Director. The Society was brought to an end in 1896, after producing
80 publications and collecting much material. Mr Nodal, of Manchester,
was Secretary from 1876 to 1893; and from 1893 to 1896 the
headquarters of the Society were in Oxford. Besides this, I raised a
fund in 1886 for collecting additional material in manuscript, and
thus obtained a considerable quantity, which the Rev. A. Smythe
Palmer, D.D., in the course of two years and a half, arranged in fair
order. But even in 1889 more was required, and the work was then
taken in hand by Dr Joseph Wright, who gives the whole account of
the means by which, in 1898, he was enabled to issue Vol. I of the
_English Dialect Dictionary_. The sixth and concluding volume of
this most valuable work was issued in 1905.

To this I refer the reader for all further information, which is
there given in a very complete form. At the beginning is a Preface
explaining the history of the book; followed by lists of voluntary
readers, of unprinted MS. collections, and of correspondents
consulted; whilst Vol. VI, besides a Supplement of 179 pages, gives a
Bibliography of Books and MSS. quoted, with a full Index; to which is
added the _English Dialect Grammar_.

This _English Dialect Grammar_ was also published, in 1905, as a
separate work, and contains a full account of the phonology of all the
chief dialects, the very variable pronunciation of a large number of
leading words being accurately indicated by the use of a special set
of symbols; the Table of Vowel-sounds is given at p. 13. The Phonology
is followed by an Accidence, which discusses the peculiarities of
dialect grammar. Next follows a rather large collection of important
words, that are differently pronounced in different counties; for
example, more than thirty variations are recorded of the pronunciation
of the word _house_. The fulness of the Vocabulary in the Dictionary,
and the minuteness of the account of the phonology and accidence in
the Grammar, leave nothing to desire. Certainly no other country can
give so good an account of its Dialects.

CHAPTER XI

THE MODERN DIALECTS

It has been shown that, in the earliest period, we can distinguish
three well-marked dialects besides the Kentish, viz. Northumbrian,
Mercian, and Anglo-Saxon; and these, in the Middle English period, are
known as Northern, Midland, and Southern. The modern dialects are very
numerous, but can be arranged under five divisions, two of