The Language of the Field is an extensive, witty and authoritative dictionary. It provides etymology, definition and examples of words associated with the fauna (chased and chasers), the country lore and the implements of Field Sports -- words which enhance our everyday language even though it has lost its memory of their source, or which cast light on the long history of the first art of survival: hunting.
The language is at times arcane, at times intriguingly beautiful, its history one of adaptation and change as Britain itself has adapted and changed from Anglo-Saxon times to the present. How -- and when -- did the Mediaeval coney turn into the modern rabbit? A sewelling or sewin was once a used to scare deer, then foxes and nowadays pheasants. And bird-names: where does capercailzie come from? What is the anal tush of the roe deer? A bender is not what hunters go on to celebrate; and buck fever attacks the hunter, not the deer. This book in a delightful, high-spirited way, reopens and keeps open overgrown and ploughed-over paths through the woods and moorlands of a fascinating language. It will be of value to lovers of the countryside, whether ramblers, bird-watchers or ecologists, as well as to hunting, crossword and scrabble enthusiasts. Without making common cause, these groups can at least access a common language here and better understand their countryside and the birds and beasts therein.
