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PREFACE.

THE utility of a PROVINCIAL GLOSSARY to all persons desirous of understanding our ancient poets, is so universally acknowledged, that to enter into a proof of it would be entirely a work of supererogation. Divers partial collections have been occasionally made, all which have been well received, and frequently reprinted; these are, in this work, all united under one alphabet; and augmented by many hundred words collected by the Editor in the different places wherein they are used; the rotation of military quarters, and the recruiting service, having occasioned him to reside for some time in most of the counties in England.

Provincial or Local Words are of three kinds, the first, either Saxon or Danish, in general grown obsolete from disuse, and the introduction of more fashionable terms; and, consequently, only retained in countries remote from the capital, where modern refinements do not easily find their way, and are not readily adopted.

The second sort are words derived from some foreign language, as Latin, French, or German; but so corrupted, by passing through the mouths of illiterate clowns, as to render their origin scarcely discoverable; corruptions of this kind being obstinately maintained by country people, who, like the old Monks, will never exchange their old mumpsimus for the new sumpsimus.

The third are mere arbitrary words, not deducible from any primary source of language, but ludicrous nominations,

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