A tract of low land, generally swampy.
1667. He may cutt in a place called the Swale, adjoyning to the Ceader Swampe.—‘Dedham Records,’ Mass., iv. 135.
1805. A swale or valley, of near a mile in extent, affords in several places copious springs of water, strongly impregnated with sulphur.—T. Bigelow, ‘Journal of a Tour to Niagara Falls,’ p. 37 (1876).
1809. Among the interval-lands are to be reckoned the swales, or rich hollows.—E. A. Kendall, ‘Travels,’ iii. 193. (Italics in the original.)
1872. Swale, in the sense of a tract of low, generally swampy land, is an old word preserved in the remoter districts of New England and some parts of the Far West.—(de Vere).
*** These extracts are condensed from a note by Mr. Albert Matthews, Notes and Queries, 11 S. iv. 352 (Oct. 28, 1911).
1911. Of the Second Massachusetts [General Slocum] spoke with high appreciation. Particularly at Gettysburg its services had been great and its sacrifice costly. He spoke feelingly of the young officers who had been slain and also of humbler men. Since that time I have stood by the simple stone at the “bloody swale at the foot of Culp’s Hill” which marks the position held that day by the Second Massachusetts. It takes no trained eye to see that it was a point of especial difficulty and importance.—N.Y. Evening Post, Dec. 4, p. 6/2.
