_Tinsell, a Meaning of._--I wish to know if this word is still used by
the country-people in the midland counties, and on the borders of North
Wales, to denote _fire-wood_. In a Report dated in 1620, from a surveyor
to the owner of an estate in Wales, near the borders of Shropshire, the
following mention of it occurs:
"There is neither wood nor underwood on the said lands, but a few
underwoods in the park of hasell, alders, withie, and thornes, and
such like, which the tenants doe take and use for _Tinsel_ as need
requires."
The working people in Shropshire and Staffordshire still speak of
_tining_ a fire (pronounced _teening_). This is but a slight change in
the Anglo-Saxon word _tynan_, to light a fire.