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 

 affinity. 



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 



