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Walter Scott created his medieval castle — one with every modern convenience — from the remains of an old farmhouse called Clarty Hole.

Best of all may be Andrew O’Hagan’s contribution: “clart” and “clarty,” for “mud” and “muddy”—which he follows up with a rush of other, lost mud-words: slub, plash, blash, and stabble, before including the Suffolk word “durg,” for mud that has manure mixed into it, which is one of those words it’s hard to know how the rest of us have managed without.

Abbotsford was Cartley Hole first—not Clarty—which is a mere vulgar play on the original.

Clarty, dirty, bespattered with mud.

That clarty barm should stain my laurels, But—what 'ill ye say?