Landmarks

by Robert Macfarlane

  Mauries, Patrick, Cabinets of Curiosities (London: Thames & Hudson, 2011)

  Warner, Marina, Signs and Wonders (London: Chatto & Windus, 2003)

  Guide to the Glossaries

  ‘There’s so much more to be added’, Anne Campbell said of her Peat Glossary. The same is true of Landmarks’ lexicons. In their unedited form they ran to nearly 3,500 words and terms (of which around 2,000 are present in the final glossaries), but of course even this represents only a fraction of the place-language used in these islands. The task of collecting and sorting sometimes felt endless, verging on overwhelming: there was always one more letter or email of enquiry to write, another word-list to hunt out, a further glossary to summon up from the library stacks, an additional reference to pursue. Bibliographies are wonderful places in which to wander, but also easy places in which to get lost.

  So the glossaries are inevitably selective. They aspire neither to completeness (impossible), nor to evenness of coverage (near impossible), and reflect to a degree my own particular interests and affiliations (thus Gaelic and Scots are notably strong, as are the dialects of Cambridgeshire and its neighbouring counties). A good number of the words were transcribed in the nineteenth-century heyday of glossarizing and dialect research, but many come from more recent records, for I tried to lay an ear to place-language as it is used today from Shetland to Cornwall, while also seeking to curate and recover near-vanished speech. I sought to gather grit as well as pearls: landscape offers us experiences of great grace and beauty, but also of despair, hard labour and death. Thus the discomforts of hansper and aingealach, alongside the dazzle of ammil and haze-fire. I chose in the main to restrict myself to terms for aspects (both fugitive and long term) of land, sea, weather and atmosphere – rather than for animals, birds, insects, flowers and plants, on the grounds that formidable reference works already exist documenting the folk names of the flora and fauna of these islands. And I reluctantly decided not to allow place-names into the glossaries, given the immense compendia of toponyms that have already been compiled by place-name enthusiasts and societies throughout the land.

  I wanted to make glossaries that could be explored with ease and pleasure by their readers, and that therefore did not fankle themselves with intricacy. For this reason I have not, on the whole, supplied variant spellings for individual words; I have limited the definitions of each word to a sentence or two; I have not cross-referenced between languages and dialects; and I have not detailed dates of usage. Each glossary entry is composed of three elements: a headword; a definition; and an origin in language, region or vocabulary. I have specified either a major source language (i.e. ‘Gaelic’, ‘Irish’, ‘Manx’, ‘Welsh’); or a particular region of dialect or sub-dialect use where known (i.e. ‘Galloway’ for the Galloway sub-dialect of Scots, or ‘Shetland’ for the Shetland dialect which amalgamates Scots, Gaelic, English and Norn/Norse); or a specialist vocabulary (i.e. ‘archaeological’, ‘geographical’, ‘mountaineering’, ‘speleological’). Probably some of these attributions will be thought disputable or extendable; certainly these glossaries would discontent a serious-minded linguist, mongrel as they are in their origins, and mingling as they do loanwords, nonce words, neologisms and calques.

  But they are not intended as scholarly to the point of definitive; rather as imaginative resources, as testimony to the vivid particularities of language and landscape, as adventures in the word-hoard – and as prompts to vision. ‘Visit comes from visum, “to see”,’ writes John Stilgoe in his elegant essay-book on marsh language, Shallow Water Dictionary (2004):

  It and vision stand related. To visit means to see, not to talk, but to take notice, to take note, to actively engage the eye … Landscape – or seascape – that lacks vocabulary cannot be seen, cannot be accurately, usefully visited. It is not even theoretical, if theory means what the Greek word theoria means, a spectacle, a viewing.

