A Bibliography of Works relating to Wilts or illustrating its Dialect.
Most of the works comprised in the following list have lately been
read through, and compared with our own _Glossary_, and references
to many of them will be found in the foregoing pages. Some may
contain a more or less comprehensive Wiltshire Glossary; others
only a few words. Some belong absolutely to our own county; others
merely to the same group of dialects. But all are of value as
bearing on the subject. The Berks, Dorset, Gloucester, Hants, and
Somerset Glossaries of course contain a large proportion of words
and uses that are either absolutely identical with ours, or vary but
slightly therefrom, while such works as _Amaryllis, Dark, Lettice
Lisle_, and _Jonathan Merle_ on the one side, and _Old Country Words_
and _English Plant-names_ on the other, are full of examples and
illustrations of the South-Western Folk-speech. Even where their
scene is laid somewhat outside the borders of Wilts itself, the
dialect, with but trifling alterations, would pass as ours.
_S. Editha, sive Chronicon Vilodunense_, im Wiltshire Dialekt,
aus MS. Cotton. Faustina B III. Herausgegeben von C. HORSTMANN.
Heilbronn: Gebr. Henninger, 1883. A handy reprint of this fifteenth
century _Chronicle_.
_Parochial Antiquities_ attempted in the History of Ambroseden,
Burcester, and adjacent parts in Oxford and Bucks. By Bishop KENNETT,
1695. Reprinted 1816 and 1818. Contains a few Wilts words. See _Five
Reprinted Glossaries_.
_Lansdowne MSS._, 935-1042, British Museum. By Bishop KENNETT. Also
contain some Wilts words.
_The Natural History of Wiltshire._ By JOHN AUBREY. (1656-91). Edited
by JOHN BRITTON. London, 1847.
_Wiltshire: the Topographical Collections of John Aubrey._ (1659-70).
Edited by Rev. JOHN EDWARD JACKSON. London and Devizes, 1862.
_Other works and MSS. by John Aubrey._
_Collection of a few Provincial Terms used in North Wilts._ An
eighteenth century MS. Vocabulary, fully dealt with in Appendix II as
_Cunnington MS._
_A Provincial Glossary._ By FRANCIS GROSE. Second edition, 1790. Out
of the twenty-eight words which Britton marks as given in Grose, only
the following are credited to Wilts in this edition:--_Allemang,
Carriage, Contankerous, Dewsiers, Drowning-bridge, Dudge, Grom_
or _Groom, Huff, Leer, Lowle-eared, Quirking, Rudderish_, and
_Wasset-man_. The remainder (_Aneust, Axen, Beet, Bochant, Daddock,
More, Quamp, Quarr, Quilt, Quop, Skiel, Sleepy, Tail-ends, Tallet_,
and _Tid_) are not there assigned to Wilts; but as Britton may very
possibly have found them so localized in the revised 1811 edition,
which we have not had an opportunity of consulting, we add (G.) to
the whole of them, on his authority.
_General View of the Agriculture of the County of Wilts, with
observations on the means of its improvement._ By THOMAS DAVIS
of Longleat, Steward to the Marquess of Bath. London, 1794. An
Agricultural Report or Survey, afterwards much enlarged. The author
died in 1807.
_General View of the Agriculture of Wiltshire._ Drawn up for the
consideration of the Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement.
By THOMAS DAVIS. London, 1809. New editions, 1811 and 1813. An
enlarged and revised reprint of the _Agricultural Report_, edited by
the Author's son. Contains an interesting Glossary of Agricultural
Terms, arranged under subjects, as _Soils_, _Barn Process_,
_Implements_, &c., at pp. 258-268; also a few additional words in
the body of the work.
_Archæological Review_, March, 1888, vol. i, No. 1, pp. 33-39.
Contains a reprint of Davis's _Glossary_, with notes by Professor
Skeat, rearranged alphabetically, a few words and phrases being
omitted as general or legal.
_Some Specimens of the Provincial Dialect of South Wiltshire._ By
'MARK.' _Monthly Magazine_, Sept. 1814, vol. xxxviii, p. 114. Noted
in the Preface to _Five Reprinted Glossaries_. See Appendix III.
_A Topographical and Historical Description of the County of Wilts._
By JOHN BRITTON. London, N.D. [1814?]. Vol. xv of '_The Beauties of
England_.'
