subs. (old).—A ditch.
1787. GROSE, A Provincial Glossary, etc. Explained to be either real stiles which, because of the very small enclosures in Essex, are very frequent or the ‘narrow bridges, such as are laid between marsh and marsh in the hundreds of this county, only jocularly called stiles, as the loose stone walls in Derbyshire are ludicrously called hedges.’
