Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/589

 12 s. viii. JUNE is, i92i.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 483 Poor plight : unwell. C. Posies : posts. C. Pug mill : a mill for grinding clay. C. and D. Bide : a way cut through a wood. C. Rinding : stripping the bark from trees. C. Binding : a bird. C. Bist : to put sticks to beans or peas. C. Bists : the sticks. C. Bobins and wrens. D. A Sussex rhyme has it that, Bobins and wrens Are God's best friends. Martins and swallows Are God's best scholars. Bods : the shafts of any vehicle. C. and D. Boopy : angry. C. and D. Scheel : to shell peas. C. and D. Scotch fiddle : the itch. Scruttie: a small particle or atom. D. " He didn't leave a scruttie in the box." Shackle about : to stand about without doing any useful work. D. Shatter : corn when over-ripe often falls out of the ears and is said to shatter. D.. Shet : a gang of workmen. D. Shoot rushes through. C. " This stuff is so thin you could almost shoot rushes through it." Shut to : to harness horses to a cart or other vehicle. C. and D. Sibbity powder : precipitate powder. D. Sire : wood partly dry. D. (Halliwell has this word but with a different meaning.) Sittivation : situation. C. Skindle and skindling : to reset newly made bricks to facilitate drying. C. and D. Slice : a flat iron plate with a long handle used for placing dough loaves into a hot oven usually called " setting in " the bread. Slipe : a part of the South Downs opposite to the village of Keymer is called Keymer Slipe. D. Slocket. D. " My boots are so big that they slocket as I walk." Slug : a shelless snail. C. and D. Smoory : a smooth appearance of the clouds portending rain. D. Snuff-box : a puff-ball, fungus. D. Sobbin wet : soaked with wet. C. and D. Sockses : socks. C. Soop : sup. G. Spaddly : loppy or muddy. C. Spind ly : said of corn or other growing crops when not doing well or looking weak. D. Spray faggots: those made from the tops of underwood. C. and D. Sreech : the missel-thrush. Sroby : faded apparel. C. and D. Stick faggots : faggots made all of stout straight sticks. D. Stivekit* : certificate. D. Stollege : Staid er. C. and D.* .Stood like a stuck pig : D. " When I told him what had happened he stood like a stuck pig." Strangely : very much. D. Swarm : to walk about indoors in an aimless sort of way. D. " I wish you would set yourself down somewhere and not keep swarming about the house so." " Stiffcat " used to be current among school- "boys in Birmingham. Teel over : turn over. D. Theers: these. C. Tippy : a game of marbles. D. Titsey : the plant tutsun. C. Top of one's thumb : "As big as the top o' mv thumb." C. Totter grass : quaking grass. C. " Tough as a wire pudding." C. Tub: cask. C. Unkind : cold inclement weather uncongenial for the time of year. Said generally of a back- ward spring. C. Unregular : irregular. C. Upland : the grass from seed sown annually, not meadow grass. Sometimes called " bents." C. Uppards* : any part of England north of Surrey or Sussex. Sometimes used instead of " the shires." C. and D. " She's gone somewhere uppards to live." Uppd and told himt : "He stood it as long as he could, then he uppd and told him what he thought about him." Vally : value. D. " What do you vally it at ? " Waant: " I waant ye," I'll warrant you. C. Wag : move. " We can't wag a peg without getting mired." Wake : weak. C. Wheel-rocket : a Catherine wheel. D. Whiting : a small silvery-looking insect. D. Whop : to beat. D. Widgetts : gnats. C. " We shall have thunder before long, the widgetts do bite so." Winegar : vinegar. C. Wobble road : a road through a wood. D. Woodyer : widower. C. Wor out ! : look out, beware ! D. Wuts : oats. D. " Fleas always bite sharpest at wut sowing, wut blowing and wut mowing. STEPHEN ROWLAND. AN ORIGINAL LETTER BY DR. JOHN SHERWEN. THE following copy of a letter by John Sherwen, physician and archaeologist, for whom see the ' D.N.B.,' written to my great-grandfather, Henry Shorting, M.D., may prove to be of some little general interest to readers of * N. & Q.' : Enfield, July 3, 1801. Dear Sir, As an object of Curiosity I write my Letter on Straw paper partly with a view to shew the Improvement which has been made in the Manufacture of it, and partly to give myself an Opportunity of correcting an erroneous statement of the patentee's mode of paying off his old Debts contracted in a former unsuccessful Speculation. He is note paying those Debts off by Instalments London." t ' E.D.D.' quotes from Biokley, ' Surrey Hills ' " Well, I ups and ax's 'ee."
 * ' E.D.D.' explains as = " Between here and