24 OCTOBER 1947, Page 18

A Northern Idiom

A local phrase—from the mouth of a northern farmer—seems to me wholly delightful. He called to his less obedient dog: " Come thee here, thee with thy prick lugs." Geese thereabouts have " nibs," ears are always lugs and thee and thou and thy are habitually used in address- ing farm animals, but not people. It is a curious development of many forms of speech that they become too literary for common use among more or less literary persons, but remain in rustic speech, the last depository of the best English.