_Mardle_ (Vol. viii., p. 411.).--This is the correct spelling as fixed by
Halliwell. I should propose to derive it from A.-S. _mathelian_, to speak,
discourse, harangue; or A.-S. _methel_, discourse, speech, conversation.
(Bosworth.) Forby gives this word only with the meaning "a large pond;" a
sense confined to Suffolk. But his vocabulary of East Anglia is especially
defective in East Norfolk words--an imperfection arising from his residence
in the extreme west of that county.