20 DORSETSHIRE FOLK-SPEECH AND SUPERSTITIONS. 



This is, perhaps, not to be wondered at when we consider its 

 constitution, and the objects more especially for which the Society 

 was formed. Nor could it, amongst the more solid and valuable 

 articles that have filled its pages, well have found place for those 

 isolated scraps of folk-lore which I would venture to suggest are so 

 pre-eminently suited for the pages of that new aspirant for our 

 favour and support, the Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queries, a 

 periodical which, from its artistic merits and interesting contents, 

 has already received a hearty welcome and support from many 

 members of our own society. There seems to be no reason, however, 

 why the Dorset Field Club should not include in its " Proceedings " 

 articles on the subject of folk-lore of a greater length and a more 

 solid character, perhaps, than are suited for the pages of its younger 

 contemporary ; and it is with that object, and in the hope that my 

 example may be followed by others, that I have compiled the 

 folloAving paper, which appeals both to the natural history and to 

 the antiquarian side of my readers. 



I may say at once that it would be impossible in contributions of 

 this nature, not to find that certain words and expressions, though 

 considered at first as peculiar to one, appertain in reality to several 

 counties ; for the boundaries of our country folk-speech know no 

 geographical limits. Were only such words to be inserted that are 

 shown upon inspection to belong to one individual county and no 

 other, a vast number of undoubted provincialisms would be un- 

 chronicled altogether, and the loss to the student of comparative 

 folk-lore would in consequence be very great. 



Again, if this is to be done at all, it must be done soon, or it will 

 be too late. Year by year, under the civilising influence of com- 

 pulsory education and the unsympathetic attitude of the Board 

 Schools, our country folk are becoming, if not ashamed at least 

 more shy of confessing to those popular superstitions and 

 quaint old customs that once awed and delighted our ancestors ; 

 and it would not be difficult, I think, to prophesy that before 

 many years have passed the antiquary and the lover of folk- 

 lore alike may look in vain for the survival amongst us of 



