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 AN 
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS 
 
 OF 
 
 ENGLAND, 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS EXAMPLES. 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES ORCHARD HALLIWELL, 
 
 F. R. S., F. S. A. 
 
 
 ALBANY, N. Y. . 
 J. MUNSELL, 78 STATE STREET. 
 
 1863 
 
 > > > 
 
 > , , , • ,' \ • > ' > » , - ' • ; . » ' , •' • ' 
 
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 '.) 
 
 
 EL 
 
 f. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 In reproducing this little volume, the object 
 of the publisher is to aid persons investigating 
 the history of the English language, and at the 
 same time to gratify the curiosity of those who 
 would like to know not only the provincial 
 English words, so often declared to he Ameri- 
 canisms, but how they are employed and pro- 
 is i 
 * nounced in phrases and sentences. As there 
 
 are known to be fifty thousand of such words 
 in actual local use, not received into our dic- 
 tionaries, the subject is certainly as interesting 
 ) as important. 
 
 The Essay forms the introduction to the Dic- 
 tionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, by Mr. 
 J. O. Halliwell, an author distinguished for his 
 learned and disinterested exertions to extend a 
 knowledge of the Euglish language. Fifty 
 
 172 .
 
 IV NOTE. 
 
 copies of it were published separately. It 
 furnishes from the writings of both ancient and 
 modern provincial authors, examples in prose 
 and verse of all the existing dialects. At the 
 close of these are besides examples chronologic- 
 al Iv arranged of compositions in English from 
 the thirteenth century downwards. 
 
 Mr. Halliwell's consent to its publication is 
 kindly expressed in the following note : 
 
 No. 6 St. Mary's Place, 
 
 Brompton, near London 
 28th Oct., 1861. 
 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 •l 
 
 You are heartily welcome to reprint the 
 Dialect Essay. It always gives me pleasure 
 when any interest in my pursuits is taken in 
 your great country, which, though troubled, 
 must rise again grander than ever. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 J. O. IIALLRYELL. 
 
 To Joel Munsell, Esq.
 
 THE 
 
 ENGLISH PROVINCIAL DIALECTS, 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Robert of Gloucester, after describing the Norman 
 Conquest, thus alludes to 'the change of language intro- 
 duced by that event: 
 
 And the Normans ne couthe speke tho bote her owe speche , 
 And speke French as dude atom, and here chyldren dude 
 
 also teche. 
 So that hey men of this lond, that of her blod come, 
 Holdeth alle thulke speche that hii of hem nome. 
 Vor bote a man couthe French, me tolth of hym wel lute, 
 Ac loioe men holdeth to E)iglyss, and to her hunde speche 
 
 •gute. 
 Teh weue ther ne be man in world contreyes none, 
 That ne holdeth to her kunde speche, bote Engelond one. 
 Ac wel me wot vor to conne bothe wel yt ys, 
 Vor the more that a man con, the more worth he ys. 
 
 This extract describes very correctly the general history 
 of the languages current in England for the first two 
 centuries after the battle of Hastings. Anglo-Norman 
 
 /
 
 G PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 was almost exclusively the language of the court, of the 
 Norman gentry, and of literature. " The works in Eng- 
 lish which were written hefore the Wars of the Barons 
 belong, " says Mr. Wright, '• to the last expiring re- 
 mains of an older and totally different Anglo-Saxon style, 
 or to the first attempts of a new English one formed 
 upon a Norman model. Of the two grand monuments 
 of the poetry of this period, Layamon belongs to the 
 former of these classes, and the singular poem entitled the 
 Ormulum to the latter. After the middle of the thir- 
 teenth century, the attempts at poetical composition in 
 English became more frequent and more successful, and 
 previous to the age of Chaucer we have several poems 
 of a very remarkable character, and some good imitations 
 of the harmony and spirit of the French versification of 
 the time. " After the Barons' Wars, the Anglo-Xorman 
 was gradually intermingled with the Anglo-Saxon, and 
 no long time elapsed before the mongrel language, Eng- 
 lish, was in general use, formed, however, from the 
 latter. A writer of the following century thus alleges 
 his reason for writing in English : 
 
 In Englis tonge y schal gow telle, 
 gyf ge so long with me wyl dwclle; 
 Ne Latyn wil y speke ne waste, 
 Bot Englisch that men uses maste, 
 For that ys goure kynde langage, 
 That ge hale here most of usage ;
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 7 
 
 That can cell man unthcrstonde 
 
 That is bom in Englonde ; 
 
 For that langage ys most schewed, 
 
 Als wcl mowe lereth as lewed. 
 
 Latyn also y trowe can nanc, 
 
 Bot tho that hath hit of schole tane ; 
 
 Som can Frensch and no Latyne, 
 
 That useth has court and duellt therinue, 
 
 And som can of Latyn aparty, 
 
 That can Frensch ful febylly ; 
 
 And som untherstondith Englisch, 
 
 That nother can Latyn ne Frensch 
 
 Bot lerde, and lewde, old and "gong, 
 
 Alle untherstondith Englisch tonge. 
 
 Therfore y holde hit most siker thanne 
 
 To schewe the langage that ech man can ; 
 
 And for lewethe men namely, 
 
 That can no more of clergy, 
 
 Tho ken tham whare most nede, 
 
 For clerkes can both se and rede 
 
 In divers bokes of Holy Writt, 
 
 How they schul lyve, yf thay loke hit : 
 
 Tharefore y wylle me holly halde 
 
 To that langagc that Englisch ys calde. 
 
