Mapperton House belongs to the time of Henry VIII. In the reign of that sovereign the lord of the manor was Robert Morgan, who had the following patent granted to him:--"Forasmoche as we bee credibly informed that our welbiloved Robert Morgan Esquier, for diverse infirmities which he hathe in his hedde, cannot convenyently, without his grete danngier, be discovered of the same. Whereupon wee in tendre consideration thereof have by these presents licensed him to use and wear his bonnet on his hed at all tymys, as wel in our presence as elsewher at his libertie."
Poor old Robert! Perhaps his Dorset stubbornness had as much to do with his wearing a "bonnet at all tymys" as the "infirmities in his hedde." But he was well able to take care of himself, for he built this beautiful manor-house and recorded the fact in the great hall:
"Robt. Morgan and Mary his wife built this house in their own lifetime, at their own charge and cost.
What they spent, that they lent: What they gave, that they have: What they left, that they lost."
A GLOSSARY OF WEST COUNTRY PROVINCIALISMS
_Abide._ Cannot abide a thing is, not able to suffer or put up with it.
_Addle._ Attle is a term used in mining, and signifies the rejected and useless rubbish. Hence an addled egg is an egg unfit for use.
_Aft_, now only used as a sea term, but anciently with degrees of comparison, as "after, aftest."
_Agate_, open-mouthed attention; hearkening with eagerness. "He was all _agate_," eager to hear what was said.
_Alare_, a short time ago: in common use.
_Anan._ A Shakespearean expression formerly used by the Dorset rustics when they wished to have a repetition of what had been said; but no one now uses it.
_Barken_, an enclosed place, as a rick-barken, a rick-yard. In Sussex a yard or enclosure near a house is called a "barton," from barley; and tun, an enclosure.
"A wumman, A spenyel, And a walnut-tree, The oftener yu bayte 'em Better they'll be."
"Chillern pick up words as pigeons pease, And blare them again as God shall please."
_Brath_, the ancient Cornish name for a mastiff dog. Perhaps this accounts for the common expression, "a broth of a boy," meaning "a stout dog of a boy"--a sturdy fellow.
_Buck_, that peculiar infection which in summer sometimes gets into a dairy and spoils the cream and butter; a sign of gross negligence and want of skill, and not easily to be eradicated.
