BOGGARTS AND BADGERS.
(To THE ED/TOR or THE " SPECTATOR.")
SIR.—With reference to Mr. E. H. Hewlett's correction in regard to the word " boggart " being applied to the badger, this must surely have been a very casual application, for I can find no printed evidence that the word has ever been so used. On the other hand, there is certain proof that the word "boggart " means " an apparition, ghost, hobgoblin; an object of terror." This is the definition given in Wright's English Dialect Dictionary. Hence Waugh's "Has th' boggarts ta'en houd o' my dad?" The same work defines " boggart hole" as " a haunted hollow." Again, in Harland and Wilkinson's Folk Lore it is stated : "Nearly every old house had its boggart, which played ill-natured tricks on the inhabitants." Perhaps it may interest south-country readers to learn that, in Lancashire, the word badger, besides being applied to the animal of that name, was used to describe a corn-miller, or corn-dealer. Later it was applied to a huckster—hence butter- badger, tea-badger, pig-badger. "Badge-shop " is, or was, the term applied to a small shop where groceries and provisions
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