i 2 s. ix. JULY 23, 19*1.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 69
Sussex and Surrey Dialect Words and Phrases (see 12 S. viii. 481).—A good many of these words and phrases are in common use in Nottinghamshire and neighbouring counties, and some, I venture to say, all over England. The following I have heard familiarly in the county named:—
Allowance, or more commonly 'lowance. Usually it means beer given in return for some special service, but it may include victuals.
Bergamy pears: bergamot pears.
Bright as bright. This form of speech is common with many adjectives.
First off: first.
Forelong: before long.
Gahmy: (pronounced gawmy) sticky.
Hap (=happen): perhaps; as "Happen I shall?"
Plat : a plot of grass; usually as grass-plat.
Postes (disyllable), often as poses.
Shackle about. This seems allied to our shacking about, idling. Another form of the word is shucky, idle. A nickname of a labourer on my father's farm was "Shucky Jack." A man always at a loose end is called a "shackbag."
Spindly: said of anything that seems to have run up beyond its strength; tall but weakly.
Shatter: said of corn that sheds its grain.
Strangely: very much; as "strangely put out."
Several of these are heard in Lincolnshire. In that county alone have I heard flash as a name for a pool of water. "The Flash" is the address of an old friend of mine.
"How's yourself"; "of no account"; "Scotch fiddle"; "slug"; "vally"; "whop"; and a few other of the list at the above reference one hears almost everywhere. It is strange that the flower names, "lady's smock" and "milkmaids," are not to be found in dialect dictionaries. They are both in the 'O.E.D.' C. C. B.
" OPINIONATION " : " INNUMEROUS."-
' Main Street,' by Sinclair Lewis ("first
printing, October, 1920 " ; " eighteenth
printing, March, 1921 "), has been hailed
in some reviews as an epoch-making novel:
It is undoubtedly clever, though written
very often in a phraseology which few
people on this side of the Atlantic can be
quite certain that they understand. The
use of dialect and slang, however, is one
thing, and the coining of new English words
quite another. The two words at the head
of this note will serve for examples. The
author, at p. 183, says that the heroine
" sough b to dismiss all the or. inionation of an
insurgent era " ; and at p. 196 he refers to her
intention not to have children till she could
afford them as " this sacrifice to her opiniona-
tion." What does " opinionation " mean ?
Presumably the same as the hideous word
" opinionatediiess " ; but why should we
have two hideous words, when perhaps even
one is unnecessary ? Would not dogmatism
do ?
At p. 210 the author writes of " Swedish
families with innumerous children." Why
this unnecessary new Latinism ? In-
numerable is a much more musical word.
JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT.
BATHWOMEN. It is well known that in
the public baths in Sweden there are women
attendants who wash the visitors from head
to foot, be they male or female. Travellers
in Sweden who read ' N. & Q.' may be ii-
terested to be reminded that the same cus-
tom existed in Homeric times.
T6v S'errfl ovv Sfjupal ova~av KOI picrav eXattp
(Od. viii, 454). So true is it that there is
nothing new under the sun.
T. PERCY ARMSTRONG.
2, Whitehall Court, S.W.
APPRECIATION OF CHEDDAR CHEESE IN
1681. In the Historical MSS. Commission's
Report on the MSS. of the Duke of Portland
extracts are given from a MS. describing a
journey from Oxford to Cambiidge by
Thos. *Baskerville in May, 1681, to which
are attached some rhymes, called proverbs,
of which the following are the first twelve
lines :
A Dunstable lark and straw hats.
An Essex calf, St. Albans straw tankards and
pots,
A Cheddar cheese,
A Warfleet oyster,
Herefordshire cyder,
Derby ale,
An Ock eel,
A March hare,
A Whitney blanket,
A Flanders mare.
A Lancashire lass.
And Hampshire honey is current goods for your
money.
R. HEDGER WALLACE.
FIRE AT SANTIAGO CATHEDRAL IN SPRING,
1921. As far as I am aware no English
newspaper, religious or profane, considered
that it had readers of sufficient culture and
i intelligence to care for details of a catas-
I trophe which The Times glanced at through
Le Matin and Le Petit Parisien, and assured
us that the event had prostrated with grief
the octogenarian archbishop " Cardinal de
iHerrera de la Iglesia" " de la Iglesia "
I should have been translated, of the Church.
The burning of one of the departments of
Harrods Stores would have gained greater
