Some are omitted because they are common elsewhere, but many are inserted which can by no means be considered as peculiar.
- 'I think we have only one word which is a decided Celtic word and that, pudoris causa, I omit.'
This statement, which does not appear in the printed glossary, is interesting as showing a part, at least, of the method of compilation which Hunter pursued, and as showing the materials which he used. The Mr. Wilson who 'made a catalogue of words used in his neighbourhood much less numerous than' Hunter's own glossary was John Wilson, Esq., of Broomhead Hall, in Bradfield. He was born in 1719 and he died in 1783, the year of Hunter's birth. He made, says Hunter, 'considerable proficiency in classical studies,' and though he published little he was a most diligent collector of books and of manuscript evidence relating to his own district. Bradfield is, above all the villages or hamlets comprised within this glossary, the place where old words, traditions, and customs yet linger, and it is matter for regret that Mr. Wilson did not make his ' catalogue of words' larger. This uplandish village would be the last place in the world to be invaded by those 'Madras and Lancasterian schools,' which Hunter, with an evident vein of humour, feared would make such 'mighty havoc among the relics of our primitive tongue.'[1]
In his unpublished second edition, after defining the word seeley, Hunter says:—'This I have seen in a small list of Hallamshire words made a century ago.' And elsewhere he speaks of a small list of Hallamshire words made about 1750. In his printed work he nowhere mentions Wilson's list, and it is doubtful whether the 'small list of Hallamshire words' is the same document as Mr. Wilson's 'catalogue of words.'
Some years ago I began to make notes of dialectal or obsolete words found in the neighbourhood of Sheffield. It was far from my intention to 'make a book,' for, as Hunter had explored the field, I did not imagine that so many words of interest remained to be recorded. All that was done was to enter in a small memorandum
- ↑ In a paper on the West Somerset dialect, read before the Philological Society, Mr. F. T. Elworthy is reported to have said that 'the Board Schools had not tended to destroy the dialect, but to develope it!' (Athenceum, March 10th, 1888, p. 312.) In Sheffield the 'primitive tongue' is in little danger from this source.