_The Beauties of Wiltshire_, displayed in Statistical, Historical,
and Descriptive Sketches, &c. By JOHN BRITTON. 3 vols. London,
1801-1825. Vol. iii contains a list of _Provincial Words of Wiltshire
and the adjacent Counties_, pp. 369-380. See Appendix II.
_Five Reprinted Glossaries._ Edited by Professor SKEAT. Eng. Dialect
Socy., 1879. Contains (_a_) _Wiltshire Words, from 'Britton's
Beauties of Wiltshire,'_ 1825; _compared with 'Akerman's Glossary,'_
1842, a few words being added from the _Monthly Magazine_, &c. (_b_)
_Dialectal Words, from 'Kennett's Parochial Antiquities_, 1695.'
_A Glossary of Provincial Words and Phrases in use in Wiltshire._ By
JOHN YONGE AKERMAN. London, 1842. An unacknowledged enlargement of
Britton's _Word-list_. See _Five Reprinted Glossaries_.
_Wiltshire Tales._ By J. Y. AKERMAN. London, 1853.
_Spring-tide: or the Angler and his Friends._ BY J. Y. AKERMAN.
London, 1850. Contains many Wiltshire and West of England words.
_A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words._ By J. O. HALLIWELL.
London, 1846, &c.
_Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English._ By THOMAS WRIGHT.
London, 1857, &c.
_The Song of Solomon in the Wiltshire Dialect_, as it is spoken in
the Northern Division. By EDWARD KITE. Circa 1860. Privately printed
for Prince L. Lucien Bonaparte.
_Content: or the Day Labourer's Tale of his Life._ By Mrs.
PENRUDDOCKE, Fyfield Manor House, Wilts. Salisbury, 1860.
_Peasant Life in the West of England._ By F. G. HEATH. 1872-80.
_Fabellae Mostellariae: or Devonshire and Wiltshire Stories in
Verse._ London and Exeter, 1878.
_Rhymes of the Wiltshire Peasantry, and other Trifles._ By EDWARD
SLOW. Salisbury, 1874.
_Wiltshire Rhymes: a Series of Poems in the Wiltshire Dialect._ By
EDWARD SLOW. London and Salisbury, 1881. Also Third edition, 1885.
_Wiltshire Rhymes._ Fourth Series. By EDWARD SLOW. Salisbury and
Wilton, 1889. Contains a _Glossary_ of about 200 words, pp. 9-14.
_Glossary of Wiltshire Words._ Compiled by EDWARD SLOW. Wilton, 1892.
Contains about 900 words, of which a few are of special interest.
_Works of Richard Jefferies_:--
_A Memoir of the Goddards of North Wilts, 1873. The Gamekeeper
at Home, 1878. Wild Life in a Southern County. 1879. The Amateur
Poacher, 1879. Greene Ferne Farm, 1880. Hodge and his Masters, 1880.
Round about a Great Estate, 1880. Wood Magic, 1881. Bevis, 1882. The
Life of the Fields, 1884. The Dewy Morn, 1884. The Open Air, 1885.
Amaryllis at the Fair, 1887. Field and Hedgerow, 1889. The Toilers of
the Field, 1892, &c., &c._
_The Eulogy of Richard Jefferies._ By WALTER BESANT. 1888.
_Some un-noted Wiltshire Phrases._ By Rev. W. C. PLENDERLEATH. _Wilts
Archæological Magazine_, vol. xxii. p. 107.
_Wiltshire Archæological and Natural History Magazine._ All vols.
_History of the Manor and Ancient Barony of Castle Combe_ in the county
of Wilts, &c., &c. By G. POULETT SCROPE. Privately printed, 1852.
_Records of Chippenham_, relating to the Borough from its
Incorporation by Queen Mary to its Reconstruction by Act of
Parliament, 1889, &c., &c. By FREDERICK H. GOLDNEY. 1889.
_Sarum Diocesan Gazette_, Annual Reports of Flower-classes, by Mr.
HUSSEY and Mr. TATUM.
_The Flowering Plants of Wilts._ By Rev. T. A. PRESTON. Published by
Wilts Arch. Society, 1888.
_The Birds of Wiltshire._ By Rev. ALFRED C. SMITH. London and
Devizes, 1887. Reprinted from _Wilts Arch. Mag._
_Glory: a Wiltshire Story._ By Mrs. G. LINNÆUS BANKS. London,
1876(?). New edition, 1892. Scene partly laid in and round
Marlborough.
