222 OLD WEST SURREY 



the gate.' It seems to have the same sense as the ' over 

 against ' of the Bible. 



Our old countrymen add one more to the many ways 



of sounding ' ough,' for they say the pig eats out of a 



' tro ' ; this is so familiar that I find myself saying ' pig-tro ' 

 quite unconsciously. 



The use of the word ' dirt/ in the sense of earth or soil, 

 is interesting and not easy to define. As far as I am able 

 to observe, it means any surface earth that is being moved 

 or has lately been moved, or is likely to be disturbed or 

 taken away. The hedger mends hollows in a bank after 

 ' gapping ' and ' plashing ' by ' chucking up some dirt ' as 

 he scours the ditch. Extra soil that is thrown out in 

 excavating for a building, or that is moved for levelling, 

 is so many loads of ' dirt,' unless it is sand or clay, when 

 it is called by those names. Yet in describing the soil of 

 a garden he would not say there is a foot and a half of 

 good ' dirt ' ; he would call it ' mould.' He is speaking of 

 it in a state of repose, although garden ground is always 

 liable to be disturbed. But in planting an apple-tree he 

 would lay out the roots in the hole and sprinkle a little 

 ' dirt ' carefully over them before filling in. 



In this use the word ' dirt ' is not a term of contempt, 

 nor does it bear any sense of uncleanliness, though this 

 naturally grows out of it as when, by contact with wet 

 earth, a ' Monday shirt ' becomes dirtied or soiled. The 

 more ordinary meaning is of course also used, as when our 

 hill-men on a clean sandy soil speak of their neighbours 

 on the clay weald, a few miles to the south, as ' down in 

 the dirt.' 



