20 DECEMBER 1946, Page 17

What are Socks ?

A ploughman, who had been called in to plough up a field for two new farmers, said on leaving that he had left a pair of socks under the hedge. Would they retrieve them against his next visit? The search discovered only two new ploughshares. The search for the socks has become a local jest. What a number of good old and local words there are which are unknown to most of us ; and, as Pearsall Smith insisted, and Wordsworth before him, how the language would be enriched if a number of them were brought back to use! Tennyson was particularly anxious to restore " yare," and it is still in use locally.