daily heard 

 in the New Forest. 



LOUSTER. Noise, disturbance. "What 

 a lousier you are making," signifies, 

 what a confusion you are causing. 



LUG-STICK. See Rug-stick. 



MALLACE, The The common mal- 

 low (Malvus sylvestris). Formed like 

 bullace, and other similar words. 



MARGON. Corn chamomile (Anthemis 

 arvensis). Called " mathan," through- 

 out the Anglian districts. 



MARK-OAK, See Oak. 



MOKIX, or more generally in the 

 plural, MOKIXS. Coarse gaiters for de- 

 fending the legs from the furze. See 

 chap. xv. p. 162. 



MUDDLE, To. To fondle, caress, to 

 rear by the hand. Hence we get the 

 expression " a mud lamb," that is, a 

 lamb whose mother is dead, which has 

 been brought up by hand, equivalent to 

 the " tiddlin lamb " of the Wiltshire 

 shepherds. See Wosset. 



OAK, MARK-, A. The same as a 

 " bound-oak," or boundary oak or ash, 

 as the case may be, so called from the 

 ancient cross, or mark, cut on the rind. 

 As Kemble notices (The Saxons in 

 England, vol. i., appendix A. p. 480), 

 we find in Cod. Dipl. No. 393, " on San 

 merkeden 6k," to the marked oak, show- 

 ing how old is the name. I have never 

 met in the New Forest with an instance 

 of a " crouch oak " (from crois), such as 

 occurs at Addlestone in Surrey, and 

 which is said to have been the " bound- 

 oak of Windsor Forest (See The Saxons 

 in England, as before, vol i. chap. ii. 

 p. 53, foot-note). The " bound-oak," 

 marked in the Ordnance Map near Dib- 

 den, has fallen, but we find the name 

 2S4 



preserved in the fine old wood of Mark 



! Ash, near Lyndhurst. In the perambu- 



i lation of the Forest in the 29th year ot 



Edward I. we read of the Merkingstak 



i of Scanperisgh. The various eagle-oaks 



in the Forest are comparatively modern, 



and must not be confounded with the 



i eagle-oak mentioned by Kemble (as 



! above, vol. i. p. 480). 



OMARY CHEESE. An inferior sort of 

 cheese, made of skim-milk, called in most 

 parts of England " skim Dick." See, 

 further on, the word Eammel, and also 

 Vinney, chap. xvi. p. 190. 



ONCE. Sometime. " I will pay you 

 once this week," does not mean in con- 

 tradistinction to twice, but I will pay 

 you sometime during the week. 



OVERRUNNER, An. A shrew mouse, 

 which is supposed to portend ill-luck it 

 it runs over a person's foot. In Dorset- 

 shire it is called a " shrocop," where the 

 same superstition is believed. See 

 Barnes' Glossary of the Dorset Dialect, 

 p. 382. 



PAXSHARD, or POXSHARD, A. Rage, 

 anger. " You have no need to get in a 

 panshard," is a most common saying. 

 See " peel," further on. 



PATCHY. Testy. Said of people 

 who proverbially " blow hot and then 

 cold." 



PEEL, A. A disturbance, noise. " To 

 be in a peel," means, to be in a passion. 

 Used in much the same sense as the word 

 " pelt," which is rightly explained in 

 the glosi-aries as anger, noise, rage, 

 though it is, perhaps, more spoken ol 

 animals than " peel." " What a pelt 

 the dog is making," that is, barking, 

 ', would be said rather than " peel." 



PICKED. Sharp, pointed. "A picked 

 piece," means a field with one or more 

 sharp angular corners. 



PITY. Love. " Pity is akin to love," 

 says Shakspeare, but in the West of Eng- 

 land it is often the same. 



PLASH, A. A mill-head. It is often 

 used conjointly with another word, as 

 Winkton Plash. 



