was fystey; and that Nutty was so swelter’d, that she ha got a pain in spade-bones.  The bladethacker wou’d ha gin har some doctor’s gear in a beaker; but he sa she’ll niver moize agin.

R. Aye, the shoemaker told me of that comical trick; and his nephew says, that the yeast was musty; and that Ursula [was so] smothered, that she has got a pain in her bones.  The thatcher would have given her some doctor’s medicine in a tumbler; but he says, she will never recover.

Notes.—­Pronounce du like E. dew. Snasty, pron. snaisty, cross. Fate, fait (cf.  E. feat), suitable, clever. Mawther, a young girl; Norw. moder. Dibles:  the i is long. Sa, says; ha, have, has; note the absence of final s in the third person singular. Cadder, for caddow; from caa-daw, cawing daw. Douw, for dow, a dove. Par:  for parrock, a paddock. Fystey:  with long y, from foist, a fusty smell. Sweltered, over-heated, in profuse perspiration. Moize, thrive, mend.

WESTERN (Group 1):  S.W.  SHROPSHIRE.

The following specimen is given in Miss Jackson’s Shropshire Word-book, London, 1879, p. xciv.  It describes how Betty Andrews, of Pulverbatch, rescued her little son, who had fallen into the brook.

I ‘e{a}rd a scrike, ma’am, an’ I run, an’ theer I sid Frank ’ad pecked i’ the bruck an’ douked under an’ wuz drowndin’, an’ I jumped after ‘im an’ got ’out on ‘im an’ lugged ’im on to the bonk all sludge, an’ I got ’im wham afore our Sam comen in—­a good job it wuz for Sam as ‘e wunna theer an’ as Frank wunna drownded, for if ’e ’ad bin I should ‘a’ tore our Sam all to winder-rags, an’ then ’e ‘d a bin djed an’ Frank drownded an’ I should a bin ’anged.  I toud Sam wen ’e t{)o}{)o}k the ’ouse as I didna like it.—­“Bless the wench,” ’e sed, “what’n’ee want?  Theer’s a tidy ‘ouse an’ a good garden an’ a run for the pig.”  “Aye,” I sed, “an’ a good bruck for the childern to peck in;” so if Frank ’ad bin drownded I should a bin the djeth uv our Sam.  I wuz that frittened, ma’am, that I didna spake for a nour after I got wham, an’ Sam sed as ’e ‘adna sid me quiet so lung sence we wun married, an’ that wuz eighteen ’ear.

Notes.—­Miss Jackson adds the pronunciation, in glossic notation.  There is no sound of initial h. Scrike, shriek; sid, seed, i.e. saw; pecked, pitched, fallen headlong; bruck, brook; douked, ducked; ’out, hold; bonk, bank; wham, home; wunna, was not; winder-rags, shreds; djed, dead; toud, told; what’n’ee, what do you; a nour, an hour; sid, seen; lung, long; wun, were.

SOUTHERN (Group 2):  WILTSHIRE.

The following well-known Wiltshire fable is from Wiltshire Tales, by J. Yonge Akerman (1853).  I give it as it stands in the Preface to Halliwell’s Dictionary; omitting the “Moral.”