 MS. Bodl 48, f. 48. 
 
 The author of the Cursor Mnndi thought each nation 
 
 should be contented with one language, and that the 
 
 English should discard the Anglo-Norman : 
 
 This ilk bok it es translate 
 Into Inglis tong to rede, 
 For the love of Inglis lede, 
 Inglis lede of Ingland, 
 For the commun at understand. 
 Frankis rimes here I redd 
 Communlik in ilk sted.
 
 8 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 Mast es it wroght for Frankis man, 
 
 Quat is for him na Frankiscanf. 
 
 ( )(' England the nacion 
 
 Es [nglisman thar in eommun; 
 
 The speche that man wit mast may specie, 
 
 Mast thar wit to speke war nede. 
 
 Selden was for am chance 
 
 Praised Inglis tong in France! 
 
 Gicc we ilkan thare langage, 
 
 Me think we do tham non outrage. 
 
 JIS. Cott. Vespas. A. iii, f. 2. 
 
 In the curious tale of King Edward and the Shep- 
 herd, the latter is described as being perfectly astonished 
 with the French and Latin of the court : 
 
 The lordis anon to ehawmbur went, 
 The kyng aftur the scheperde sent, 
 
 He was brojt forth fulle sone ; 
 He clawed his hed, his hare he rent, 
 He wende wcl to have be schent, 
 
 He ne wyst what was to done. 
 "When he French and Latyn herde, 
 He hade mervelle how it ferde, 
 
 And drow hym ever alone : 
 Jhesu, he seid, for thi gret grace, 
 Bryng me fayre out of this place ! 
 
 Lady, now here my bone I 
 
 MS. Cantab. Ff. v. 48, f. 55. 
 
 In the fifteenth century, English may be said to have 
 been the general language of this country.* At this 
 
 * Anno, Counters of Stafford, thus writes in 1438,1 " ordeyne and make my 
 testament in English tonge for my most profit, redyng, and uuderstandyng 
 in this wise."
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 9 
 
 period, too, what is now called old English, rapidly lost 
 its grammatical forms, and the English of the time of 
 Henry VIII, orthography excepted, differs very little 
 from that of the present day. A few archaisms now ob- 
 solete, and old phrases, constitute the essential differences. 
 Our present subject is the provincial dialects to which 
 these very brief remarks on the general history of the Eng- 
 lish language are merely preliminary, — a subject of great 
 difficulty, and one which requires far more reading than 
 has yet been attempted to develop satisfactorily, especial- 
 ly in its earlier period. Believing that the principal use 
 of the study of the English dialects consists in the ex- 
 planation of archaisms, I have not attempted that research 
 which would be necessary to understand their history, 
 albeit this latter is by no means an unimportant inquiry. 
 The Anglo-Saxon dialects were not numerous, as far as can 
 be judged from the manuscripts in that language which 
 have been preserved, and it seems probable that most of 
 cur English dialects might be traced historically and ety- 
 mologically to the original tribes of the Saxons, Angles, 
 and Jutes, not forgetting the Danes, whose language,' 
 according to Wallingford, so long influenced the dialect 
 of Yorkshire. In order to accomplish this we require 
 many more early documents which bear upon the sub- 
 ject than have yet been discovered, and the uncertainty
 
 10 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 which occurs inmost cases of'fixing the exact locality in 
 which they were written adds to our difficulties. When 
 we conic to a later period, the thirteenth and fourteenth 
 centuries, there being no standard literary form of our 
 native language, every manuscript sufficiently exhibits 
 i - dialect, and it is to be hoped that all English works 
 of this period may one day be classed according to their 
 dialects. In such an undertaking, great assistance will 
 be derived from a knowledge of our local dialects 
 as they now exist. Hence the value of specimens of 
 modern provincial language, for in many instances, as 
 in Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle, compared with the 
 present dialect of Gloucestershire, the organic forms of 
 the dialect have remained unchanged for centuries. The 
 Aymbyteof Ttvwyt is, perhaps, the most remarkable speci- 
 men of early English manuscripts written in a broad dia- 
 lect, and it proves very satisfactorily that in the fourteenth 
 century the principal features of what istermed the West- 
 ern dialect were those also of the Kentish dialect. There 
 can be, in fact, little doubt that the former was long cur- 
 Tent throughout the southern counties, and even extend- 
 ed in some degree as far as Essex.* If we judge from 
 
 * This is stated on sufficiently ample authority, but Verstegan appears to 
 limit it in his time to the Western counties, — " Weseethat in some several] pnrts 
 of England Itselfe, both the names of things, aud pronuntiations of words, are 
 somewhat different, and that among the country people that never borrow any 
 words out of the Latiu or French, und of this different pronuntiation one eS-
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 11 
 
 the specimens of early English of which the localities of 
 composition are known, we might perhaps divide the dia- 
 lects of the fourteenth century into three grand classes, 
 the Northern, the Midland, and the Southern, the las^ 
 being that now retained in the Western counties. But, 
 with the few materials yet published, I set little reliance 
 on any classification of the kind. If we may decide from 
 Mr. Wright's Specimens of Lyric Poetry, which were 
 written in Herefordshire, or from Audelay's Poems, writ- 
 ten in Shropshire in the fifteenth century, those counties 
 would belong to the Midland division, rather than to the 
 West or South. 
 
