PREFACE. THE utility of works similar to the present is too generally admitted to require any apology for their publication. There is, notwithstanding, in their very nature, a dryness which requires relief: the Author trusts, therefore, that, in blending something of the imaginative with the details of philological precision, his work will not be found wholly destitute of that amusement which must necessarily make it more acceptable to the general reader. The Glossary contains the fruit of years of unwearied attention to the subject; and the work, altogether, will, it is hoped, be of some utility in elucidating our older writers, in affording occasional helps to the etymology of the Anglo-Saxon portion of our language, and also in exhibiting a view of the present state of an important dialect of the Western provinces of England. A late excursion through the West has, however, induced the Author to believe that some valuable information may yet remain to be gathered from our Anglo-Saxon dialect-more especially from that part of it still used by the common people and the yeo manry. Under this impression, he respectfully solicits communications from those who feel an interest in this department of our literature; and should it be the good fortune of this little work to reach a second edition, he hopes that it may be, by such communications, materially improved. To a native of the West of England this volume will be found, the Author believes and trusts, an agreeable and convenient vade-mecum of reference, and assist the reminiscence of well-known, although, perhaps, too often unnoted peculiarities and words, which are fast receding from the polish of elegance, and the refinement of literature. In regard to the Poetical Pieces, it may be mentioned that most of them are founded on West Country Stories, the incidents in which actually occurred; they will not, therefore, on this account, be the less acceptable. If some of the subjects should be thought trifling, it will not, it is hoped, be forgotten that the primary object has been, to exemplify the Dialect, and that common subjects offered the most ready, and, indeed, the best means of effectuating such an object. Of such Poems as Good Bye ta thee Cot; the Rookery; and Mary Ramsey's Crutch, it may be observed, that had the Author felt less he might, perhaps, have written better. Metropolitan Literary Institution, London, The Author's anxiety to render his work as |