  What follows, then, is a partial bibliography for my ‘theoretical’ glossaries: a list of sources that does not (with a handful of unavoidable exceptions) include works cited in the main text, the notes or the main bibliography. Nor have I been able to include details of the countless books, poems, conversations and individual correspondences from which over the years I have gleaned single words here and there, now and then. Most of the many people who have individually contributed to the glossaries are thanked in the Acknowledgements. In the list that follows, though, I have tried to recognize a little of the vast efforts of earlier glossarians, onomasticians and toponymists, from which Landmarks’ lexicons have so greatly benefited.

  Select Bibliography to the Glossaries

  Angus, James Stout, A Glossary of the Shetland Dialect (Paisley: A. Gardner, 1914)

  Armstrong, Terence, and Charles Swithinbank, The Illustrated Glossary of Snow and Ice (Cambridge: Scott Polar Research Institute Special Publication, 1966)

  Baker, Anne Elizabeth, Glossary of Northamptonshire Words and Phrases, with Examples of Their Colloquial Use, and Illustrations from Various Authors, to which are added, The Customs of the County (London: John Russell Smith, 1854)

  Bowyer, Richard, Dictionary of Military Terms, 3rd edn (Teddington: Peter Collin, 2007)

  Campbell, Anne, Rathad an Isein: The Bird’s Road – A Lewis Moorland Glossary (Glasgow: Faram, 2013)

  Christie-Johnson, Alasdair, and Adaline Christie-Johnson, Shetland Words (Lerwick: Shetland Times, 2013)

  Clare, John, Poems of the Middle Period, ‘Consolidated Glossary’, ed. Eric Robinson, David Powell and P. M. S. Dawson (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996)

  Claxton, A. O. D., The Suffolk Dialect of the 20th Century (Ipswich: N. Adland & Co., 1968)

  Cooper, William Durrant, A Glossary of the Provincialisms in Use in the County of Sussex (Brighton: Fleet, 1836)

  Cornewall Lewis, George, A Glossary of Provincial Words Used in Herefordshire (London: John Murray, 1839)

  Cox, Richard V., The Gaelic Place-Names of Carloway, Isle of Lewis: Their Structure and Significance (Dublin: School of Celtic Studies, 2002)

  Crofts, W. M. , The Dialect of Craven in the West Riding of the County of York, with a Copious Glossary (London: privately printed, 1828)

  Dalzell, Tom, and Terry Victor (eds.), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (London: Routledge, 2006)

  Dickinson, William, A Glossary of Words and Phrases Pertaining to the Dialect of Cumberland (London: English Dialect Society, 1878)

  Dieckhoff, Henry Cecil, A Pronouncing Dictionary of Scottish Gaelic (Edinburgh: Johnston, 1932)

  Dinsdale, F. J., A Glossary of Provincial Words Used in Teesdale in the County of Durham (London: Smith, Bell, 1849)

  Dolan, Terence Patrick (ed.), A Dictionary of Hiberno-English: The Irish Use of English, 2nd edn (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 2004)

  Egar, S., ‘Fen Provincialisms’, in Fenland Notes & Queries, Vols. 1–4 (1889–1900)

  Ekwall, Eilert, The Place-Names of Lancashire (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1922)

  Elmes, Simon, Talking for Britain: A Journey Through the Voices of a Nation (London: Penguin, 2006)

  Elworthy, F. T. (ed.), The West Somerset Word-Book (London: Trubner & Co., 1886)

  Ewart Evans, George, The Pattern Under the Plough (London: Faber and Faber, 1971)

  ––––––, Where Beards Wag All: The Relevance of the Oral Tradition (London: Faber and Faber, 1970)

  Forby, Robert, The Vocabulary of East Anglia (London: J. B. Nichols & Son, 1830)

  Gepp, Edward, An Essex Dialect Dictionary, 2nd edn, with addendum and biography by John S. Appleby (Wakefield: S. R. Publishers, 1969)

  Gill, Walter, Manx Dialect: Words and Phrases (London: Arrowsmith, 1934)

  Griffiths, Bill, Fishing and Folk: Life and Dialect on the North Sea Coast (Newcastle: Northumbria University Press, 2008)