 The few writers who have entered on the subject of 
 the early English provincial dialects, have advocated their 
 theories without a due consideration of the probability, 
 in many cases the certainty, of an essen.tial distinction 
 between the* language of literature and that of the natives 
 of a county. Hence arises a fallacy which has led to curi- 
 ous anomalies. We are not to suppose, merely because 
 we find an early manuscript written in any county in 
 standard English, that that manuscript is a correct crite- 
 
 ample in steed of many shal suffice, as this : for pronouncing according as one 
 would say at London, / would eat more cheese if I had it, the Northern man 
 saith, Ay sud eat mare cheese gin ay hadet, and the Westerne man saith, Chud 
 eat more cheese an chad it. Lo heere three different pronountiations in our 
 owue country in one thing, and hereof many the like examples might be al- 
 leaged."— Versieaan's Restitution, 163-t, p. 195.
 
 12 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 rion of the dialect of the couuty. There are several 
 manuscripts written in Kent of about the same date as 
 the Ayenbyte of Intoyt, which have none of the dialectical 
 tnarks of that curious work. Most of the quotations here 
 given IVum early manuscripts must be taken with a similar 
 limitation as to their dialect. Hence the difficulty, from 
 want of authentic specimens, of forming a classification, 
 which has led to an alphabetical arrangement of the 
 counties in the following brief notices. 
 
 \ 

 
 ENGLISH DIALECTS. 
 
 BEDFORDSHIRE. 
 
 The dialect of this county has been fully investigated 
 in Batchelor's Orthoepical Analysis of the English Lan- 
 guage, 8vo. 1809. Ew takes the place of ow, ea of a, 
 ow of the long o, oi of i, &c. When r precedes s aud e 
 final, or s and other consonants, it is frequently not pro- 
 nounced. Ow final is often changed into er ; ge final, 
 into dge ; and g final is sometimes omitted. 
 
 BERKSHIRE. 
 
 The Berkshire dialect partly belongs to the Western, 
 and partly to the Midland, more strongly marked with 
 the features of the former in the south-west of the county. 
 The a is changed into o, the dipthongs are pronounced 
 broadly, and the vowels are lengthened. Way is pro- 
 nounced woye ; thik and thaJc for this and that ; he for 
 him. and she for her. 
 3
 
 14 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 BUCKINGHAM SHIRK. 
 
 The language of the peasantry is not very broad, al- 
 though many dialectical words are in general use. A 
 list of the latter was kindly forwarded to me by Dr. 
 lltissey. 
 
 CAMBRIDGESHIRE. 
 
 There is little to distinguish the Cambridgeshire dia- 
 lect from that of the adjoining counties. It is nearly 
 allied to that of Norfolk and Suffolk. The perfect tense 
 is formed strongly, as lilt, hot, sit, sot, spare, spore, e.g. 
 " if I am spore, " i. c. spared, &Q. I have to return my 
 thanks to the Rev. J. J. Smith and the Rev. Charles 
 Warren for brief lists of provincialisms current in this 
 county. 
 
 CHESHIRE. 
 
 The Cheshire dialect changes Hnto w, id into w or oo, 
 i into oi or ee, o into u, a into o, o into a, u into i, ea 
 into 7/0, and oa into wo. Mr. Wilbraham has published 
 a very useful and correct glossary of Cheshire words, 
 second ed. 12mo. 1836. 
 
 Extract from 
 
 A Speech of Judas Iscariot. 
 
 In the Play of Christ's Entry into Jerusalem. 
 
 By deare God in magistie ! 
 
 I am so wroth as I maye be, 
 
 And some waye I will wrecken me,
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 15 
 
 As sone as ever I maie. 
 
 My mayster Jesus, as men ruaye see, 
 
 Was rubbed heade, foote, and knye, 
 
 With oyntmente of more daintie 
 
 Then I see manye a daie. 
 
 To that I have greate envye, 
 
 Tliat he suffred to destroye 
 
 More then all his good thrye, 
 
 And his dames towe. 
 
 Hade I of it hade maisterye, 
 
 I woulde have soulde it sone in hie, 
 
 And put it up in tresuerye, 
 
 As I was wonte to doe. 
 
 Whatsoever wes geven to Jesu, 
 
 I have kepte, since I hym knewe ; 
 
 For he hopes I wilbe trewe, 
 
 His purse allwaie I bare. 
 
 Hym hade bene better, in good faye, 
 
 Hade spared oyntmente that daie, 
 
 For wrocken I wilbe some waie 
 
 Of waste that was done thier ; 
 
 Three hundreth penny worthes it was 
 
 That he let spill in that place ; 
 
 Therefore God geve me harde grace, 
 
 But hymselfe shalbe soulde 
 
 To the Jewes, or that I sitte. 
 
 For the tenth penye of it : 
 
 And this my maister shalbe quite 
 
 My greffe a hundreth foulde. 
 
 Chester Plays, ii, 12. 
 
 CORNWALL. 
 
 It is almost unnecessary to observe, that the ancient 
 Cornish language has long been obsolete. It appears to 
 have been gradually disused from the time of Henry 
 VIII, but it was spoken in some parts of the country
 
 16 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 till the eighteenth century. Modern Cornish is now an 
 English dialect, and a specimen of it is here given. 
 Polwhele has recorded a valuable list of Cornish provin- 
 cialisms, and a new glossary has recently been published, 
 in Specimens of Cornish Provincial Dialect, 8vo. 1846. 
 In addition to these. I have to acknowledge several 
 words, hitherto unnoticed, communicated by Miss Hicks, 
 and R. T. Smith, Esq. 
 
