[HarryT]

I have a great love of reading 19th century novels. The 19th century was a different world, and all sorts of words which are commonplace then have completely fallen out of use today. One can sometimes guess the meaning of a word, but personally I find it a lot more satisfactory to be able to look up the actual meaning of word.

Here's an example, from Anthony Trollope's "Barchester Towers":

Thus clad, she peered out into the tent, went to the ha-ha, and satisfied herself that at any rate the youngsters were amusing themselves, spoke a word to Mrs. Greenacre over the ditch, and took one look at the quintain.

Now, for those of you who say that you read books without a dictionary, what is a "ha-ha"? What about a "quintain"?

I find that an easily available dictionary makes the whole process of reading such books a lot "richer", because you can look up what the author actually meant, rather than having to guess - perhaps wrongly - what these unfamiliar words mean.