  ––––––, Pitmatic: The Talk of the North East Coalfield (Newcastle: Northumbria University Press, 2007)

  Huntley, Richard Webster, A Glos
sary of the Cotswold (London: J. R. Smith, 1868)

  Jakobsen, Jakob, The Dialect and Place Names of Shetland: Two Popular Lectures (Lerwick: T. & J. Manson, 1897)

  ––––––, An Etymological Dictionary of the Norn Language in Shetland (London: G. Nutt, 1928–32)

  Leeds, Winifred, Herefordshire Speech: The South-West Midland Dialect as Spoken in Herefordshire and Its Environs (Ross-on-Wye: privately printed, 1974)

  Major, Alan, A New Dictionary of Kent Dialect (Rainham: Meresborough, 1981)

  Marten, Clement, The Devonshire Dialect (Exeter: Clement Marten Publications, 1973)

  Martin, Meriel, ‘Locating the Language in the Landscape: Dialect in Exmoor National Park’, unpublished MSc dissertation (London: Birkbeck College, 2013)

  Marwick, Hugh, ‘Notes on Weather-Words in the Orkney Dialect’, in Old-Lore Miscellany, 9 (1921), 23–33

  ––––––,The Orkney Norn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1929)

  Morris, Benjamin, ‘Air Today, Gone Tomorrow: The Haar of Scotland and Local Atmospheres as Heritage “Sites” ’, International Journal of Intangible Heritage, 8 (2013), 87–101

  Murray, John, Reading the Gaelic Landscape/Leughadh Aghaidh na Tìre (Dunbeath: Whittles, 2014)

  Newton, Michael, Handbook of the Scottish Gaelic World (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1999)

  Nurminen, Terhi Johanna, ‘Hill-Terms in the Place-Names of Northumberland and County Durham’, unpublished PhD thesis (Newcastle: Newcastle University, 2012)

  Owen, Hywel Wyn, and Richard Morgan, Dictionary of the Place-Names of Wales (Llandysul: Gomer, 2007)

  Proctor, Eddie, ‘Llanthony Priory in the Vale of Ewyas: The Landscape Impact of a Medieval Priory in the Welsh Marches’, MSc dissertation (Oxford: University of Oxford, 2007), at http://www.ewyaslacy.org.uk/doc.php?d=rs_lty_0001

  Rackham, Oliver, Trees and Woodland in the British Landscape (1976; London: Phoenix, 2001)

  Riach, W. A. D., A Galloway Glossary (Aberdeen: Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 1988)

  Robertson, Thomas Alexander, The Collected Poems of Vagaland (Lerwick: Shetland Times, 1975)

  Robinson, Mairi (ed.), The Concise Scots Dictionary (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1985)

  Rogers, Norman, Wessex Dialect (Bradford-on-Avon: Moonraker Press, 1979)

  Rye, Walter, A Glossary of Words Used in East Anglia (Being Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk) (London: English Dialect Society, 1895)

  Skelton, Richard, Limnology (Cumbria: Corbel Stone Press, 2012)

  Sternberg, Thomas, The Dialect and Folklore of Northamptonshire (1851; Wakefield: S. R. Publishers, 1971)

  Streever, Bill, Cold: Adventures in the World’s Frozen Places (London: Little, Brown, 2009)

  Todd, Loreto, Words Apart: A Dictionary of Northern Ireland English (Gerard’s Cross: Smythe, 1990)

  Trudgill, Peter, The Dialects of England, 2nd edn (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999)

  Tudor, John R., The Orkneys and Shetland: Their Past and Present State (London: Stanford, 1883)

  Watson, Lyall, Heaven’s Breath: A Natural History of the Wind (New York: William Morrow, 1985)

  Wilbraham, Roger, An Attempt at a Glossary of Some Words Used in Cheshire (London: T. Rodd, 1826)

  Wilkinson, John, Leeds Dialect, Glossary and Lore (Leeds: privately printed, 1924)

