Thanks very much for those definitions, Mo. I had often wondered why the mole character in the "Little Grey Rabbit" books by Alison Uttley was called Moldey Warp, as an old "country" name for a mole, and although I knew the Modern German word "Maulwurf" for mole, I had never made the connection.

I'm just now reading Alan Bennett's stage adaptation of "The Wind in the Willows", and Mole is without doubt my favourite character. I never saw the original production at the National Theatre, but from the stage directions, I can picture him perfectly, and I think Alan Bennett got him just right:
"Mole has close-cropped black hair, a blazer and sandals. He wears NHS spectacles and though he is a mole he could also be an old-fashioned northern schoolboy."

Mole: Hang spring cleaning ! And hang whitewashing ! Oh the light ! The air ! The *freedom*.

- jeanie