OLD COUNTRY FOLK 



225 



have dropped the word ' crown ' and yet kept the ' half- 

 crown ' it would be difficult to say. 



' I be'ant no scholard ' means ' I cannot read or write.' 

 Accounts were kept by notches on hazel sticks. The old 

 people never say ' deaf,' always ' hard of hearing.' Forty 

 years ago, when a mischievous boy pulled 

 down or destroyed a bird's nest, he called it 

 ' mucking the nest.' The old woodman spoke 

 of trees that had been drawn up tall and 

 spindly in a thick wood as " drah'd up 

 limmer.' 



Feeling unwell was expressed in different 

 ways : ' I'm feeling sadly,' or ' very middling,' 

 or ' not up to much.' Being faint or weak 

 for want of food was expressed as ' I feel a 

 bit leary ' or ' lear.' Very near the German 

 Ichr. 



To shut (locally shet) in the sense of 

 joining or fitting together is still used. The 

 blacksmith ' shets ' the tire of the wheel ; the 

 horse is ' shet ' into the cart. He is also 

 ' shet ' out. A woman's work carelessly and 

 inefficiently done is ' slummacking ' : ' She does 

 her work in a slummacking sort of way.' 



To give an ordinary greeting is ' to pass 

 the time of day ' or ' give the time of day.' 

 One neighbour who had squabbled with and been cut by 

 another said : ' She passed me by and never so much as. 

 give me the time of day.' 



Fern — it is a county of bracken — was always ' farn/ 

 The word so pronounced has passed into place-names, as 

 Farnham and Farncombe, and appears also in personal 

 names. 



2 F 



A Bill on a 

 Hazel Stick 



