156 THE LIFE OF THE FIELDS. 



describing the weight and lumpiness of the youngster, 

 and winding up with the declaration, " He's a regular 

 nitch." A chump of wood, short, thick, and heavy, 

 is said to be a '* nitch," but it seems gone out of use 

 a good deal for general weights, and to be chiefly used 

 in speaking of infants. There is a word of some- 

 what similar sound common among the fishermen of 

 the south coast. Towards the stern of a fishing 

 smack there is a stout upright post with a fork at 

 the top, into which fork the mast is lowered while 

 they are engaged with the nets at sea. It is called 

 the "mitch," or "match," but though I mention it 

 as similar in sound, I do not think it has any other 

 afiinity. 



Of old time, crab-apples were usually planted in 

 or near rickyards or elsewhere close to farmhouses. 

 The custom is now gone out; no crab-apples are 

 planted, and so in course of years there will be but 

 few. Crab-apple is not nearly so plentiful as anciently, 

 either in hedges or enclosures. The juice of the crab- 

 apple, varges, used to be valued as a cure for sprains. 

 The present generation can hardly understand that 

 there was a time when matches were not known. To 

 such a period must be traced the expression still 

 common in out-of-the-way places, of a "handful of 

 fire." A cottager who found her fire out would go 

 to a neighbour and bring home some live embers 

 to light up again. When the fire chances to be nearly 

 out, the expression is still heard both in cottages and 

 farmhouses, " There is hardly a handful of fire." 

 Such a mere handful is of course easily " douted." An 

 extinguisher "douts" a candle; the heel of a boot 



