Words used hy Milton now Provincialisms. 101 



proverb, " Like a swarm of bees all in a cburm," whilst the 

 fowlers on the coast talk also of the wild ducks " being in 

 a churm," when they are in confusion, flapping their wings 

 before they settle or rise. We find it, too, in the old Wilt- 

 shire song of the " Owl's Mishap," to be sometimes heard on 

 the northern borders of the Forest : — 



" At last a hunted zo ver away, 



That the zun kum peping aiiver the hills, 

 And the hurds wakin up they did un espy, 



And wur arl in a churin az un whetted their bills." 



The word was doubtless in the first place an. onomatopoieia, 

 denoting the humming, buzzing sound of wings. Since, how- 

 ever, it was particularly connected with birds, it seems to have 

 been used in the sense of music and song by our Elizabethan 

 poets, and by Milton. Thus : — 



" Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet 

 With charm of earliest birds." 



(Paradise Lost, Book iv. 642.) 



And again : — 



" Morn when she ascends 

 With charm of earliest birds." 



(Paradise Lost, Book iv. 651.) 



Here, however, in the New Forest, we find the original significa- 

 tion of the word preserved. 



Let us further notice one or two more words, which are 

 used by Milton and his contemporaries, and even much later, 

 but which are now found in the Forest, and doubtless elsewhere, 

 as mere provincialisms. Thus, though we do not meet his 

 •' tale," in the sense of number, as in U Allegro, — 



" And every shepherd tells his tale, 

 Under the hawthorn in the dale ; " 



