3 SEPTEMBER 1904, Page 15

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]

SIR,—I wonder if the writer of the interesting letters on "English as Spoken in Ireland" has met the two following curious uses of English words. In the north of the County Antrim, if one goes into a cabin with wet feet, he will be asked to go to the fire and " soak " his feet,—meaning to dry them. (I see by the "Dialect Dictionary" that " soak " means to evaporate in Somersetshire.) In Kerry they say of a shower of rain that it will "dry up the dust."—I am, Sir, &c.,