gruffy-ground
n.— «But here and there, as at Charterhouse, Priddy, and around Shipham, the “gruffy-ground,” as it was called, survives. Although wild flowers in great variety blossom on it, and heaps of soil and stone turned over by the miners have become cushiony seas for picnickers, it remains land with an unnatural look—land that even now seems in turmoil, and an impressive monument to the immense energies of men in the long ago.» —“Mendip’s famous centuries-old lead mines” by Jill Bailey Weston Mercury (United Kingdom) May 9, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
One secret to writing well is … there is no secret! There’s no substitute for simply sitting down day after day to practice the craft and learn from your mistakes. Plus, childhood mixups around word definitions can lead to some funny stories...
How colors got their names, and a strange way to write. The terms blue and orange arrived in English via French, so why didn’t we also adapt the French for black and white? • Not every example of writing goes in one direction across the page...