214 HISTORY OF HARTING. 



of tone and gesture carries at once the speaker's 

 personality. In this respect he has almost the vivacity 

 and imitative powers of his neighbour the French 

 peasant. On the other hand, one of the Teutonic 

 elements is much wanting : he has very few proverbs, 

 no native songs, such as the Celt delights in ab- 

 solutely no literature or trace of cultured conversation, 

 and hence unusually few local traditions. He is a 

 much-enduring, passive, easy-going, home-loving speci- 

 men of humanity ; and if we consider the crowded 

 hovels and wigwams that for centuries he has in- 

 habited, and the constant intermarriage of which he 

 is the result, it is a wonder that his nineteenth century 

 appearance is so good as it is. Mr. Phillips told me * 

 that on his arrival at Halting some fifty years since, 

 there were but six families in the place, so compact 

 was the affinity, though the population was over 1,200. 

 There are two views of the place, the outside one, 

 "never come near it :" the inside, "never leave it." The 

 truth is of course between the two ; but it may be 

 said that nine out of ten emigrants catch the Halting 

 fever in their absence, and return. 



It has been said that the pronunciation of our 

 peasantry is very rapid. At the same time it must 

 be allowed to be remarkably faithful. It is not till 

 Henry the Eighth's time that " er" is transformed to 

 " ar." For instance, ffart'mg first appears as the 

 spelling and pronunciation of 1526. Before this it 

 was Hert'mg or Herton. The common people talk of 

 going to " Hiertan" still; and "garland" still has its 

 Spenserian sound of " girlonde." 



"John Martin" would still be rendered by some of 

 us "Joann Mertan" the latent o in the first name 

 faithfully recording the long Omega of the Greek 

 Joannes, crushed into the English single syllable 

 "John." As to the sirname "Mertan" for Martin, 

 it is the identical pronunciation of 300 years ago. 

 Thus, Harting Register, spelling phonetically or by 

 sound, records that " Roger Mttrtan, of West Harting, 



