[APPENDIX II]
Cunnington MS.
Among the various books and word-lists which we have consulted during the progress of this work, by no means the least interesting is the manuscript containing a Collection of a few Provincial Terms used in North Wilts, believed to have been compiled about the middle of last century, which was kindly lent us by its present owner, Mr. William Cunnington, and is here frequently referred to as Cunnington MS.
This valuable relic was at one time in the possession of Mr. J. Britton, as is proved by the notes in his early handwriting on the outer leaves, and was evidently the source to which he was indebted for some portions of his 1825 Glossary (in the Beauties of Wilts, vol. iii), the very peculiar wording and spelling of some of its paragraphs having been transferred direct to his pages. It must, however, have been in his hands at a much earlier date than 1825, as one or two of the notes appear to have been made at the time he was collecting materials for the 1814 volume on Wilts.
Not only has it afforded us several hitherto un-noted words, which Mr. Britton himself had passed over, possibly because even in his own time they were already grown obsolete, but it has also enabled us to clear up several doubtful points, and especially to show how, by a very simple misreading of the MS., from the easily identified sprawny (a variant of sprunny) was evolved that mysterious 'ghost-word' sprawing, which has ever since misled our glossary-makers, each one having seemingly taken it on the faith of his immediate predecessor.
The Vocabulary, which we here reproduce verbatim et literatim, consists of ten quarto pages, the first two of which are covered with notes in pencil and ink, in at least four different hands, partly archæological and topographical, and partly relating to dialect words in Wilts and elsewhere. It is written in an extremely legible old hand, with a few additions and interlineations in other hands, and contains about one hundred words and phrases, of which we owe just two-thirds to the original compiler, who is supposed to have been a North Wilts clergyman. If so, it is probable that his very characteristic handwriting could readily be identified by any one who was familiar with our last-century parish registers.
The interlineations have been made at different dates and in different hands, acrass, chit, clout, gallered, hire, hitch, muxen, shirk off, slink away, skillin, stowl, stole, thick and thuck, won't, with the numerals at the end, being in pencil, two or three of them having been inked over at some time or other; while arran, clavey, clap to, desperd, dowse, hit, nan, plye, rathe, sprawny, the definition of thick and thuck, tun, tag, twit, and vuddels, are in ink, and mostly in a much larger and somewhat peculiar hand. The pencilling is now almost entirely obliterated.
The MS. was given by Mr. Britton to Mr. Cunnington, with other books and papers, many years ago, and its existence appears to have been unknown until we called attention to it in the Wilts Archæological Magazine, vol. xxvi. p. 293.