Guernsey.
"_Warple-way_" (Vol. ix., p. 125.).--The communications of your
correspondents (Vol. ix., p. 232.) can scarcely be called answers to the
questions put.
I find, in Holloway's _Dictionary of Provincialisms_, 8vo., 1838, that a
ridge of land is called, in husbandry, a _warp_. It is defined to be a
quantity of land consisting of ten, twelve, or more ridges; on each side of
which a furrow is left, to carry off the water.
Again, in Halliwell's _Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words_, two
volumes, 1847, it will be {479} found that _warps_ are distinct pieces of
ploughed land, separated by furrows. I think I here give the derivation and
meaning, and refer to the authority. If the derivation be not here given,
then I would refer to the Saxon word _werpen_, meaning "to cast."
Across marshy grounds, to this day, are seen ridges forming foot-paths,
with a furrow on each side. A ridge of this sort would formerly be,
perhaps, a _warple-way_. Or perhaps a path across an open common field,
cast off or divided, as Halliwell mentions, by warps, would be a
_warple-way_.