today I would like you to meet, not Top Cat but the Dolt-cat. In fact, you have no choice: you`re going to meet the Dolt-cat right now!
A few days ago I was looking through Moonrakings. A Little Book of Wiltshire Stories by the Wiltshire Federation of Women`s Institutes. I flicked through and under the entry for Wishford in the History section I found the following entry: (Spelling is kept as in the original.)
The Churchwardens` Accounts contain some interesting items. A few are appended:-
1719. for Sparrows Heds 4 dozen……4
For 6 Poulcatts heds……………………2 0
For a Bagger`s hed……………………..1 0
For a Dolt-cat……………………………..4 (1)
This is all that is relevant from our point of view. So I contacted the Natural History Museum in London to ask them what the Dolt-cat might be. I first thought that it might be a badger, as they are dull and slow-witted (well, they are to me) but we have already seen that the 'Bagger' is mentioned. Then I thought about the otter: superficially cat-like, but hardly dull. Here was the reply I received on August 23rd:
(The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology defines dolt thus: doult dull fellow, blockhead, XVI. Prob. earlier in dial. Use, and rel. to dold (XV) numb, and dol (l), var. of DULL) (2)
Dear Richard,
With regard to your dole-cat (sic) enquiry….I`ve passed this onto several library colleagues in the hope that one of them can find this animal.
One colleague has written this note:
Hmmmm, fascinating, I`ll have a think about this, I wish we had the complete quote. Does he know it was an animal? [I don`t - R] Might it not be some time type of equipment?
Assuming it is an animal, it could be something that was more valuable then than now. I wondered about a ferret but they were very useful then, so not likely to have a price on their head as vermin. A stoat,maybe? They can `dance` in a crazy fashion, leaping around & jumping in the air. Possibly a weasel?
http://www.wiltshirefhs.co.uk/databases-wiltshirewords.html
The above gives some dialect meanings-as you see, dolt isn`t used in dialect to mean stupid or slow-witted, they had other names for these. This was my first thought but generally speaking mustelids/cats aren`t particularly stupid. On the other hand it may have nothing to do with cats or mustelids - look what they called moles.
4 shillings was a lot of money, suggesting it was something dangerous, very difficult to catch or rare (or not an animal at all).
I assume the word was transcribed correctly in the first place - what appears to be a `d` in old script can be a `cl` (not that I`ve had any more luck with this), &, as we said, there can be any number of possibilities. (3)
Concerning a Hong Kong hyena, a blog about the slum and squalor town that once was the Hong Kong Walled City that I found, said that before the demolition of it was completed in April 1994, hyenas were supposed to roam the derelict place.
1. E.Olivier and M.K.S. Edwards Moonrakings a Little Book of Wiltshire Stories (n.d) p.32
2. C.T. Onions The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology(1982) p.282
3. E-mail from Lorraine Portch of Natural History Museum to R.Muirhead August 23rd 2011
With regard to your dole-cat (sic) enquiry….I`ve passed this onto several library colleagues in the hope that one of them can find this animal.
One colleague has written this note:
Hmmmm, fascinating, I`ll have a think about this, I wish we had the complete quote. Does he know it was an animal? [I don`t - R] Might it not be some time type of equipment?
Assuming it is an animal, it could be something that was more valuable then than now. I wondered about a ferret but they were very useful then, so not likely to have a price on their head as vermin. A stoat,maybe? They can `dance` in a crazy fashion, leaping around & jumping in the air. Possibly a weasel?
http://www.wiltshirefhs.co.uk/databases-wiltshirewords.html
The above gives some dialect meanings-as you see, dolt isn`t used in dialect to mean stupid or slow-witted, they had other names for these. This was my first thought but generally speaking mustelids/cats aren`t particularly stupid. On the other hand it may have nothing to do with cats or mustelids - look what they called moles.
4 shillings was a lot of money, suggesting it was something dangerous, very difficult to catch or rare (or not an animal at all).
I assume the word was transcribed correctly in the first place - what appears to be a `d` in old script can be a `cl` (not that I`ve had any more luck with this), &, as we said, there can be any number of possibilities. (3)
Concerning a Hong Kong hyena, a blog about the slum and squalor town that once was the Hong Kong Walled City that I found, said that before the demolition of it was completed in April 1994, hyenas were supposed to roam the derelict place.
1. E.Olivier and M.K.S. Edwards Moonrakings a Little Book of Wiltshire Stories (n.d) p.32
2. C.T. Onions The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology(1982) p.282
3. E-mail from Lorraine Portch of Natural History Museum to R.Muirhead August 23rd 2011
As regular readers of the CFZ Bloggo network will be aware. Jeanett Thomas (48) 
Posts
In November Sahar Dimus, our guide on four CFZ Sumatra expeditions, died of liver failure leaving a widow Lucy and four Children. On the 2nd November, Dezyama D. Sangma, wife of our friend and colleague Dipu Marak, our collaborator on the 2010 Indian expedition died, leaving her grieving husband and two small children.
0 comments:
Post a Comment