224 OLD WEST SURREY 



A countryman brought me some stewing pears. I asked 

 what he called them. 



' Cattle-axe,' he answered. 



I thought a moment and then said : ' Oh yes, Catillac, 

 giving the name somewhat the French pronunciation, but, as 

 I thought, suitably anglicised. 



' No,' he said ; ' Cattle-axe.' 



It was so evident that he would not be satisfied without 

 the name suo^estino- some kind of meaning, that to humour 

 him I said: 'Ah, I suppose they're called Cattle-axe because 

 they're so big and heavy that if a bullock was grazing in an 

 orchard and one came down on his head it would hit him a 

 whack almost like a pole-axe.' 



He at once brightened up and said, ' Yes, that's just it.' 



' Dew's Ann ' (Deux Ans), I have had in a bill for apples. 



' Winter-pickets ' was an old name for sloes, the fruit of 

 the blackthorn. 



Yeast with the older people is still called ' barm,' and 

 faggots are ' bavins,' pronounced ' bahv'n.' A thorn is a 

 ' bush.' They say of a dog limping on three legs, ' He's got 

 a bush in his foot.' 



The ' a ' is always broad, sometimes very much lengthened 

 or drawn out. Driving along one summer day I came upon 

 the scene of an accident. The tail-board of a farm cart had 

 come out and had let down a tub with a loose cover. The 

 road was covered with a beery-smelling foaming pool. 



' What's that ? ' I asked ; ' beer ? ' 



One word alone the carter answered, but he made the 

 most of it — 



' Baa-a-a-a-a-rm.' 



Twenty was always ' a score ' to the old folks ; a hen- 

 coop was ' a rip ' ; five shillings was ' a crown.' Why we 



