Page:Glossary of words in use in Cornwall.djvu/340

PEEFACE. Whbn I fii^t came to this place, somewhat more than a quarter of a century siuce, I was greatly struck not only with the singular vowel pronunciation, hut with the vast ahundance of words and phrases till then unknown to me. Accordingly, soon after I entered on my office as Master of the Grammar School, I began to collect such words as I heard, and my good friends made lists of many more for my amusement. From that time till now I have followed up the habit, and have succeeded in collecting some two thousand specimens of the dialect I have in this Glossary inserted none, as far as I know, which are common to all England, except when I noticed some peculiarity in the idiom or pronunciation. Years ago I ohtiiined such information as I could from several old inhabitants, then seventy or eighty years of age ; this carried me back in reality to perhaps 1774, and by tradition much farther. Unfortunately, as I was seeking as much for reminiscences as for words, I did not in all cases take down their information in their own dialect, T wish I had, but merely made a sort of precis of their statements. It must be particularly understood that all the expressions herein to be found are not known to all the people, as some have become obsolete, banished by the refinement of the present day. Hardly a person to whom the Glossary has been read word for word has failed to supply me with many words, and to plead ignorance to as many more. Such hearers, however, were chiefly of an educated class.