Recently I read some mysteries by English author Marjorie Eccles. She grew up in Yorkshire, and her stories are mostly set there. I'm setting out some language I, an American, found interesting for the Mudcat's explanation and enjoyment.

[on eating chocolates] …another cracknel! She never learned, they were always the ones that were left.

    What's a cracknel? In America, we dread the raspberry jellies.
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The original [wall] paint, magnolia from top to bottom.

    I see references to magnolia paint quite often. Surely it's not the sickly pink-purple of the flower on a magnolia tree, is it?
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It was a long time since Rumsden Garth had seen such activity.

    I thought Garth was a Welsh masculine name.
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'Come in and have a cup of tea while I tell you. I've just mashed.'

    Is she cooking potatoes?
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the best fish and chips anywhere in the northern union

    Hmm, I've heard of the union of Scotland and England, but what's the northern union?
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…the cushions, which she insisted in leaving quatri-cornered along the sofa.

       quatri-cornered?
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A quaggy four and half acres, overgrown with sycamore...

    quaggy?
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Scotty was a slummocky type, not one of CID's finest.

    slummocky?
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A kitchen pinger on the table…

    The 'pinger' is self-explanatory. Such a cute name for timer. We've taken to using it at our house.
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He was huffed she'd gone off without leaving him a message..

huffed?