 Harrison, Description of Britaine, p. 14, thus mentions 
 the Cornish language : " The Cornish and Devonshire 
 men, whose countrie the Britons call Cerniw, have a 
 speach in like sort of their owne, and such as hath in 
 deed more affinitie with the Armoricane toong than I 
 can well discusse of. Yet in mine opinion, they are both 
 but a corrupted kind of British, albeit so far degenerating 
 in these daies from the old, that if either of them doo 
 meete with a Welshman, they are not able at the first 
 to understand one another, except here and there in 
 some od words, without the helpe of interpreters." 
 
 In Cornwal, Pembr. and Devon they for to milk say 
 milky, for to squint, to squinny, this, thicky, &c, and 
 after most verbs ending with consonants they clap a y 
 but more commonly the lower part of Pembrokeshire. — 
 Lhayd's MS. Additions to Ray, Ashm. Mus. 
 
 The Cornwall Schoolboy. 
 
 An ould man found, one day, ayung gentleman's port- 
 mantle, as he were a going to es dennar; he took'd et 
 en and gived et to es wife, and said, " Mally, here's a 
 roul of lither, look. see. I suppoasc some poor ould shoe- 
 maker or other have los'en, tak'en and put' en a top of the
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 17 
 
 teaster of tha bed, he'll be glad to hab'en agen sum 
 day, I dear say.'' The ould man. Jan, that was es neame, 
 went to es work as before. Mally then open'd the 
 portmantle, and found en et three hunderd pounds. 
 Soon after thes, the ould man not being very well, Mally 
 said, " Jan, I'ave saaved away a little money, by the 
 •bye, and as thee caan't read or write, thee shu'st go to 
 scool" (he were then nigh threescore and ten). He 
 went but a very short time, and coined hoam one day, 
 and said, " Mally, I wain't go to scool no more, 'caase 
 the childer do be laffen at me ; they can tell their letters, 
 and I caan't tell my A, B, C, and I wuld rayther go 
 to work agen." " Do as thee wool/' ses Mally. Jan had 
 not ben out many days, afore the yung gentleman came 
 by that lost the portmantle, and said, "Well, my ould 
 man, did'ee see or hear tell of sich a thing as a port- 
 mantle V "Portmantle, sar, was't that un, sumthing 
 like thickey ? (pointing to one behind es saddle. ) I 
 found one the t'other day zackly like that.'' " Where 
 es et?" " Come along, I carr'd 'en en and gov'en to 
 my wife Mally ; thee sha't av'en. Mally, where es that 
 roul of lither that Igiv'd tha the t'other day ?" " What 
 roul of lither ?" said Mally. " The roul of lither I broft 
 en and tould tha to put'en a top of the teaster of the 
 bed, afore I go'd to scool." " Drat tha emperance," 
 said the gentleman, " thee artbetwattled, that was before 
 I were born." 
 
 A Western Eclogue. 
 
 Pengrouze, a lad in many a science blest, 
 Outshone his toning brothers of the west : 
 Of smugling, hurling, wrestling, much he knew, 
 And much of tin, and much of pilchards too. 
 Fam'd at each village, town, and country-house, 
 Menacken, Helstone, Polkinhorne, and Grouze ; 
 Trespissen, Buddock, Cony-yerle, Treverry, 
 Polbastard, Hallabazzack, Eglesderry,
 
 18 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 Pencob, and Bestijeg, Treviskey, Breague, 
 Irewinnick, Buskenwyn, Busveal, Roscreague: 
 
 But what avail'd his fame and various art, 
 
 Since he, by love, was smitten to the heart? 
 
 The shaft a beam of Bet Polglaze's eyes ; 
 
 And now he dumplin loaths, and pilchard pies. 
 
 Young was the lass, a servant at St. Tizzy, 
 
 Born at Polpiss, and bred at Mevagizzy. 
 
 Calm o'er the mountain blush'd the rising day, 
 
 And ting'd the summit with a purple ray, 
 
 When sleepless from his hutch the lover stole, 
 
 And met, by chance, the mistress of his soul. 
 
 And " Whither go'st ?" he scratched his skull and cry'd; 
 
 " Arrear, God bless us," well the nymph reply'd, 
 
 " To Yealston sure, to buy a pound o' backy, 
 
 That us and measter wonderfully lacky ; 
 
 Grod bless us ale, this fortnight, 'pon my word, 
 
 We nothing smoaks but oak leaves and cue-terd. 
 
 Pengrouze. 
 
 Arrear then, Bessy, ly aloane the backy, 
 Sty here a tiny bit and let us talky. 
 Bessy, I loves thee, wot a ha me, zay, 
 Wot ha Pengrouze, why wot a, Bessy, ha3 ? 
 
 Bet Polglaze. 
 
 Ah, hunkin, hunkin, mind at Moushole fair 
 What did you at the Choughs, the alehouse there ? 
 When you stows eighteen pence in cakes and beer, 
 To treat that dirty trollup, Mall Rosevear : 
 You stutfs it in her gills, and makes such pucker, 
 Arrear the people thoft you wid have choack her. 
 
