Page:Lewesdon Hill, a poem (IA lewesdonhillpoem00crowiala).pdf/17

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LEWESDON HILL.
7
Cold, vapourish, miry, wet, and to the flocksUnfriendly, when autumnal rains beginTo drench the spungy turf: but ere that timeThe careful shepherd moves to healthier soil,Rechasing, lest his tender ewes should coath[1]In the dank pasturage. Yet not the fieldsOf Evesham, nor that ample valley namedOf the White Horse, its antique monumentCarved in the chalky bourne, for beauty' and wealthMight equal, though surpassing in extent,This fertile vale, in length from Lewesdon's baseExtended to the sea, and water'd wellBy many a rill; but chief with thy clear stream,Thou nameless Rivulet, who, from the sideOf Lewesdon softly welling forth, dost trip
  1. ↑ To coath, Skinner says, is a word common in Lincolnshire, and signifies, to faint. He derives it from the Anglo-Saxon coðe, a disease. In Dorsetshire it is in common use, but it is used of sheep only: a coathed sheep is a rotten sheep; to coath is to take the rot. Rechasing is also a term in that county appropriated to flocks: to chase and rechase is to drive sheep at certain times from one sort of ground to another, or from one parish to another.
    The Author having ventured to introduce some provincial and other terms, takes this occasion to say, that it is a liberty in which he has not indulged himself, but when he conceived them to be allowable for the sake of ornament or expression.

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