ESSEX COUNTY DIALECT. 177 



the edges. Mrs. Emery 1 mentions a Dogtown in the out- 

 skirts of Newbury, "a hamlet beyond a belt of trees ;" and 

 it seems evident that the name has a common origin, not 

 local. I do not think it has any connection with dogs. I 

 have thought it more likely to be a corruption of sylla- 

 bles no longer understood, and assimilated to something 

 familiär. 



"Dialect-Notes " referto tYiQVQvhfudge used in playing 

 marbles. One writer says it means to cheat ; but it seems 

 a particiliar form of cheating, for another s&ysfudge means 

 to push the marbles out of place. In Squam Kiver is a 

 shoal over which boats have to be fudged along with a pole, 

 and the place where deep water begins was called Done 

 Fudging. 2 The nameextended to the region around, and 

 as a child I supposed it was Dunfudgeon. Thus do things 

 get mixed. 



It is not easy to decide whether a word is dialectornot, 

 and luckily it is not necessary for us to do so. It is much 

 safer to report peculiarities, and let the experts decide. 

 They throw out heeler, because the word is used wherever 

 the thing is used, but the thing is not used every where. 

 No doubt they will throw out quarret, but it will do no 

 härm to report that Judge Sewall used it in Boston 1685- 

 95 : "480 quarreis of the Front broken by the Hail."3 He 

 says a"house was broken up" instead of broken into : 

 (Dutch, op gebroken). His booby-hut was a coach on 

 runners, while that mentioned above was a clumsy coach 

 on wheels. It might be of importance to the Society to 

 know one was used as late as 1840, and where the word 

 survived. And in all cases of doubt, I should say, report 

 rather than risk losing anything. 



1 " Reminiscences of a Nonagenarian." 

 2 History of Gloucester, page 150. 

 a Diary, i, 402. 