 Pengrouze. 
 Curse Mall Rosevear, I says, a great jack whore, 
 1 ne'er sees such a dirty drab before : 
 I stuffs her gills with cakes and beer, the hunk, 
 She stuffs herself, she meslin and got drunk.
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 19 
 
 Best* drink sure for her jaws wan't good enow, 
 So leckerf makes her drunk as David's sow ; 
 Her feace is like a bull's, and 'tis a fooel, 
 Her legs are like the legs' o' cobbler's stooel ; 
 Her eyes be grean's a lick,! as yaffers big, 
 Noase flat's my bond, and neck so black's a pig. 
 
 Bet Polglaze. 
 
 Ay, but I've more to say; this isn't ale, 
 You deane'd wy Mall Rosevear 't a sartin bale ; 
 She toald me so, and lefts me wy a sneare — 
 Ay ! you, Pengrouze, did deance wy Mall Rosevear. 
 
 Pengrouze. 
 
 Now, Bessy, hire me, Bessy, vath and soale, 
 Hire me, I says, and thou shat hire the whoale ; 
 One night, a Wensday night, I vows to Groade, 
 Aloane, a hossback, to Tresouze I roade ; 
 Sure Bessy vath, dist hire me, 'tis no lies, 
 A d — mnder bale was never seed wy eyes. 
 I hires sum mizzick at an oald bearne doore, 
 And hires a wondrous rousing on the floore ; 
 So in I pops my head ; says I, arreare ! 
 Why, what a devil's neame is doing heare ? 
 Why deancing, cries the crowder by the wale, 
 Why deancing, deancing, measter — 'tis a bale. 
 Deancing, says I, by Gam I hires sum preancers, 
 But tell us where the devil be the deancers ; 
 For fy the dust and strawze so fleed about, 
 I could not, Bessy, spy the hoppers out. 
 At laste I spies Rosevear, I wish her dead, 
 Who meakes me deance all nite, the stinking jade. 
 Says I, I have no shoose to kick a foote : 
 Why kick, says Mall Rosevear, then kick thy boote. 
 
 * Best drink implies strong beer. t Brandy. 
 
 '\ Green as a leek.
 
 20 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 And, Bet, di.st hire mc, for to leert us ale, 
 A furthing candle wink"d again the wale. 
 
 Bet PoJglaze. 
 
 Ah, hunkin, hunkin, I am huge afraid 
 That you is laughing at a simple maid. 
 
 Penyrouze. 
 
 Peare, dearest Bet, let's hug thee to my hearty 
 And may us never never never pearte ! 
 No, if I lies than, Bessy, than I wishes 
 The Shackleheads may never close the fishes ; 
 That picky dogs may eat the sceane when fule, 
 Eat'n to rags, and let go ale the schule. 
 
 Bet Polglaze. 
 Then here's my hond, and wy it teake my hearte. 
 
 Penyrouze. 
 
 Goade bless us too, and here is mines, ods hearte ! 
 One buss, and then to Pilcharding I'll packy. 
 
 Bet Pohjlaze. 
 And I to Yealstone for my measter's backy. 
 
 A Cornish Song. 
 
 Come, all ye jolly Tinner boys, and listen to mc ; 
 1' 11 tell ee of a storie shall make ye for to see, 
 Consarning Boney Peartie, the schaarnes which he had 
 
 maade 
 To stop our tin and copper mines, and all our pilchard 
 
 traade. 
 lie summonsed forty thousand men, to Polland they 
 
 did goa, 
 All for to rob and plunder there you very well do 
 
 knawa ;
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 21 
 
 But ten-thousand were killed, and laade dead in blood 
 
 and goare, 
 And thirty thousand ranned away, and I cante tell 
 
 where, I'm sure. 
 And should that Bony Peartie have forty thousand still 
 To maake into an array to work his wicked will, 
 And try for to invaade us if he doeut quickly fly — 
 Why, forty thousand Cornish boys shall knawa the 
 
 reason why. 
 Hurea for tin and copper, boys, and fisheries likewise ! 
 Hurea for Cornish maadens — oh, bless their pretty eyes ! 
 Hurea for our ould gentrie, and may they never faale ! 
 Hurea, hurea for Cornwall ! hurea, boys, " one and ale !" 
 
 CUMBERLAND. 
 
 The dialects of Cumberland, Westmoreland, North- 
 umberland, and Durham may be considered to be iden- 
 tical in all essential peculiarities, the chief differences 
 arising from the mode of pronunciation. According to 
 Boucher, the dialect of Cumberland is much less uni- 
 form than that of Westmoreland. In Cumberland, too 
 is in frequent use instead of the long o, as will be no- 
 ticed in the following example. A glossary of Cum- 
 berland words was kindly forwarded to me by Mr. 
 Thomas Sanderson. 
 
 Love in Cumberland. 
 
 Tune.—" Cuddle me. Cuddy." 
 
 Wa, Jwohn, what'n mannishment's 'tis 
 
 'At tou's gawn to dee for a hizzy ! 
 Aw hard 'o this torrable fiss, 
 
 An' aw's cum't to advise tha'. — 'at is ee. 
 
 4
 
 22 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 Mun, thou'll nobbet lwosc tee gud neame 
 Wi' gowlin an' whingin sea mickle ; 
 
 Cockswunturs ! niin beyde about heame, 
 An' let ber e'en ga to auld Nickle. 
 
 Thy plew-geer's aw liggin how-strow, 
 An' somebody's stown thee thy couter ; 
 
 Oh faiks ! thou's duin little 'at dow 
 To fash theesel ivver about her. 
 
