CHAPTER VIII.
THE MERCIAN DIALECT I.EAST MIDLAND The Mercian district lies between the Northern and Southern, occupying an irregular area which it is very difficult to define.

On the east coast it reached from the mouth of the Humber to that of the Thames.
On the western side it seems to have included a part of Lancashire, and extended from the mouth of the Lune to the Bristol Channel, exclusive of a great part of Wales.
There were two chief varieties of it which differed in many particulars, viz.

the East Midland and the West Midland.

The East Midland included, roughly speaking, the counties of Lincoln, Rutland, Northampton, and Buckingham, and all the counties (between the Thames and Humber) to the east of these, viz.

Cambridge, Huntingdon, Bedford, Hertford, Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex.