This is the true old English use: "And hood, for jolitee, ne wered he noon, "His walet lay byforn him in his lappe, Bret ful of pardoun come from Rome al hoot." Chaucer, Cant. Tales, prologue, 11. 684–686. "And wedden hure for hure welthe: and wishen on pe morwe That hus wyf were wex: oper a walet ful of nobles." Piers Plowman, pass. xi. 1. 268. "WANDERING JEW = the Hartland local name of the plant Tradescantia discolor. Identified by Robert Holland, Esq., Frodsham, Warrington.-January, 1893. R. P. C.” Another miscalled plant name, showing how the ignorant apply terms they know to almost any plant of the like habit. Wandering Jew or Wandering Sailor are the common names of Linaria Cymballaria, whose creeping growth is the only sort of resemblance it bears to the greenhouse Tradescantia discolor. WEEKINDAYS AND SUNDAYS. Not long since I heard two children talking, when one said to the other, 'I have bread and treacle weekindays, and bread and butter Sundays."— May, 1893. H. B. S. W." Although a common form, yet a most interesting example of the adjectival inflection en, surviving in literature in wooden, woollen, &c,, but by the peasantry used whenever one substantive is used to qualify or describe another, as in cloamen, tinen, glassen, &c. Surely this form decides the much vexed question as to what part of speech is cannon in cannon-ball. Had the article itself been one in ancient and common use, instead of being comparatively a thing of yesterday, we should expect to find it called by the people a cannonen-ball. " 'WIGGIN. In Notes and Queries, of April 22nd, 1893, p. 317, J. F. W., Plymouth, says that 'a South Devon servant used the expression: "I had to throw away the junket; he was gone so sour as a wiggin"; but what a wiggin was she did not know.'-H. B. S. W." Wiggin is a mountain ash, but the berries are not sour. "WORMUTH = the plant wild wormwood. A farmer, aged about 30, tells me that this plant is called wormuth or will' wormuth (wild). I think the more usual name is worm'ood. -June, 1892. R. P. C." This is most interesting, showing the conservation of the true old English. Ang.-Sax., wermod; Modern German, wermuth. Hence the vermuth or absinthe so popular in Paris. = Absinthium aloigne, wermod. Absinthium, anglice wermod. Wright's Vocabulary (13th and 15th cent.), pp. 553, 562. The insertion of the w in this word is another instance of the corruption of literary English, while the poor despised dialect speaker is, as usual, correct in his "worm'ood." "YARD = 16 feet. Rose, a Rockbeare man, age over 50, was engaged on some piece-work ditching, which he said he would do for 3d. per rod. He produced a stick, which he said was just over a yard in length, and with which he meant to measure. He allowed it a bit long, as he said it would soon wear down by use to the proper length. 'But that measures more than a yard,' remarked my husband; 'that must be nearly a rod long.' 'Oh, yes; but we call that a yard down here,' was the reply. The gardener, also a Devonian, confirmed this, saying measurements were often made by the Devonshire yard, which was sixteen and a half feet long. He did not say whether the usual Devonshire mile contained 1760 such yards, but I have often thought that they did, when I was tired after a long walk.-March, 1892. F. B. T." See 7th Rep. Dev. Prov., which deals with the square yard. Notwithstanding the great confusion to be found at every step in the terms used in mensuration, yet there can be no doubt that the synonymous terms-virga, rod, pole, perch, yard, lug-all mean a definite length of 16 feet. Whether originally the virga was the integer or a fraction of measurement is a difficult question. In the Middle Ages the furrow-long or "aker's-lengthe" was, as it still is, 40 "yards," while the mile is the length of 8" vores," or 320 yards. Virga Skeat says that rod and rood are the same word, and from being originally merely a pole or stick, it developed in one direction into a measure of land, i.e., 40 square virgæ, and in the other to the name of the cross or Holy-rood. again, which was apparently always of the same exact length, gave rise in Domesday to the virgate, a singularly indefinite quantity, being the fourth part of a hide-a measure not of length or area, but simply of value. The hide represented so much land as was assessed at six shillings, and consequently situation and fertility were the main considerations. We thus find that although a hide is commonly reckoned at about 120 acres, yet in fact it varied in Dorset (see Eyton, p. 13) from 84 to 4000 statute acres. the actual area of a virgate? Who then can compute By what means the yard, which may mean a stick" of 80 feet on a man-o'-war, came at length to represent the conventional 36 inches, cannot here be discussed. = "YESTLE to bustle, to move about restlessly, to fidget. A servant girl, aged about 15, was heard to say, 'I cud 'n zlaip at all. A kipt on yestlin' about zo' (in bed).—June, 1892. R. P. C." This is no doubt the same word as hustle, pronounced first hestle, and then according to rule with an initial y, as in yeth, yeffer, yoe (hew), &c. Short u is very apt to be narrowed in Devon into short e. The usual pronoun us is nearly always ess when spoken quickly. In the Ex. Scolding this is spelt es and is. The following shows that the change of initial h to y is by no means modern: It. of I. Meke for a yhefyr. 1446. Yatton Ch. War. Acc.-Som. Rec. Soc. p. 85. "ZELLUP = seed-lip. J. T. H. gives me the proverb: 'When the say-gulls cry by lan', 'Tis time to take the zellup in han'; 'Tis time to draw (throw) the zellup away.' -June, 1892. One of the oldest implement names known. Ceed lepe or hopyr. Satorium. Hopur of a seedlepe (or a seedlepe). Satorium. iijs SEED-LEAP, or SEED-LIP, the Hopper or vessell in which husbandmen carry their seed-corn at time of sowing. 1717. Dictionarium Rusticum, 2nd Ed. Forby (East Anglia) says the word is applied sometimes "to the deep basket which holds the chaff to feed the horses." "ZO OFTEN = now and again. At Wellington a postman, native of Burlescombe, age about 20, speaking of the spring balance he carried to weigh parcels, said, ' We gets 'em a-tested every zo often.'-July 2nd, 1892. F. T. E." ELEVENTH REPORT (SECOND SERIES) OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE CLIMATE OF DEVON. ELEVENTH REPORT of the Committee-consisting of Mr. P. F. S. Amery (Secretary), and Mr. James Hamlyn, -appointed to collect and tabulate trustworthy and comparable observations on the climate of Devon. Edited by P. F. S. AMERY, Hon. Secretary. (Read at Torquay, July, 1893.) YOUR Committee present an abstract of Meteorological observations taken during 1892, relating to the Rainfall, Temperature, Humidity, and Cloud, as recorded in localities fairly representing the various districts of the county. The new Torquay station at Cary Green, whence a complete record for the year is recorded, will, it is hoped, prove a permanent institution. The Rainfall reported by Dr. Ramsay is recorded at Grey's Lodge, at 260 feet above sea-level, by Col. J. R. Currie, a quarter of a mile W.N.W. of Duncan House. From Plymouth only half the year has been reported, owing, it is presumed, to changes in the staff of the Marine Biological Laboratory. The Princetown returns are also imperfect; but as the latter part of the year is complete, it is hoped regular observations are again being recorded there. The Secretary wishes to refer to the loss this Committee has sustained by the death of one of its members, Mr. E. Parfitt, of Exeter, who has carried on his meteorological observations for a long series of years. The Committee is especially indebted to Mr. W. Marriott, F.R.Met.Soc., the Assistant Secretary of the Royal Meteorological Society, for the pains he has taken to supply the |