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page xxx:-
to the use of them which we feel in ourselves in the
description of any unusual object,) exceedingly natural to
the human mind; so natural indeed, that I hope it is not
true which I have heard related, that the people in a
certain district in Cumberland, having a tolerable quantity
of hills in their neighbourhood, were obliged from their
want of invention merely, to call one of them
Nameless.
So much with respect to the simple mode of transferring of
terms, on account of resemblance of one thing to another:
There are however others, which, like Dr Sharp's word
Pistol, go still further. That I may not entangle
either myself or my readers in tracing the origin of a
number of different terms, amongst which, though obviously
a-kin, it is impossible to know with even a tolerable degree
of probability which is the eldest, I shall pick out a
certain set of words, amongst which I am almost sure an
affinity subsists throughout; though, like every other set,
I dare nor pretend to say which is the ancestral word, or
that which gave being to the rest, or whether any of those
which are now left merit such a name. I am led to the choice
of these which follow, by a sentence in the Appendix to Mr
West's account of those Lakes, in which he mentions the word
Scale, and gives, for the sake of elucidating the
meaning of the word, this quotation, if I recollect aright,
from Shakespear, "to scale't a little further." I beg leave
however to observe, before I enter upon the subject of the
kindred phrases of the word Scale, that I think Mr
West's wish of tracing the English language, at least in
some degree, to its roots by means of its dialects, a very
good one; but that his want of acquaintance with the general
mode of accenting particular words, and indeed of the
general disposition of the dialect, has misled him several
times in the little which he has attempted of this kind.
Guthrie also, as far as I remember, in his history of
Scotland, has some observations on the dialect of that
country, indicating, that many original phrases of our
language may be found in it, which is very true. However, to
return to my subject, it may be remembered, that in Dutch,
Schil, Schulp, or Shelp, signifies a
Shell, which in the dialect of Cumberland is
pronounced Schell or Skell; in that dialect
also the word is used for a scale. Belonging to this word
therefore are several verbs, with their derivatives: to take
anything from its husk, or shell, is to sheil or shell it,
as pease, &c. The husks of oats are called
skillings or shillings, and the kernels are
groats, (what affinity there has been supposed to
exist between these and the coins of that name, I know not.)
Again; to Scale, is to strip off scales, bark,
&c. but is more frequently used in a natural sense: thus
any kind of crust or scurf, occasioned by disease on the
body, is said, on its being detached from it, or falling
asunder, to scale off. The dish also wherewith milk
is skimmed has the name of a Scale-dish; whether from
its scaling off the cream, or from its diminishing to
a thin edge like a scale or skell, is not quite obvious, but
probably from both; neither is it impossible, that, before
the invention of wooden dishes, milk might be skimmed with a
shell in reality: every kind of dish likewise which is thin
at the margin is a Scale-dish; and such are those
wooden ones which were formerly, and are still, in some
cases, suspended at the end of a balance for the purpose of
weighing; hence the name of the Scales, and a pair of
scales; which words are in process of time used
indiscriminantly, and sometimes in the singular number, for
the balance itself; and thence extended by metaphor to the
deliberating faculties of the mind, and to every thing which
is a counterpoise to that which opposes it; being moreover
variously modified according to the nature of circumstances.
The hull of a ship is called its Skell, as also a
house without its furniture. The booths likewise,
constructed for the watchers of cattle in summer, amidst the
most uncultivated parts, were Skells or
Scales; and their Latin name in the deeds of those
times is Scalingae: these buildings, however,
afterwards grew into towns, which took their names
accordingly, as Sea-Scale, (Scalinga ad mare,) Scale,
Scale-fell, Skelton, Scalesby, Booth-scale, &c.: of the
same stock is the name of certain fish, Skelly; and
of a bird, Skell-Drake. I might be laughed at for
suggesting that Shelf, in this dialect Skelf;
or Skelvin, the name of the additional rail that goes
round a cart, are from the same origin: however, was I not
afraid of being tedious, I could produce an account of
things that would give such a suggestion no small
probability.
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