Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/470

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [10* s. n. NOV. u, 1904.

Lat. vibrare. A ware was an old measure of length, but nobody can tell me how long it was. In an account - book dated 1750 I find, " 33 ware and 1 foot at forpence hapney a ware"; "14 bords 4 ware" ; "nine ware of bords used at the new engen."

Dr. Bradley, in his admirable little book on 'The Making of English,' says, "We are certainly far from knowing the whole of the Old English vocabulary." It would be equally true to say that we are far from knowing the extant vocabulary of our English dialects. That ancient words are rapidly perishing is only too clear to those who have kept their ears open for the last thirty years. If a man thinks that he is going to pick up dialect by sauntering through country lanes and jotting down what he happens to hear, he is much mistaken. He may get a few words in that way, but he will do little good unless he becomes so intimate with the people of the district under observation that they will talk to him as freely as to one of their own com- panions. Nor is it of much use to make extracts from newspaper articles which pur- port to be written in local dialects. Not one writer of such articles in a hundred can properly discriminate between literary and dialectal English. I know that a writer in my own neighbourhood deliberately forged many words. Many errors are owing to want of verification.

I often hear it said that some villages have words which are unknown to their neighbours in the next parish, and my experience teaches me that in districts where people intermarry a good deal, certain family groups retain words which are strange to others in the same neighbourhood. What proportion the un- recorded words bear to those which have already been made safe by printing it is obviously impossible to say, though the quantity of un printed material is certainly great. During six weeks of the present summer I wrote down in one village more than a hundred words which were new to me, and though I afterwards found that many of these were already known, the novelties were sufficient to encourage the hope that where much was found in so short a time, much more remained to be discovered.

On p. 283, ante, "some calls 'em oats" should foe " some calls 'em groats." S. O. ADDY.

In the Eastern and Middle States of the "United States, some years ago (and probably now), long rows of hay raked together were called winrows. See ante, p. 202.

R. BARCLAY-ALLARDICE. Lostwithiel, Cornwall.

ALLAN RAMSAY. In 'English Literature: an Illustrated Record,' vol. iii. p. 267, Mr. Ed- mund Gosse writes thus of Allan Ramsay : "In 1725 he published his best work, the excel- lently sustained pastoral play of * The Gentle Shepherd,' the life of Ramsay." One has no difficulty in assenting to the estimate of the poetic quality revealed in the vivacious pas- toral, but it is hard to discover why it should be specifically named " the life of Ramsay." The poem does not delineate the author's own career; it does not represent the only conspicuous success he achieved in letters ; and it did not cost him his life, for he sur- vived its publication for over twenty years, in the course of which he published tales and fables, and built for Edinburgh "a play- house new, at vast expence." Probably Mr. Gosse employs an uncommon expression to emphasize a view of ' The Gentle Shepherd ' which is diametrically opposed to that held by some of Ramsay's contemporaries. The work seemed so utterly unlike that which might have been expected from the Edinburgh wig- maker whom they knew, that these observers sought to account for its idyllic beauty and suggestiveness on a theory of composite authorship. Some hinted that the ostensible writer had received help from Sir John Clerk and Sir William Bennet, while others for a time attached some importance to a wild legend which made Ramsay merely sponsor for the work of Thomson of ' The Seasons.' As an outstanding protest against nonsense of this kind Mr. Gosse's phrase has significance, if, at least, it may be inter- preted as denoting that " the precious life- blood " which animates the comedy is em- phatically that of Ramsay without extraneous admixture. If the expression has another meaning, it would be interesting to know what it is. THOMAS BAYNE.

GRETNA GREEN MARRIAGE REGISTERS. In 1899, at 9 th S. iv. 309, a correspondent asked a question as to the whereabouts of these registers, and whether they are accessible to the public. To a similar question addressed to the authorities at Somerset House, I re- ceived, a few days ago, the following reply from the Registrar - General, which will, I think, be of interest to many besides myself :

"The Parochial Marriage Register of Gretna is in the custody of the Registrar-General, Edinburgh. Registers of irregular marriages at Gretna are be- lieved to be in the possession of Messrs. Wright & Brown, solicitors. Carlisle ; Mr. William Long [.c], weaver, Springfield, Gretna ; and Mrs. Armstrong, Lowtherton, Dornock."

By further inquiry from the persons named, I have ascertained that registers from 1843