"He to our Lyre who wooed great Homer's strain, Here sang the praise of Windsor's sylvan reign; Hence gained the wood a poet's name; of old The attesting trunk, inscribed, the story told. The wood hath perished, but surviving still His shade these haunts, his name the world doth fill."--C.W. P.] [Footnote 7: Mrs. Blount and her two daughters were on the point of quitting Mapledurham in consequence of the marriage of her son, Michael Blount, in 1715.] Berkshire Words and Phrases. BY REV. M.J. BACON. It is not easy to determine in a subject of this kind what are the strict lines of demarcation which separate words and phrases used within a specific area from those used elsewhere, or again, in many instances, to decide what is dialect, and what mere local pronunciation. Where the area is confined to the limit of a county, the difficulties are increased, as the dwellers near the borders would naturally be influenced by the characteristics of the neighbouring county. Thus Berkshire folk on the Wiltshire side of the county would differ in many respects from those on the Hampshire side; and while the verb to _kite_, for instance, would be unknown to the one, the adjective _deedy_ would be equally strange to the other. Probably, next to verbs and adjectives, the names given to birds and animals, implements, or any common object, would determine a man's county. Phrases are less numerous, but adjectives rank first among local peculiarities. Many of these convey the same idea, but are applied to different objects, and in different ways. Thus in Berkshire _chuff_, _pruff_, _fess_, _peart_, and _sprack_, all imply something sharp, smart, or perky; but _pruff_ is applied solely to vegetable life, such as young and healthy shoots, buds, or growing plants; while a sharp, quick mannered man may be either _chuff_ or _fess_. "Speak up, _chuff_, now," is the adjuration of the parent to the bashful child who has just been addressed by the _quality_. _Fess_ will be recognised at once as the _fierce_ of the Eastern counties, implying a certain amount of vigour, indeed, but conveying no idea of savagery or temper. _Peart_ and _sprack_ speak for themselves. Next come _bristle_ and _briffut_, used both as nouns and verbs, though the former is more often the substantive, expressing a sharp, active fellow, or perhaps a terrier, who would _briffut about_ in search of rats. The adjective _deedy_, on the other hand, is careful, wary, cautious, almost the Yankee _'cute_, and is usually intensified by _main_, very. "What sort of a girl is your daughter?" asked the late Baron Huddleston of the mother of a young girl who had just given evidence in an important case in the Reading Assize Court. "She be a main deedy little girl, my Lord," was the reply. "Greedy, did you say?" "No, my Lord, deedy--main deedy." But Reading is not central enough in the county for anyone in court to have replied to his Lordship's puzzled look of enquiry.