 Your Seymey has broken car stang, 
 
 An' mendit it wid a clog-coaker ; 
 Pump-tree's geane aw wheyt wrang, 
 
 An' they've sent for auld Tom Stawkcr. 
 
 Young filly's dung ourc the lang stee, 
 An' leam'd peer Andrew the theeker; 
 
 Thee mudder wad suffer't for tee, 
 
 An haw hadn't happ'n't to cleek her. 
 
 Thou's spoilt for aw manner o' wark : 
 Thou nobbet sits peghan an' pleenan. 
 
 Odswucke, man ! doff that durty sark, 
 An' pretha gi'e way git a clean an ! 
 
 An' then gow to Carel wi' me, — 
 
 Let her gang to knock-cross wid her scwornin, 
 Sec clanken at market we'll see, 
 
 A' 11 up'od ta' forgit her 'or mwornin' ! 
 
 Song, by Miss Blamire. 
 
 What ails this heart o' mine ? 
 
 What means this wat'ry e'e ? 
 What gars me ay turn pale as death 
 
 When I tak' leave u' thee '( 
 
 When tin hi art far awa', 
 
 Thou'll dearer be to me ;
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 23 
 
 But change o' place, and change o' folk, 
 May gar thy fancy jee. 
 
 When I sit down at e' en, 
 
 Or walk in morning air, 
 Ilk rustling bough will seem to say, 
 
 I us'd to meet thee there : 
 
 Then I'll sit down and wail, 
 
 And greet aneath a tree, 
 And gin a leaf fa' i' my lap, 
 I's ca't a word frae thee. 
 
 I'll hie me to the bow'r 
 
 Where yews wi' roses tred, 
 And where, wi' monie a blushing bud, 
 
 I strove my face to hide ; 
 
 I'll doat on ilka spot, 
 
 Where I ha'e been wi' thee, 
 And ca' to mind some kindly look 
 
 'Neath ilka hollow tree. 
 
 Wi' sec thoughts i' my mind, 
 
 Time thro' the warl may gae, 
 And find me still, in twenty years, 
 
 The same as I'm to-day : 
 
 'Tis friendship bears the sway, 
 
 And keeps friends i' the e'e ; 
 And gin I think I see thee still, 
 
 Wha can part thee and me ? 
 
 DERBYSHIRE. 
 
 " This dialect," observes Dr. Bosworth, " is remark- 
 able for its broad pronunciation. In me the e is pro- 
 nounced long and broad, as mee. The I is often omit- 
 ted after a or o, as aw for all, caw, call, bowd, bold,
 
 24 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 coud, cold. Words in ing generally admit the g, but 
 sometimes it is changed into k ; as think for thing, lovin 
 fur loving. They use con for can ; conn* r for cannot ; 
 shanner for shall not ; wool, wooner for will, and will 
 not ; i/o for you, &c." Lists of provincial words pecu- 
 liar to this county have been kindly forwarded by Dr. 
 Bosworth, Thomas Bateman, Esq., the llev. Samuel 
 Fox, the Rev. William Shilleto, Mrs. Butler, and L. 
 Jewitt, Esq. 
 
 A Dialogue between Farmer Bennet and 
 Tummus LlDE. 
 
 Farmer Bennet. Tummus, why dunner yo mend inch 
 shoom ? 
 
 Tummus hide. Becoz, mester, 'tis zo cood, I Conner 
 work wee the tachin at aw. I've brockn it ten times I'm 
 shur to de — it freezes zo hard. Why, Hester hung 
 out a smock-frock to dry, an in three minits it wor 
 frozzen as stiff as a proker, an I Conner afford to keep 
 a good fire ; I wish I cud. I'd soon mend yore shoon, 
 and others tow. I'd soon yarn some munny, I warrant 
 ye. Conner yo find sum work for m', mester. these 
 hard times? I'll doo onnythink to addle a penny. I 
 con thresh — I con split wood — I con mak spars — I con 
 thack. I con skower a dike, and I con trench tow, but 
 it freezes zo hard. I con winner — I con fother. or milk, 
 if there be need on't. I woodner mind drivin plow or 
 onnythink. 
 
 Former B. I banner got nothing for ye to doo, 
 Tummus ; but Mester Boord towd me jist now that they 
 wor gooiu to winner, and that they shud want sum- 
 body to help 'em. 
 
 Tummus L. O, I'm glad on't. I'll run oor and zee 
 whether I con help 'em ; but I hanner bin wcein the
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 25 
 
 threshold ov Mester Boord's doer for a nation time, 
 becoz I thoot misses didner use Hester well ; bur I 
 dunner bear malice, and zo I'll goo. 
 
 Farmer B. What did Missus Boord za or doo to 
 Hester then ? 
 
 Tummus L. Why, Hester may be wor summut to 
 blame too ; for her wor one on 'em, de ye zee, that jawd 
 Skimmerton, — the mak-gam that frunted zum o' the 
 gentefook. They said 'twor time to dun wee sich 
 litter or sich stuft", or I dunner know what they cawd it ; 
 but they wor frunted wee Hester bout it ; and I said, 
 if they wor frunted wee Hester, they mid bee frunted 
 wee mee. This set misses's back up, and Hester 
 hanner bin a charrin there sin. But 'tis no use to 
 bear malice : and zo I'll goo oor, and zee which we the 
 winde blows. 
 
 Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Introd. p. 31. 
 
 DEVONSHIRE. 
 
 The munuscript Ashmole 83 contains an early ro- 
 mance, written about the year 1377, which appears to 
 have been composed by a clergyman living in the diocese 
 of Exeter. Several extracts from it will be found in the 
 following pages. The manuscript possesses great in- 
 terest, having part of the author's original draught of the 
 romance. See farther in Mr. Black's Catalogue, col. 15. 
 
 A Devonshire Song is printed in Wits Interpreter, 
 ed. 1671, p. 171 ; the Devonshire Ditty occurs in 
 the same work, p. 247. The Exmoor Scolding and the 
 Exmoor Courtship, specimens of the broad Devonshire 
 dialect at the commencement of the last century, have 
 been lately republished. The third edition was pub-
 
 20 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 lifihed at Exeter in 174G, 4to. Mr. Marshall has given 
 a list of West Devonshire words in his Rural Economy 
 of the West of Kni/lii ml, 1796, vol. i, pp. 323-32, but 
 the best yet printed is that by Mr. Palmer, appended to 
 a Dialogue in the Devonshire Dialect, 8vo. 1837. A 
 brief glossary is also added to the Devonshire Dialogue^ 
 8vo. 1839. My principal guide, however, for the dialect- 
 ical words of this county, is a large manuscript collection 
 stated in Mr. Thomas llodd's Catalogue of Manuscripts 
 for 1845 (No. 270) to have been written by Dr. Milles, 
 Dean of Exeter, and quoted in this work, as Dean 3Iilles' 
 Manuscript. I have been since informed that it was 
 compiled by the late Rev. Richard Hole, but in either 
 case its integrity and value are undoubted. Notes of 
 Devonshire words have been kindly transmitted by the 
 Rev. John Wilkinson, J. H. James, Esq., William Chap- 
 pell, Esq., Mrs. Lovell, and Mr. J. Metcalfe. The West 
 Country dialect is now spoken in greater purity in 
 Devonshire than in any other county. 
 
 The following remarks on the. English dialects are 
 taken from Aubrey's Natural History of Wiltshire, a 
 manuscript preserved in the library of the Royal Society : 
 
 The Northern parts of England speake gutturally; 
 and in Yorkshire and the bishoprick of Durham they 
 have more of the cadence, or Scottish tone than they 
 have at Edinborough : in like manner, in Hereford- 
 shire they have more of the Welch cadence than they 
 have in Wales. The Westerne people cannot open 
 their mouthes to speak ore rotunda. Wee pronounce 
 jift'if, pale, &c, and especially in Devonshire. The Ex- 
 eter Coll. men in disputations, when they allege Causa
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 27 
 
 Causse est Causa Gausati, they pronounce it Gaza, 
 Gazse est Gaza Gazati very ungracefully. Now econ- 
 tra the French and Italians doe naturally pronounce 
 a fully ore rotundo, and e, and even children of French 
 born in England ; and the farther you goe South the 
 more fully, qd. NB. This must proceed from the earth 
 or aire, or both. One may observe, that the speech 
 (twang or accent — adiantus) of ye vulgar begins to alter 
 some thing towards the Herefordshire manner even at 
 Cyrencester. Mr. Thorn. Hobbs told me, that Sir 
 Charles Cavendish did say, that the Creekes doe sing 
 their words (as the Hereff. doe in some degree). From 
 hence arose the accents, not used by the ancients. I 
 have a conceit, that the Britons of the South part of 
 this isle, e. g. the Trinobantes, &c, did speak no more 
 gutturall, or twangings, than the inhabitants doe now. 
 The tone, accent, &c, depends on the temper of the 
 earth (and so to plants) and aire. 
 
 A Lovers' Dialogue. 
 
 Rab. I love dearly, Bet, to hear the tell ; but, good 
 loving now, let's tell o'zummet else. Time slips away. 
 
 Bet. I, fegs, that it dith. I warnis our vokes wonder 
 what the godger's a come o' me. Fll drive home. I 
 wish thee good neart. 
 
 Rab. Why there now. Oh, Bet ! you guess what I 
 ha to tell about, and you warnt hear me. 
 
 Bet. I, say so, co ; — a fiddle-de-dee — blind mares. 
 
 Rab. There agen ! — did ever any boddy hear the like ? 
 Well, soce, what be I to do ? 
 
 Bet. I wish, Rab, you'd leave vetting me. Pithee, 
 let's hear no more o'at. 
 
 Rab. Woll, I zee how 'tis. You'll be the death o'me, 
 that's a zure thing. 
 
 Bet. Dear hart, how you tell ! I the death o'thee ! — 
 no, not vor the world, Rab. Why I'd ne'er the heart
 
 28 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 to hurt thee nor any kindest thing in all my born days. 
 What whiinzies you have ! Why do ye put yourself in 
 such a pucker ? 
 
 Rah. Why, because the ininnet I go about to break 
 my meend, whip soce, you be a-go, and than I coud 
 bite my tongue. 
 
 Bet. Why than will you veass me away when you 
 know I can't abide to hear o'at ? Good-now, don't'ee 
 zay no more about et. Us have always been good 
 friends — let us bide so. 
 
 Rab. I've now began, and I want let thee go till thee 
 hast a-heard me out. 
 
 Bet. Well, I woll, but don't'ee cream my hand zo. 
 
