In 1869 appeared Part I of Dr A.J. Ellis's great work on _Early English Pronunciation_, with especial reference to Shakespeare and Chaucer; followed by Part II of the same, on the Pronunciation of the thirteenth and previous centuries, of Anglo-Saxon, Icelandic, Old Norse, and Gothic. In 1871 appeared Part III of the same, on the Pronunciation of the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. Part IV was then planned to include the Pronunciation of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, including the Phonology of the Dialects; and for this purpose it was necessary to gain particulars such as could hardly be accomplished without special research. It was partly with this in view, and partly in order to collect material for a really comprehensive dictionary, that, in 1873, I founded the English Dialect Society, undertaking the duties of Secretary and Director. The Society was brought to an end in 1896, after producing 80 publications and collecting much material. Mr Nodal, of Manchester, was Secretary from 1876 to 1893; and from 1893 to 1896 the headquarters of the Society were in Oxford. Besides this, I raised a fund in 1886 for collecting additional material in manuscript, and thus obtained a considerable quantity, which the Rev. A. Smythe Palmer, D.D., in the course of two years and a half, arranged in fair order. But even in 1889 more was required, and the work was then taken in hand by Dr Joseph Wright, who gives the whole account of the means by which, in 1898, he was enabled to issue Vol. I of the _English Dialect Dictionary_. The sixth and concluding volume of this most valuable work was issued in 1905. To this I refer the reader for all further information, which is there given in a very complete form. At the beginning is a Preface explaining the history of the book; followed by lists of voluntary readers, of unprinted MS. collections, and of correspondents consulted; whilst Vol. VI, besides a Supplement of 179 pages, gives a Bibliography of Books and MSS. quoted, with a full Index; to which is added the _English Dialect Grammar_. This _English Dialect Grammar_ was also published, in 1905, as a separate work, and contains a full account of the phonology of all the chief dialects, the very variable pronunciation of a large number of leading words being accurately indicated by the use of a special set of symbols; the Table of Vowel-sounds is given at p. 13. The Phonology is followed by an Accidence, which discusses the peculiarities of dialect grammar. Next follows a rather large collection of important words, that are differently pronounced in different counties; for example, more than thirty variations are recorded of the pronunciation of the word _house_. The fulness of the Vocabulary in the Dictionary, and the minuteness of the account of the phonology and accidence in the Grammar, leave nothing to desire. Certainly no other country can give so good an account of its Dialects. CHAPTER XI THE MODERN DIALECTS