MUCH as I enjoy the writings of Albert Morris, I beg to differ from him on two of his examples of Lancashire dialect (Letters, April 21).

Firstly, things don't go "up t' suff", they go down it. A suff is not, as Albert states, a chimney but a drain. Therefore, if someone in the old days asked what to do with a bucket of mucky water, the answer would come: "Poor it deawn t'suff."

Secondly, although I have lost my hair to some considerable degree, I am not, nor have I ever been, "cove licked."

Presumably, Albert means "cawf-licked" - meaning "licked by a calf." This applies to a head of hair where a patch at the front grows upwards and backwards instead of lying forwards like the rest of it. People who are "cawf-licked," therefore, can not grow a proper fringe because part of the hair at the front refuses to lie flat. This is a genetic trait which was possessed by my late aunt and has surfaced again with my younger daughter.

I can assure Albert that these meanings are correct - just ask my mum, a 79-year-old Padihamer with a perfect memory.

ERIC BEARDSWORTH, Sycamore Rise, Foulridge, Colne.

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