[WEST a.] The western part of any country: the district or region towards the west; spec. of England or of Scotland.
Usually the remoter counties west (or south-west) of the speaker, or of London (in Scotland west of Edinburgh); sometimes spec. the south-western counties (Somerset, Devon, etc.).
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XI. iii. (Bodl. MS.). In þe est londes and contreyes is much more plente of fruytes and floures þanne in þe northe and in þe weste contreys.
c. 1400. Brut, ccxxviii. 301. In þe same ȝere, aboute þe Sowth-cuntreys and also in þe west cuntres, þere fell so much reyne … þat [etc.].
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, IV. 171. Our wast contre thar statute is so strang, Into the north my purposs is to gang.
1473. Warkw., Chron. (Camden), 10. The Erle of Warwyke londede in the west countre.
1534. Cromwell, in Merriman, Life & Lett. (1902), I. 395. Ye do deteyne … certeyne londes in the weste cuntrey contrary to all right.
1570–6. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1596), 474. At Dartmouth in the West countrie.
1639. G. Plattes, Discov. Subterr. Treas., xi. 51. Every one may see in the west Country, where such a multitude of Firre trees doe lie covered so deepe in the earth, that [etc.].
1827. Scott, Lett., in Lockhart (1837), I. v. 136. I had very little acquaintance … with the gentry of the west country.
1845. Carlyle, Cromwell, xliii. I. 359. The Whiggamore Raid, all the force of the West Country, 6,000 strong, is already there.
1906. J. E. Vincent, Highways Berks., ix. 241. It is a little strained, perhaps, to include Berkshire in the West country.
b. attrib. (Frequently hyphened.)
a. 1653. Binning, Usef. Case Consc. (1693), 40. They think these Malignants better than the West-Countrey forces.
1678. T. Jordan, Tri. Lond., 14. Zome honest plain West-Country-mon.
1690. Lond. Gaz., No. 2579/2. Edinburgh…. Several Thousands of the West-Country Men have offered to Serve Their Majesties against the Highlanders. Ibid. (1720), No. 5895/4. Speaks in a broad West-Country Dialect.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. 435. Sheep … of the Devonshire, or west-country breed.
1820. Scott, Monast., Introd. Ep. A west-country whig frae Kilmarnock.
1865. Kingsley, Herew., v. Why should he know our West country ways?
1879. St. George’s Hosp. Rep., IX. 586. One branch of her family, living in a west-country town.
fig. 1853. W. D. Cooper, Sussex Gloss. (ed. 2), 85. West-country Parson, the Hake; so called from the black streak on the back, and from its abundance along the West Coast.