  Wilson, David, Staffordshire Dialect Words: A Historical Survey (Buxton: Moorland, 1974)

  Some Online Resources

  Anglo-Romani Dictionary: http://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/angloromani/dictionary.html

  Bosworth-Toller Anglo-Saxon Dictionary: http://bosworth.ff.cuni.cz/

  Defra Guidance for the Successful Reclamation of Mineral and Waste Sites: http://www.sustainableaggregates.com/library/docs/l0276_guidance-full.pdf

  Dictionary of the Scots Language: http://www.dsl.ac.uk/

  Dwelly’s English-Gaelic Dictionary: http://www.cairnwater.co.uk/gaelicdictionary/

  Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language: http://edil.qub.ac.uk/dictionary/search.php

  Forestry Commission Research Glossary: http://www.forestry.gov.uk/fr/INFD-5UWJWZ

  Forests and Chases in England and Wales, c. 1000 to c. 1850; A Glossary of Terms and Definitions: http://info.sjc.ox.ac.uk/forests/glossary.htm

  Geiriadur Welsh-English/English-Welsh On-line Dictionary: http://www.geiriadur.net/

  Jèrriais Geography: http://members.societe-jersiaise.org/geraint/jerriais/geovoc.html

  Land-Words: http://dawnpiper.wordpress.com/land-words/

  National Land and Property Gazetteer Glossary: http://www.iahub.net/docs/1263829667917.pdf

  Natural England SSSI Glossary: http://www.sssi.naturalengland.org.uk/Special/sssi/glossary.cfm

  Official Secrets Act 1911 (with 1920 amendments in square brackets): http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo5/1-2/28

  Royal Forestry Society Glossary: http://www.rfs.org.uk/about/publications/tree-terms/

  Shetland Dialect Dictionary: http://www.shetlanddialect.org.uk/john-j-grahams-shetland-dictionary-intro

  Acknowledgements

  I thank first, and profoundly, those among the living who have inspired this book, and who are written about here: Anne Campbell, Peter Davidson, Simon Fitzwilliam-Hall, Barry Lopez, Finlay MacLeod, Autumn Richardson, Richard Skelton and Deb Wilenski. The Peat Glossary (the glossary that began Landmarks) was compiled by Catriona Campbell, Kenneth Campbell, Ruairidh MacIlleathain, Donald Morrison and Mary Smith, as well as by Anne and Finlay. ‘A Counter-Desecration Phrasebook’ (the chapter that began Landmarks) was initially encouraged by the writer and editor Gareth Evans, one of the most intellectually generous people it has been my luck to know.

  The jaw-dropping global glossary about which I write in the Postscript is the work of Simon Fitzwilliam-Hall. Its full name as a project-in-progress is ‘Language in the Landscape: A Multilingual Glossary of Topographical Terms and Place-Name Elements in the Afro-Eurasian Lands’ (or ‘The Topoglossary’ for short). Simon can be contacted on ahfhall@yahoo.co.uk.

  Landmarks could never have reached the page without the expertise of Philip Sidney, who turned the glossaries from a helter-skelter welter of words into a navigable delta of categories and subcategories. He was, throughout, painstaking, patient, dedicated, imaginative, sharp-sighted – and good-humoured, even when the going got seriously stuggy. Julith Jedamus close-read the first draft with typical acuity and attention; she has now crucially shaped three of my books. Simon Prosser has been editorially brilliant, a fine friend, and solid as a klett in terms of support. Jessica Woollard, as ever, has been staunch and subtle as agent, friend and reader. At Penguin I have been fortunate enough to work with Richard Bravery, Anna Kelly, Claire Mason, Anna Ridley and Emma Brown, and to be copy-edited by the lynx-eyed Caroline Pretty. It remains a huge privilege to collaborate with Stanley Donwood. Jonathan Gibbs’s woodcuts for the glossaries are rich and strange.

