108 



On some un-nolcd Wiltshire Phrases. 



their ancestral tongue, and try, indeed, to trauslate them into what 

 they consider more polite language — not always with success. I 

 remember many years ago talking to a parishioner about a neighbour 

 in whose convalescence after a long illness she had taken the deepest 

 interest, and being assured that she " now hoped that her recovery 

 would be premature" ! Had my informant been talking to one o£ 

 her own commeres, she would probably have said that " now as So- 

 and-so, had got well, she hoped as she'd kip well." 



A little learning is, however, proverbially a dangerous thing. I 

 copy from a letter written to me during a temporary absence from 

 home, the following startling sentence : — " The auxiliary teacher is 

 indisposed, and I fear that the seeds of an incipient decline are 

 corroding the root of her existence." 



To talk so tall as this, I for one prefer our good old Wiltshire 

 Saxon, albeit it is not everyone who would at first hearing under- 

 stand the latter. I once mortally offended an Italian friend who 

 prided himself on his perfect knowledge of English, by assuring 

 him that I would introduce him to a native, of whose talk he would 

 not understand ten consecutive words. This my friend absolutely 

 refused to believe. But the introduction took place, and at a very 

 early period in the conversation I had to intervene in order to 

 explain what was meant by there being a " maain zoight o' turmuts 

 to-year ! " 



I may add, par joarenthese, that if the Italian carried away no 

 very high opinion of Wiltshire intelligence, the opinion formed by 

 Wiltshire of himself was equally humble, for only a few days after- 

 wards, on my mentioning to a parishioner that my friend was a 

 very skilful musician, the latter replied that he had " thought that 

 the Italians were too savage to know anything about music ! 33 



The following words have, as has been already stated, been all 

 gleaned from actual conversations. But before putting them down 

 here, I have consulted all the local English glossaries to which I 

 could obtain access, and have also sent copies of them to some half- 

 dozen friends in different corners of the kingdom, in order to 

 ascertain whether any of them are known in< their respective 

 districts. To those gentlemen who have so kindly helped me by 



/ 



