Preface.

THE elucidation of language, and the improvement of lexicography, are investigations that have occupied the attention, and engaged the pens of many men distinguished for talents and learning.

First impressions, and early associations, are difficult to remove. In our youth we are instructed to regard the Greeks and the Romans as the greatest, the wisest, and the most polished of Nations; and to associate with the name of Goths every thing that is ignorant, barbarous, and savage. To Gothic ancestors, however, it should be remembered, we are indebted for our existence, our language, and a part-perhaps the most valuable—of our laws. We should also recollect that, when these immense hordes forsook their native forests, and settled in the countries they subdued, the freedom of the individual was respected and supported. The authority he acknowledged, and the subordination he yielded, were not the will of a tyrant, or the aggrandizement of a chief; but the voice of

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the nation at large, of which every member was a part :-a system, though deficient in the elegancies of art, the researches of science, or the ingenious labours of industry, was still founded in friendship and benevolence, in protection and gratitude. That there is an extensive, and much more intimate connexion than could have been imagined, between the language of the Goths, and that which was first spoken by the Greeks, and afterwards by the inhabitants of Italy, has been satisfactorily proved in the Hermes Scythicus of the author's friend Dr. Jamieson, a writer possessed of an accurate knowledge of the different Gothic dialects.

Amidst the contradiction, error, and confusion that prevail, not only in regard to the peopling of Great Britain but of Europe-involving early literary history in great obscurityit is difficult to draw any authentic conclusions, from which to be enabled satisfactorily to trace the establishment of our present mixed language, and the means and gradations through or by which it was accomplished. The pure Saxon style which at one period predominated, became greatly adulterated; partly by the barbarity and ignorance of the inhabitants, and partly by the sanguinary conflicts with the Danes; a people, who, though of kindred origin, and using a dialect derived from the same Northern source, were much inferior in civilization to the Saxons. Harassed by these Danish incursions, and often driven from their habitations, the people neglected learning, and a part of the language of their enemies gradually

became incorporated with their own. The courtiers of Edward the Confessor, priding themselves on the introduction of a foreign idiom, prevented any attempt to restore the energy of the original tongue; and the system adopted after the Norman conquest gave rise to those changes, which the accidents of time, and the improvements of society, subsequently effected in the literature of England.

To those acquainted with our literary history, it is evident that we have to look for our old English, where it only exists in its pure uncorrupted state, in the distant provinces of the North; however much the phraseology, in many respects, may be disfigured by modern corruptions, cant terms, or puerilities. The land of "Cockaigne," as some wits have lately called the dwellers in the metropolis, has long lost its raciness of idiom; but among the lower classes tradition has been faithful to its task; and several of our vulgarisms are in fact the remains of genuine English. Consequently, many archaisms occurring in our numerous old Chronicles, and in Gower, Chaucer, Skelton, Shakspeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, Ben Jonson, and other early writers-now totally disused in other parts of the kingdom-are still preserved in the remotest places of the North. This may be easily accounted for. In these districts, until of late years, the inhabitants had little or no intercourse with the more Southern counties. They, therefore, retained their ancient manners, customs, and language; unchanged by a mixture with those of their neighbours; and freed from the

arbitrary caprice of fashion-as much an enemy to, and working as great an inroad on a living language as barbarism itself. The distinctions of local dialects are now, however, becoming less conspicuous. The artizan and petty trader, no longer able to stem an overwhelming competition, are often compelled to emigrate from their native villages to larger towns; necessarily leaving this decreasing population to be supplied from distant places. An interchange of inhabitants so frequent, must ultimately, however imperceptibly, destroy all provincial peculiarities of speech.

Under these feelings, and with a view of preserving many ancient and emphatic terms, that were in danger of being totally lost, the author was induced to commence a collection of Provincialisms. In his earlier years he had frequent communications with different parts of the North, and accustomed himself to note down from time to time, all such words as appeared worthy of preservation, or were likely to afford an expla nation of former manners or customs. His first effort was a mere outline, sketched solely for his own amusement, and without any intention of ever bestowing upon it the labour in which it has since involved him. In that state the manuscript passed into the library of Mr. Lambton, a gentleman who feels a deep interest in the preservation of whatever is connected with the Northern counties. By those to whose opinion and judgment the author is bound to defer, such an accumulation of ancient dialectical words (when properly described) was considered

too interesting an addition to the history of our literature and of our language, and too valuable a portion of our local antiquities to be withheld from the public.

Mr. Lambton accordingly, with his accustomed liberality, again confided the manuscript to the care and revision of the original writer. One step brought on another, until the first compilation became so overwhelmed with new matter, and so altered by new arrangement, that few traces of the original are now discernible. The preparing of it for the press, in this enlarged form, has been the occupation of such short intervals of leisure as were not incompatible with, and could be spared from the almost unceasing duties of a laborious profession,-and which the author found it a greater relaxation to employ in this than in any other manner.

To diversify the work the author has not confined it to an explanation of mere words. Under the heads which necessarily refer to them, he has occasionally inserted elucidations of the vulgar rites and popular opinions, which tradition has faithfully transmitted through many generations. In some instances, however, it has been found that these superstitions are of such remote antiquity, as to have actually outlived the knowledge of the very causes that gave them origin. "The "generality of men,” as remarked by Brand, “look back with "superstitious veneration on the ages of their fore-fathers; "and authorities that are grey with time seldom fail of com"manding those filial honours claimed even by the appearance "of hoary old age."