Thus in _The Voyage of Maeldune_, he has the striking line: "Our voices were thinner and fainter than any flittermouse-shriek." In at least sixteen dialects a _flittermouse_ means "a bat." I have mentioned Tennyson in this connexion because he was a careful student of English, not only in its dialectal but also in its older forms.

But, as a matter of fact, nearly all our chief writers have recognised the value of dialectal words.

Tennyson was not the first to use the above word.

Near the end of the Second Act of his _Sad Shepherd_, Ben Jonson speaks of: Green-bellied snakes, blue fire-drakes in the sky, And giddy flitter-mice with leather wings.
Similarly, there are plenty of "provincialisms" in Shakespeare.

In an interesting book entitled _Shakespeare, his Birthplace and its Neighbourhood_, by J.R.Wise, there is a chapter on "The Provincialisms of Shakespeare," from which I beg leave to give a short extract by way of specimen.
"There is the expressive compound 'blood-boltered' in _Macbeth_ (Act IV, Sc.