and reaching nearly to the hem of the dress. On the right side is the gipicierre or purse, suspended by a long linked chain, and also falling nearly to the length of the figure. This differs from the purses worn by the men of the period in the greater length of the chain, and in being worn on the left side, in place of being hung close to the belt on the right.

"This interesting little bell is now in the possession of Mr. Musselwaith, of Chapel Street, Stonehouse, who will be pleased to show it to anyone who may be interested in seeing it. (FRANCIS BRENT, F.S.A.)”

EIGHTH REPORT OF

THE COMMITTEE ON DEVONSHIRE VERBAL PROVINCIALISMS.

EIGHTH REPORT of the Committee-consisting of Mr. J. S. Amery, Mr. G. Doe, Mr. R. Dymond, Mr. F. T. Elworthy, Mr. F. H. Firth (Secretary), Mr. P. 0. Hutchinson, Mr. P. Q. Karkeek, and Dr. W. C. Lake-for the purpose of noting and recording the existing use of any Verbal Provincialisms in Devonshire, in either written or spoken language, not included in the lists published in the Transactions of the Association.

Edited by F. T. ELWORTHY, Member of Council of the Philological Society.

(Read at Seaton, July, 1885.)

IN presenting their Eighth Report, your Committee rejoice to announce that the interest, not only of members and contributors, but of the outside public, continues unabated. Of the last year's Report, Dr. Prior, the accomplished and wellknown author of the Popular Names of British Plants, said, in a letter to the Editor, dated November 12th, 1884, "It would be hard to find thirty-six pages more full of interesting matter and curious research.”

In order, however, to make their Report of value as well as interest, your Committee would again call the attention of observers to Resolution A (d), "Every provincial phrase or expression;" and again reiterate that words alone, however valuable as contributions, are only a part of the material which it is desired to record and preserve. An able and zealous contributor writes, "In conversation, however, with farmers and other country people, what I used to be most intent on catching was new words." This represents the feeling of many others, and the consequence is, that many

provincial word fossils are found, but the matrix in which they exist is cast aside unnoticed; thus in frequent instances a real archaic word is served up in a purely modern and literary sentence, widely differing from that in which the word was used. Moreover there are endless forms of expression, phrases, idioms, containing no particular words but such as are in every-day literary use, which nevertheless, if taken as a whole, are true and living examples of the grammar or construction of the language as spoken in the past.

Inasmuch as those only who have literary tastes, and, being educated, are accustomed to write book dialect, take sufficient interest to note (perhaps they only have the faculty to observe) provincialisms; so their very culture and habit of writing book-English deprive them of the power of shaping the sentences as they are spoken. Naturally, therefore, in their hands these sentences assume the form in which they ought to be written according to literary standard. Hence the great difficulty of obtaining note and record of the very commonest expressions heard every day of our lives, so common indeed that nobody ever thinks of them as strange or to be noted.

By way of more forcibly illustrating the foregoing remarks, the Editor has, contrary to custom, in this Report ventured to remodel many of the sentences contributed, by way of notes, into the form in which he feels sure the word must have been used. This is, of course, unsatisfactory; but it is hoped that the various contributors will themselves examine these suggestions, and where inaccurate, correct.

Among the following contributions are examples of the very common way in which the superlative of an adjective is made absolute by West-country folks by the adoption of some conventional simile. After long-continued and frequent usage these quaint similes seem to attach themselves to their respective adjectives, and so in the end become accepted and most expressive vernacular phrases.

It is much to be desired that all observers will carefully note and report any of these superlative phrases that they may hear, in order that they may be recorded in future reports, so as to preserve the particular illustrations adopted by the people to emphasise their adjectives. It will be found that over a large district each of the commoner adjectives has its own special and particular qualifying simile. Thus, who is not familiar with such expressions as "Dead as a door nail," "Deaf as a post," Blind as a bat," "Mad as a March hare"? and many more, which are merely the colloquial equivalents of very deaf, very blind, very mad. Of

these instances, it may be almost said, they have been accepted as literature; but there are a great number of others used by country people which have never yet appeared in print. Many of these from their aptness may one day be expected to be adopted, first by newspapers, then by novelists and more careful authors, and thus at last to enrich the recognized idiom of our written language.