  The relations of language and landscape have fascinated me for as long as I can remember, but I am hardly the first to be drawn to the subject. The bibliography details some of the texts and music that have informed Landmarks, but I would note here that I have been influenced and guided especially by Tim Robinson (the Stones of Aran diptych and the Connemara trilogy); Richard Mabey (Flora Britannica); Sue Clifford and Angela King’s England in Particular (which shows that celebratory particularism is quite distinct from triumphant nationalism), as well as the wider activities and publications of Common Ground (co-founded by Sue and Angela with Roger Deakin); the research and writing of the great place-name scholar Margaret Gelling; the ninety-year-long labours of the English Place-Name Society; Barry Lopez and Debra Gwartney’s Home Ground; Bill Griffiths’ extraordinary work in his ‘Wor’ trilogy (Stotties and Spicecake, Pitmatic and Fishing and Folk); and the ongoing writing and music of Richard Skelton and Autumn Richardson. I thank also the photographer Dominick Tyler: Dom and I first discovered our common passion for this terrain in 2007–8; and then five years later realized we were both
writing books on the subject. Dom’s Uncommon Ground (London: Faber and Faber, 2015) contains his exceptional photographs of a hundred land features, as well as his accounts of seeking them out up and down the country. His online crowd-sourced glossary of place-terms, ‘The Landreader’, can be seen and contributed to at: http://www.thelandreader.com/.

  The compilation of my glossaries proceeded slowly for a decade or so, before reaching its blizzard phase during the past eighteen months. I have met with such kindness in that time; so many people have shared words with me. I thank in particular (as well as those named above and in the book): Ben Cartwright, Amy Cutler, Gavin Francis, Melissa Harrison, Henry Hitchings, Amy Gear, Caroline and Kurt Jackson, Stuart Kelly, Chamu Kuppuswamy, Rosamund Macfarlane, Matthew Oates, ‘Dawn Piper’, Jane Stevenson, Winifred Stevenson and Ken Worpole. Bob Jellicoe has been a constant source of ideas and language: his tape recordings of Suffolk longshoremen, made nearly half a century ago, constitute a precious trove of East Anglian coastal culture. Meriel Martin’s recent research into Exmoor dialect, and the questions of language for landscape more broadly, has been exemplary; my thanks to Meriel for allowing me to fossick freely in the extensive glossaries she gathered.

  In addition, for their contributions to the glossaries, I am grateful to Bill Adams, Sean Borodale, Nick Bullock, Alex Buxton, Horatio Clare, Rachel Cooke, Adrian Cooper, Mark Goodwin, Rody Gorman, Nick Groom, Alexandra Harris, Geraint Jennings, Mari Jones, Roger Jones, Pat Law, Liz Lloyd, Cathlin Macaulay, John Macfarlane, Malachi McIntosh, Roy McMillan, Leo Mellor, Benjamin Morris, Kate Norbury, Darryl Ogier, Liz Ogilvie, Jules Pretty, Fiona Reynolds, Rob St John, James Smith, Jos Smith, Ian Stephen, Sarah Thomas, Malachy Tulloch and Stephen Watts.

  For other kinds of help, support, thought and encouragement, thanks to Myles Archibald, Will Atkins, Jeff Barrett, Terence Blacker, James Canton, Debjani Chatterjee, Mike Collier, Patrick Curry, William Dalrymple, Rufus Deakin, Steve Dilworth, Naomi Geraghty, Alison Hastie, Michael Hurley, Robert Hyde, Grace Jackson, Joe Kennedy, Peter Larkin, Hayden Lorimer, Victoria McArthur, Andrew McNeillie, Duncan Minshull, George Monbiot, Helen Mort, Andrew Ray, Graham Riach, Di Robson, Titus and Jasmin Rowlandson, Chris and Jan Schramm, Stephen Taylor, Rosy Thornton, Robin Turner, Andrew Walsh, Marina Warner, Kirk Watson, Roderick Watson, Caroline Wendling, Simon Williams, Kabe Wilson, David Woodman and Mark Wormald.