St. Lucia, May, 1851.
_Meaning of Pilcher_ (Vol. iii., p. 476).--I must say I can see no
difficulty at all about _pilcher_. If the _r_ at the end makes it so
strange a word, leave that out, and then you will have a word, as it
seems, quite well established--_pylche_, toga pellice: Lye. Skinner
thinks _pilchard_ may be derived from it.
"Pilch, an outer garment generally worn in cold weather, and made of
skins of fur. 'Pelicium, a pylche.' (_Nominale MS._) The term is still
retained in connected senses in our dialects. 'A piece of flannel, or
other woollen, put under a child next the clout is, in Kent, called a
_pilch_; a coarse shagged piece of rug laid over a saddle, for ease of a
rider, is, in our midland parts, called a pilch.' (_MS. Lansd._ 1033.)
'Warme pilche and warme shon.' (_MS. Digby_, 86.) 'In our old dramatists
the term is applied to a buff or leather jerkin; and Shakspeare has
_pilcher_ for the sheath of a sword." (Halliwell's _Dictionary_.)
"_Pilche_, or _pilcher_, a scabbard, from _pylche_, a skin coat, Saxon.
A pilche, or leather coat, seems to have been the common dress for a
carman. Coles has 'a pilch for a saddle, instratum,' which explains that
it was an external covering, and probably of leather. Kersey also calls
it a covering for a saddle; but he likewise gives it the sense of 'a
piece of flannel to be wrapt about a young child.' It seems, therefore,
to have been used for any covering." (Nares' _Glossary_.)