[Vocabulary] Dingly dell (adjective)

[Pepita]

Hello again!
I haven't been asking questions here for some time, but now I do need your knowledgeable & kind help, if you please.


What is a (small) garden like, when it's very dingly dell?


It makes me think of a bit fairytalish woodland scenery, but I cannot find a definition anywhere.


Thank you in advance & good night from mildly wintry Finland.
Pepita

 

[JMurray]

Usually spelt "Dingley Dell". The words "dingle" and "dell" both mean a small, wooded valley and have a rather old-fashioned, literary flavour. The most famous Dingley Dell is the manor house in Charles Dickens's "Pickwick Papers" (1836). The name Dingley Dell is sometimes used commercially for holiday places, cafes, farm produce etc, and is intended to suggest "old world" rural charm.
A woodland fairytale is possibly more likely to occur in a fairy dell, but I'm sure that a bunch of elves, goblins and fairies would feel quite at home in a dingley dell.

 

[Pepita]

Thank you kindly for your answer and explanation of dingly dell / Dingley Dell, JMurray.

Now I get the correct meaning.
I bet Tinker Bell had something to do with turning my thoughts of Dingley Dell towards fairies and such :-D


Thank you again, JMurray, and have a lovely Sunday!
Pepita

 

[emsr2d2]

Tinkerbell, not ​Tinker Bell.

 

[emsr2d2]

Really?! I stand corrected. Again. Might be time for a little rest!

(I'm impressed you still have a copy!)