_J._ Come, I'll be blamed if I doant laay thee a quart o' that. _W._ Done! and I'll ax Meyastur to-night when I goos whoam, bee't how't wool. Accordingly, Meyastur was applied to by Will, who made his decision known to Jan the next morning. _W._ I zay, Jan! I axed Meyastur about that are last night. _J._ Well, what ded ur zay? _W._ Why, a zed one neyam ez jest zo vittun vor'n as tother; and he lowz a ben caal'd straddlebob ever zunce the Island was vust meyad. _J._ Well, if that's the keeas, I spooas I lost the quart. _W._ That thee hast, lucky; and we'll goo down to Arreton to the Rid Lion and drink un ater we done work. Notes.--Observe _z_ for _s_, and _v_ for _f_ initially. _What's_, What hast thou; _nammut_ (lit. noon-meat), luncheon, usually eaten at 9 A.M. (_n{-o}na h{-o}ra_); _leyarn_, learn; _esn_, is not; _gurt_, great; _zote_, soft, silly; _casn't_, canst not; _laay_, lay, wager; _how't wool_, how it will; _that are_, that there; _lowz_ (lit. allows), opines; _zunce_, since; _vust meyad_, first made; _keeas_, case; _lucky_, look ye! SOUTHERN (Group 7): EAST SUSSEX. The following quotations are from the _Dictionary of the Sussex Dialect_, by the Rev. W.D. Parish, Vicar of Selmeston; E.D.S. 1875. The Glossary refers rather to E. than to W. Sussex, Selmeston being between Lewes and Eastbourne. _Call over_, to abuse. "He come along here a-cadging, and fancy he just did call me over, because I told him as I hadn't got naun to give him." (_Naun_, nothing.) _Clocksmith_, a watchmaker. "I be quite lost about time, I be; for I've been forced to send my watch to the clocksmith. I couldn't make no sense of mending it myself; for I'd iled it and I'd biled it, and then I couldn't do more with it." _Cocker-up_, to spoil; to gloss over with an air of truth. "You see this here chap of hers, he's cockered-up some story about having to goo away somewheres up into the sheeres; and I tell her she's no call to be so cluck over it; and for my part I dunno but what I be very glad an't, for he was a chap as was always a-cokeing about the cupboards, and cogging her out of a Sunday." (_The sheeres_, any shire of England except Kent and Sussex; _call_, reason; _cluck_, out of spirits; _coke_, to peep; _cog_, to entice.) _Joy_, a jay. "Poor old Master Crockham, he's in terrible order, surel{'y}! The meece have taken his peas, and the joys have got at his beans, and the snags have spilt all his lettuce." (_Order_, bad temper; _meece_, mice; _snags_, snails; _spilt_, spoilt.) _Kiddle_, to tickle. "Those thunder-bugs did kiddle me so that I couldn't keep still no hows." (_Thunder-bug_, a midge.) _Lawyer_, a long bramble full of thorns, so called because, "when once they gets a holt an ye, ye do{a}nt easy get shut of 'em."