Page:A Glossary of Berkshire Words and Phrases.djvu/67

48 BEDWINE.—Wild Clymatis.

BEE-UCH GALL, or BACHE GALL.—A hard lump on the leaf of a beech tree.

BEE-UCH MAASTS.—Beech nuts.

BEER.—Pith, worth, solidity.

"That zarment zimmed to I vurry small beer (i.e., poor and uninteresting).

Naturally beer is much thought of.

In the "Scouring of the White Horse" we find lines go—

"Zartinly the sixpenny's the very best I've zeed yet, I do not like the fourpenny nor yet the intermediate." At the Manor House, Hampstead Norreys, there is a pair of quaint old drinking horns. On the first is painted a yeoman of the olden time, and from his mouth comes the legend. "I love good beer;" on the other is similarly painted a labourer, who responds, and "So do I."

A country brewing is thus locally described—

"Vorty gallons o' Never Vear,

Vorty gallons o' Taayble beer,

Vorty gallons o' Wus nor that,

An' vorty gallons o' Rattle tap."

The Never Vear is strong beer.

The Rattle Tap is poor stuff indeed.

In haymaking time or harvest a man who drinks beer would require a gallon a day.

BEERY.—Partially intoxicated.

BEGGAR.—To impoverish; to make bankrupt. "That beggared I" (i.e., made me bankrupt).

BEHAWLDEN.—Under obligation. "I wunt be behawlden to the likes o' thaay."

BELIKE.—Very probably, perhaps. "Now ut raains a wunt come belike."

BELLOCK.—To roar loudly; to shout words in a coarse manner. "When I wolloped un' a bellocked zo 'e med year'n a mild awaay."

BELLOWSES.—Bellows; also the lungs.

BENNETS.—The long stalks of a species of grass with seeds thereon wherewith children make "bennet-baskets."

BENT, or BE-ANT.—Am not. "I be-ant a-gwaain to stan' 't," i.e., "put up with it."

BERRY.—A rabbits warren (a corruption of 'burrow').