A Shropshire lad
Sir: In `Mind your language' of 4 April, Dot Wordsworth speculated on the Shropshire meaning of the word `dowl' or 'doul'. My mother was born in 1898 in a cottage in south Shropshire but she never used the word 'dowl' in the sense of making a cake. On the other hand, when I was at Shrews- bury School in the late Forties, the word `dour — the Greek for slave — was used as a substitute for fag. For the first two uncom- fortable years at the school, we were obliged to respond to the raucous cry of `doul'; the last to arrive at the monitors' study was given some tiresome job to do. When it came to Shropshire usage, my mother was fond of repeating the old injunction, 'You munna say "dunna", it "inna" perlite.'
Julian Critchley
19 Broad Street, Ludlow, Shropshire
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