Durrant’s ‘Handbook For Essex’ was published in Chelmsford in 1887, written by Miller Christy. It is mainly a parish by parish guide but its introductory pages contain fascinating information about Victorian Essex. One section is devoted to ‘dialect’. It begins: “The dialect spoken by the Essex peasant still retains much of the original Saxon, and is fairly rich in old English words used by Chaucer and other writers, but now commonly dropped. It is usually spoken with a drawl that is by no means pleasant to an educated ear, but is less broad than the dialects of Kent and Suffolk, both of which it somewhat resembles, and it lacks the strong whining character of the latter. The number of provincial words used in Essex has been set down as 589, though on somewhat weak authority. The School Board is, however, rapidly sweeping away local peculiarities of speech from all parts of the county”. In rural communities words associated with farming were prevalent, as we saw last month. A ‘Dew-bit’ was a ploughman’s early breakfast – horses were got ready for the day as early as 6am – whilst ‘Beaver’ was a ploughman’s lunch taken about 11am. Another dialect word meaning the same thing is ‘‘Levens’ from which we now sometimes refer as our mid-morning break of coffee and biscuits as “Elevenses”. Still on the subject of time, ‘Fours’ was a dinner taken at that time, especially when harvest was in progress and the day was far from over. Finally, for now, those who travel to Ongar will come to the Four Wantz Roundabout. Originally it was a crossroads but the word ‘want’ and ‘wantz’ is Essex dialect for roads meeting.