120 



Wiltshire Word*. 



of grove." Popular songs have preserved old words ; in the 

 nursery- song, " Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man," we say 

 still, " Prick it and dack it and mark it with T " (the word 

 given just above), and it is lamentable that Mr. Stead, in one 

 of the Bairns' Books, gives " Prick it and pat it." 



Another local nursery-song, quoted in the Glossary, gives 

 us " Hush-a-bye, baby, the raven shan't have 'ee, No more 

 shall the magoMy-pie." 



Shrowd. To pollard a tree. " The Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon, 

 with fair branches, and with a shadowing shrowd, and of a high 

 stature/' Exekiel, xxxi., 3. 



Charm (noise). "With charm of earliest birds." Milton, Paradise 

 Lost, iv. 



D&ut (extinguish). "Doth all the noble substance often dout." 



Shakespeare, Hamlet, i., 4. 

 Frore (frosty). " The parching air burns frore." Milton, Paradise 



Lost, ii. 



Knit eh (bundle). "Bynde hem togidre in knytchis to be brent." 



Wyclif, Matthew, xiii., 30. 

 Learn (teach). "Lead me forth in thy truth and learn me." 



Psalm xxv., 4. 



Mazzard (head). " I'll knock you o'er the mazzard." Shakespeare, 

 Othello, ii., 3. 



Malhin (a term of abuse). "Blurted at, and held a nialkin." 



Shakespeare, Pericles, iv., 4. 

 Ruddock (robin). " The ruddock, with charitable bill." Shakespeare, 



Cymbeline, iv. 2. 

 Stour (confusion). "But he was wary of that deadly stoure." 



Spenser, Faerie Queene, i., 7. 

 Pelt (passion). "Which put you into such a pelt." Wrangling 



Lovers, 1677. 



We may notice, too, how some of these old words, which are lost 

 to the polite language, have been retained, ciystallised into sur- 

 names : — Dredge (barley and oats grown together), Lear (hungry), 

 Masliii (a mixture of wheat and rye ; bread used to be made 



