![\"Let](\"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/a-slew-of-charming-terms-that-sweetly-evoke-the-essence-of-our-glorious-countryside-1.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Let there be light: A sun-scald is a patch of bright sunlight bursting through the clouds onto the surface of water, like this scene in the Lake District<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Strodi<\/span><\/p>\n Hit the roadi: Or rather the strodi \u2014 a path between walls \u2014 one of hundreds of old words describing our countryside<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Shivelight <\/span><\/p>\n Lightbulb moment: Robert Macfarlane, who teaches English at Cambridge, has unearthed the perfect word to describe the bright shafts of sunshine that pierce a wood \u2014 shivelight<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Currick<\/span><\/p>\n Show me the way to go home: In the days before maps and compasses, let alone GPS on smartphones, locals left piles of stones \u2014 or curricks \u2014 to guide travellers on the hills<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ammil <\/span><\/p>\n Ice to see you, to see you ice: A brilliant picture of ammil, the historic term coined in Exmoor for the delicate slivers that form on foliage when a new freeze follows a thaw<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Wurr<\/span> <\/p>\n Wurr and peace: This obscure term collected by academic Robert Macfarlane in his book Landscape refers to the hoar frost covering this silent winter scene<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Polly-dishwasher <\/span><\/p>\n Flight of fancy: Surely a pied wagtail would find it hard to help out in the kitchen, so why old-timers in Hampshire gave her this domestic moniker is anyone’s guess<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Shreep <\/span><\/p>\n Morning has broken: A view across the Fens to Ely Cathedral as the slowly clearing mist \u2014 or shreep \u2014 lifts. These ancient words are a hymn to the beauty of nature<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Smoot-hole <\/span><\/p>\n The animals came in two by two: It’s a gap in a dry stone wall to let them into the next field<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Glossamer <\/span><\/p>\n Now that’s a web sight: Glossamer is the shining filaments spiders spin across the countryside and are usually best seen at dawn<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ore-stone <\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s a shore thing: An ore-stone is one of those pebbles that washes up on the beach covered in an algae-like seaweed<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Witches knickers <\/span><\/p>\n The modern curse: An Irish phrase for plastic caught in bushes \u2014 and we can all say knickers to that!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Wontytump <\/span><\/p>\n Don’t make a mountain out of a wontytump: Yes, that’s what Herefordshire folk call Mr Mole’s hills<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ystum <\/span><\/p>\n Round the river bend: The Welsh have an old name for a curve in a waterway \u2014 but the pronunciation is a bit of a tongue-twister<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Knott <\/span><\/p>\n You learn summit new every day: If you wondered why there wasn\u2019t a word for rocky outcrops at the top of hills, well the Cumbrians always had one \u2014 a knott<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From basking in a sun-scald to strolling down a lesser-trodden strodi – these obscure terms sweetly evoke the essence of our glorious British countryside. Not many today would recognise a currick – a pile of stones left to guide travellers on the hills – or be able to identify a ystum – the old Welsh […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10221280388112155_325455220908133":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-news"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Hit](\"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/a-slew-of-charming-terms-that-sweetly-evoke-the-essence-of-our-glorious-countryside-2.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Lightbulb](\"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/a-slew-of-charming-terms-that-sweetly-evoke-the-essence-of-our-glorious-countryside-3.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Show](\"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/a-slew-of-charming-terms-that-sweetly-evoke-the-essence-of-our-glorious-countryside-4.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Ice](\"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/a-slew-of-charming-terms-that-sweetly-evoke-the-essence-of-our-glorious-countryside-5.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Wurr](\"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/a-slew-of-charming-terms-that-sweetly-evoke-the-essence-of-our-glorious-countryside-6.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Flight](\"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/a-slew-of-charming-terms-that-sweetly-evoke-the-essence-of-our-glorious-countryside-7.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Morning](\"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/a-slew-of-charming-terms-that-sweetly-evoke-the-essence-of-our-glorious-countryside-8.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"The](\"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/a-slew-of-charming-terms-that-sweetly-evoke-the-essence-of-our-glorious-countryside-9.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Now](\"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/a-slew-of-charming-terms-that-sweetly-evoke-the-essence-of-our-glorious-countryside-10.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"It\u2019s](\"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/a-slew-of-charming-terms-that-sweetly-evoke-the-essence-of-our-glorious-countryside-11.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"The](\"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/a-slew-of-charming-terms-that-sweetly-evoke-the-essence-of-our-glorious-countryside-12.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Don\u2019t](\"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/a-slew-of-charming-terms-that-sweetly-evoke-the-essence-of-our-glorious-countryside-13.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Round](\"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/a-slew-of-charming-terms-that-sweetly-evoke-the-essence-of-our-glorious-countryside-14.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"You](\"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/a-slew-of-charming-terms-that-sweetly-evoke-the-essence-of-our-glorious-countryside-15.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n