Simple, isn’t it. The word ‘drove’, I mean. It’s just the past tense of the word ‘drive’. But that’s not all it is. On this side of the Atlantic it also means a broad highway (of grass or mud) along which cattle or geese were driven to market. In the USA the word ‘drove’ has set the style for the past tense not just of ‘drive’ but of ‘dive’. There they say he dove into the water. We don’t.
This is just an example of the difference between UK and USA English. The most common example of the difference is the way we spell ‘practice’. The USA has reversed the practice of spelling the verb with an ‘s’ and the noun with a ‘c’. It’s hardly noticeable but it’s there.
Not far from my habitation is a drove. In fact there are quite a few. Before I came to this part of the world I should have had to ask what a drove was. And also there was ‘drain’, a new feature of the landscape.
Back to the word ‘drove’. Ancient man (and woman) made tracks from one place to another. These were footpaths or bridleways. Pack animals might use them. Wheeled vehicles came in due time. At cross-roads there might be a gibbet with a criminal’s body still hanging on it. Milestones kept the user informed about distance covered.
Scotland and the Borders had well developed drove roads, e.g. the Crakemuir Road from Eskdailemuir to Newstead. Ridgeways were convenient tracks north and south of the Trent. We also have to remember Chesterton’s lines: ‘Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode / The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.’
Language changes. So do the people who use it.
When we come across the word ‘drove’, we sit up and take notice. There are other words that should make us do the same. It’s worth thinking about why we use the word ‘testament’ as in ‘old’ or ‘new’
MALAMUD
As we come up to the birthday of Bernard Malamud (26 April; he was born in 1914) we remind ourselves of American novelists like Bellow, Heller and Roth who have utilised the most influential form of dispersed English. Not that we should forget the Aussies and their lovable contempt for whingeing poms.
MAJOR RESTORATION
In days when the guitar is king, a major restoration project of the pipe-organ at All Saints’ church, Wellington, Telford is in hand. The frailties of age are becoming apparent and the bill will come to £156,000. Tim Carter is the Vicar shouldering the responsibility. Watch for the video tour of the church on the website. George Steuart designed the building. It dates from 1790.
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