Hile

Source : Admiral W H Smyth - The Sailor's Wordbook

HILE, sb.2 and v.1 Hrt. Sus. Hmp. I.W. Wil. Dor. Som. Also written hyle Hrt. Hmp. w.Cy. Wil.1; and in forms aile Wil.; aisle Wil.1 Dor.; hill Wil.; hoyl Sus.; ile Som. [ail.] 1. sb. A ‘shock’ of sheaves of corn (the numbers varying in different districts); used rarely of flax. Sus. A shock of ten sheaves (S.P.H.). Hmp. Of flax, 10 sheaves, Morton Cyclo. Agric. (1863). I.W.1 A cock of wheat sheaves, usually eleven. ‘The wheat's up in hile'; I.W.2 A double row of sheaves, gen. 12, set up in the field ready for carting. ‘The wheeat in Corner Close es all up in hile.’ w.Cy. Twelve sheaves of corn, Grose (1790). Wil. The general custom of the district is to set up the sheaves in double rows (usually ten sheaves) together, for the convenience of the tithing-man, and the sheaves so set up are called an aile, or shock of corn, Davis Agric. (1811) vii; Hile-a-whate, 10 sheaves in a pile, Slow Gl. (1892); Wil.1 The number of sheaves was formerly ten, for the tithing-man's convenience, but now varies considerably, according to the crop. In some parts the shape and size of a hyle will depend largely on the weather at harvest-time. Thus in a stormy season it will usually be built compact and round, while in a calm one it may sometimes form a line several yards in length. Dor. (C.W.); Ten sheaves of corn set up in the field, four on each side and one at each end, and forming a kind of roof, Barnes Gl. (1863); Dor.1 'Twer all a-tied an' zet upright In tidy hile, 158. Som. Twelve handsful of wheat put up, all leaning together at the top, Sweetman Wincanton Gl. (1885); There are ten sheaves in a hile (W.F.R.). 2. v. To place sheaves in a ‘hile,’ to pile up sheaves of corn. Hrt. They hyle their barley... into one entire shock, Ellis Mod. Husb. (1750) V. ii. Hmp.1 Wil.1 Wheat and rye are always hyled, and oats usually so, about Salisbury.