“Tha girt soo!  I’ll baste thi when aw get thi hwom, that aw will!”
  shaouted Betty Bresskittle; “aw wunder tha artna ashamed o’ thisen,
  to stond theer a-feightingk th’ deevil hissel!”

Notes.—­Jud, for George; leet, light; bowd, bold; dandycock, Bantam cock; gradely, proper; gen, gave; owd, old; reet ee, right eye; git, got; as weild as weild, as wild as could be; aht, out; at-aftur, after; gurt, great; em, him; floy, fly; Runjer, Ringway; game (also gam), full of pluck; hoo, she; rooad, road, way; gurned, grinned; soo, sow (term of abuse); hwom, home; thisen, thyself.

EASTERN (Group 2):  N. ESSEX.

The following extract is from John Noakes and Mary Styles, by Charles Clark, of Great Totham; London, 1839.  Reprinted for the E.D.S., 1895.  As Great Totham is to the North of Maldon, I take this specimen to belong to Prof.  Wright’s “Division 2” rather than to the S.W.  Essex of “Division 5.”  The use of w for initial v occurs frequently, as in werry, very, etc.

  At Tottum’s Cock-a-Bevis Hill,
    A sput surpass’d by few,
  Where toddlers ollis haut to eye
    The proper pritty wiew,

  Where people crake so ov the place,
    Leas-ways, so I’ve hard say;
  An’ frum its top yow, sarteny,
    Can see a monsus way.

  But no sense ov a place, some think,
    Is this here hill so high,—­
  ’Cos there, full oft, ’tis nation coad,
    But that don’t argufy.

  As sum’dy, ’haps, when nigh the sput,
    May ha’ a wish to see ’t,—­
  From Mauldon toun to Keldon ’tis,
    An’ ’gin a four-releet.

  At Cock-a Bevis Hill, too, the
    Wiseacres show a tree
  Which if you clamber up, besure,
    A precious way yow see.

  I dorn’t think I cud clime it now,
    Aldoe I uster cud;
  I shudn’t warsley loike to troy,
    For gulch cum down I shud.

  My head ’ood swim,—­I ’oodn’t do’t
    Nut even fur a guinea;
  A naarbour ax’d me, t’other day;
    “Naa, naa,” says I, “nut quinny.”

    Notes.—­Sput, spot; toddlers, walkers; ollis, always;
    haut, halt; wiew, view. Crake, boast; leas(t)ways, at
    least; sarteny, certainly; monsus, monstrous, very long.

    No sense ov a, poor, bad; coad, cold; argufy, prove
    (anything).

Sum’dy, somebody; from M., between Maldon and Kelvedon; ’gin, against, near; four-releet (originally four-e leet, lit. “ways of four,” four-e being the genitive plural, hence) meeting of four roads.

    Dorn’t, don’t; aldoe, although; uster cud (for us’d to
    could), used to be able; warsley, vastly, much; loike,
    like; gulch, heavily, with a bang.