RESOLUTIONS.

At the Meeting of the Association, held at Exmouth in 1883, it was ordered that the following resolutions and suggestions should be printed annually for the benefit of new members:

1. That the members of this Committee be requested to observe the following regulations, with a view to uniformity of action:

(A) To regard the following as Devonshire Provincialisms, if used by a speaker or writer within Devonshire, irrespective of their being, or not being, used elsewhere :

(a) Every word not occurring in a good English dictionary of the present day.

(b) Every word which, though occurring in a good English dictionary of the present day, is used in a sense differing from any definition of the word given in such dictionary.

(c) Every provincial pronunciation of any word which is itself not a provincialism.

(d) Every provincial phrase or expression.

(e) Every provincial name of an animal, or vegetable, or other object.

(B) To state where and when each recorded provincialism was heard in speech, or seen in writing; and to accept nothing at second-hand.

(C) To state the sex, probable age and social status, and, if possible, the birthplace, residence, and occupation of the person using each recorded provincialism.

(D) To give the meaning of each recorded provincialism within a parenthesis immediately following the provincialism itself; and to illustrate the meaning by incorporating the word or phrase in the very sentence employed by the person who used the provincialism. (E) To give, in all cases requiring it, some well-known word with which the recorded provincialism rhymes, so as to show its pronunciation; or, where this not practicable, to give a word or words in which the power of the vowel or vowels is the same as in the provincialism.

(F) To state of each provincialism whether it has been noted by Halliwell, or Nares, or any other recognized compiler of provincial, obsolete, or obsolescent words.

(G) To write the communication respecting each recorded provincialism on a distinct and separate piece of paper, to write on one side of the paper only, and to sign and date each communication; the date to be that on which the recorded provincialism was heard or read.

(H) To make each communication as brief as possible, but not to sacrifice clearness to brevity.

(2) To draw the communications so as to correspond as nearly as possible with the following examples :

"FLEECHES (= Large Flakes. Rhymes with Breeches).. A servant girl, a native of Prawle, South Devon, residing at Torquay, and about 23 years of age, stated that the snow was 'falling in fleeches,' meaning in large flakes. She added that the small flakes were not fleeches.-19th March, 1877. XY."

"HALSE (= Hazel.

The a having the same sound as in Father, not as in False). A labouring man, a native of Ashburton, residing at Torquay, and about 55 years of age, stated in my hearing that he had put an 'alse 'andle into his hammer; meaning a hazel handle (see Halliwell and Williams).—19th March, 1877. XY."

2. That the Report of the Committee to be presented to the next Annual General Meeting of the members of the Association shall include all suitable communications received by the Secretary not later than the 1st of June next, and that all communications received after that date shall be held over for another year.

3. That all meetings of the Committee shall be held at Exeter; that the Secretary shall convene them by separate notices to each member, posted not less than seven clear days before the dates of the meetings; and that two members shall be sufficient to form a quorum, with power to act.

4. That a meeting of the Committee shall be held not later than the 21st of June next, to receive and decide on a report to be prepared and brought up by the Secretary.

It is desirable to call the attention of observers more particularly to

1. Pronunciation. To note more carefully

(a) Vowel sounds, as in the various qualities:

Of a (as in found in shall, gate, father, wall).

Of ay (as in day, pay, say, may, maid, &c.), noting carefully whether it has the sound of a long, as in English play, or whether it has the broad sound of long i, as in the Devonshire ma-aid (maid).

Of e (as in pet, glebe, where).

Of i (as in pit, first, fight).

Of o (as in top, done, gone, bone), noting carefully if there is any fracture approaching two syllables, as in the ordinary Devonshire bō-un (bone), pā-ir (pair), &c.