_On the Upper Thames._ By Miss E. BOYER-BROWN. _Leisure Hour_,
August, 1893. Contains many words belonging to the Castle Eaton and
Marston Maizey district.
_A Dictionary of English Plant-names._ By JAMES BRITTEN and ROBERT
HOLLAND. E. D. S. 1878-86. A very valuable work, containing a small
number of Wilts names, mostly from sources already referred to. The
whole of the Plant-names in our _Glossary_ have been sent to Mr.
Britten from time to time, for use in the _Supplement_ which he is
now preparing.
_English Dialects--their Sounds and Homes._ By A. J. ELLIS. E. D. S.
1890. Contains some remarks at pp. 24-29 on Wilts, with specimens
of dialect from Christian Malford and Chippenham, accompanied by a
rendering into Glossic.
_A Glossary of Berkshire Words and Phrases._ By Major B. LOWSLEY. E.
D. S. 1888.
_Upton-on-Severn Words and Phrases._ By Rev. ROBERT LAWSON. E. D. S.
1884. A reprint of his smaller _Glossary_, which originally appeared
in _The Nation in the Parish_, by Mrs. LAWSON.
_The Dialect of the West of England, particularly Somersetshire._
By JAMES JENNINGS. 1825. Second edition, revised and edited by Rev.
JAMES K. JENNINGS. London, 1869.
_Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect._ By Rev. WILLIAM BARNES.
_Glossary_, pp. 459-467, edition 1888.
_Glossary of the Dorset Dialect_, 1863-86. By Rev. WILLIAM BARNES.
Also the additional _Word-lists_ published by him from time to time
in the _Dorset County Chronicle_.
_Natural History, Folk Speech, and Superstitions of Dorsetshire._ By
J. S. UDAL. A paper read before the Dorset Field Club at Dorchester,
in February, 1889, containing a _Glossary_, which was given in full
in the report in the local papers at the time.
_A Glossary of Dialect & Archaic Words used in the County of
Gloucester._ By J. D. ROBERTSON. Edited by Lord MORETON. E. D. S.
1890.
_A Glossary of Hampshire Words and Phrase_s. By the Rev. Sir WILLIAM
H. COPE. E. D. S. 1883.
_A Dictionary of the Sussex Dialect._ By Rev. W. D. PARISH. Lewes.
1875.
_On the Dialects of Eleven Southern and South-Western Counties_, with
a new Classification of the English Dialects. By Prince LOUIS LUCIEN
BONAPARTE. E. D. S. 1877.
_On the Survival of Early English Words in our present Dialects._ By
Rev. RICHARD MORRIS. E. D. S. 1876.
_Old Country and Farming Words._ By JAMES BRITTEN. E. D. S. 1880.
Contains extracts from the following volumes, among which may be
found a few additional Wilts words, as well as much information on
our agricultural terms:--
ELLIS, WILLIAM. _The Modern Husbandman_. 1750.
_Reports of the Agricultural Survey_, 1793-1813.
LISLE, EDWARD. _Observations in Husbandry_. 1757.
WORLIDGE, J. _Dictionarium rusticum_. 1681.
_Annals of Agriculture, &c._ 1784-1815.
MORTON, JOHN C. _Cyclopædia of Agriculture_, 1863.
_Folk-Etymology, a Dictionary of Verbal Corruptions, &c._ By Rev. A.
SMYTHE PALMER. London, 1882.
_Lettice Lisle._ By Lady VERNEY. 1870. Contains much excellent Hants
talk.
_The New Forest: its History and its Scenery._ By J. R. WISE. London,
1871. Glossary, pp. 279-288, also words in text.
_Jonathan Merle: a West Country story of the times._ By ELISABETH B.
BAYLY. 1890. Affords many good illustrations of words used in Wilts,
as the two following works also do.
_Tess of the D'Urbervilles._ By THOMAS HARDY. 1891.
_The Story of Dick._ By Major GAMBIER PARRY. 1892.
_Dark: a Tale of the Down Country._ By Mrs. STEPHEN BATSON. London,
1892. The scene is laid in Berks, just over the borders, but the
dialect, which is excellently done, is to all intents and purposes
that of North Wilts.
_A History of Marlborough College during Fifty Years._ By A. G.
BRADLEY, A. C. CHAMPNEYS, and J. W. BAINES. London, 1893.
_John Darke's Sojourn in the Cotteswolds and elsewhere._ By S. S.
BUCKMAN. 1890.
_The Scouring of the White Horse._ By THOMAS HUGHES. 1858.