Oxford.
_Harrisers or Arrishers._--Doubtless, by this time, some dozen Devonshire
correspondents will have informed you, for the benefit of CLERICUS
RUSTICUS, that _arrishers_ is the term prevailing in that county for
"stubble." The Dorset harrisers are therefore, perhaps, the second set of
gleaners, who are admitted to the fields to pick up from the stubble, or
_arrishes_, the little left behind by the reapers' families. A third set of
gleaners has been admitted from time immemorial, namely, the _Anser
stipularis_, which feeds itself into plump condition for Michaelmas by
picking up, from between the stubble, the corns which fell from the ears
during reaping and sheaving. The Devonshire designation for this excellent
sort of poultry--known elsewhere as "stubble geese"--is "arrish geese."
The derivation of the word must be left to a better provinial philologist
than