 Rah. I don't know what I do nor what I zay; — many 
 many nearts I ha'nt a teen'd my eyes vor thinking o' 
 thee. I can't live so, 'tis never the neer to tell o'at ; 
 and I must make an end o'at wan way or t'other. I 
 be bent upon't; therefore don't stand shilly-shally, but 
 lookeedezee, iv thee d isn't zay thee wid ha me, bevore 
 thicca cloud hath heal'd every sheen o' the moon, zure 
 and double zure I'll ne'er ax thee agen, but go a soger 
 and never zee home no more. Lock ! lock ! my precious, 
 what dist cry vor ? 
 
 Bet. I be a cruel moody-hearted tiresome body ; and 
 you scare wan, you do zo. I'm in a sad quandory. 
 Iv I say is, I may be sorry ; and if I zay no, I may bo 
 sorry too, ziminet. I hop you widn't use me badly. 
 
 Ra/>. Dist think, my sweeting, I shall e'er be maz'd 
 anew to claw out my own eyes '( and thee art dearer to 
 me than they be. 
 
 Bet. Hold not so breach now, but hear first what I've 
 to zay. You must know, Rab, the leet money I've a 
 croop'd up I be a shirk'd outo', but 'twill never goodee 
 way an. I'll tell thee how I was c need. 
 
 Rab. Good-now, lovey, don'tee think o'at. We shall 
 fadgee and find without et. 1 can work, and will work, 
 and all my carking and caring will be for thee, and
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 29 
 
 everything shall bee as thee woud ha'et. Thee shall 
 do what thee wid. 
 
 Bet. I say so too. Co, co, Rab, how you tell ! Why, 
 pithee, dou'tee think I be such a ninny-hammer as to 
 desire et. If 'tis ordained I shall ha thee, I'll do my 
 best to make tha a oude wife. I don't want to be 
 cocker'd Hark ! hark ! don't I hear the bell lowering 
 for aight? — 'tis, as I live. I shall ha et whan I get 
 home. 
 
 Rab. If I let thee go now, will meet me agen to- 
 morrow evening in the dimmet? 
 
 Bet. No. To-morrow morninir at milking time I woll. 
 
 Rab. Sure. 
 
 Bet. Sure and sure. So I wish thee good neart. 
 
 Rab. Neart, neart, my sweeting ! 
 
 John Chawbacon and his wife Moll, cum up t' 
 Exeter to zee the railway opened. 
 
 " Lor Johnny ! lor Johnny ! now whativver es that, 
 A urning along like a hoss upon wheels ? 
 
 'Tis as bright as yer buttons, and as black as yer hat, 
 And jist listen, Johnny, and yer how 'a squeals !" 
 
 " Dash my buttons, Moll — I'll be darn'd if I know ; 
 
 Us was vools to come yerr and to urn into danger ; 
 Let's be off — 'a spits vire ! lor, do let us go — 
 
 And 'a holds up his head like a gooze at a stranger. 
 
 "I be a bit vrighten'd — but let us bide yerr ; 
 
 And hark how 'a puffs, and 'a caughs. and 'a blows ; 
 He edden unlike the old cart-hoss last yer — 
 
 Broken-winded ; — and yet only zee how 'a goes ! 
 
 " 'A urns upon ladders, with they things like wheels, 
 Or hurdles, or palings, put down on the ground ; 
 
 But why do they let 'un stray out of the veels ? 
 'Tis a wonder they don't clap 'un into the pound." 
 
 5
 
 30 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 " 'A can't be alive, Jan — I don't think 'a can." 
 " I hain't zure 'o that, Moll, for jist look'ec how 
 
 'A breathes like a boss, or a znivell'd old man : — 
 And hark how he's bust out a caughing, goodnow. 
 
 " 'A never could dra' all they waggins, d'ee zee, 
 If 'a lived upon vatches, or turmets, or hay ; 
 
 Why, they waggins be vill'd up with people — they be 
 And do 'ee but look how they'm larfin away ! 
 
 " And look to they childern a urning about, 
 
 Wi' their mouths vull of gingerbread, there by the 
 
 zhows ; 
 And zee to the scores of fine ladies turn'd out; 
 And gentlemen, all in their best Zunday clothes. 
 
 " And look to this houze made o' canvas zo zmart ; 
 
 And the dinner zet out with such bussle and fuss ;— 
 "But us brought a squab pie, you know, in the cart, 
 
 And a keg of good zider — zo that's nort to us. 
 
 i ' 
 
 " I tell 'ee what 'tis, Moll — this here is my mind, 
 The world's gone quite maze, as zure as you'm born 
 
 'Tis as true as I'm living — and that they will vind, 
 With their hosses on wheels that don't live upon corn 
 
 " I wouldn't go homeward b'mbye to the varm 
 Behind such a critter, when all's zed and dun, 
 
 We've a travell'd score miles, but we never got harm, 
 Yor there's nort like a market cart under the zun." 
 
 DORSETSHIRE. 
 
 " The rustic dialect of Dorsetshire," observes Mr. 
 Barnes, "is, with little variation, that of most of the 
 Western parts of England which were included in the
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 31 
 
 kingdom of the West Saxons, the counties of Surrey, 
 Hants, Berks, Wilts, and Dorset, and parts of Somerset 
 and Devon." The Dorset dialect, however has essen- 
 tial features of that of the Western counties which are 
 not heard in Surrey or Hants, as will be sufficiently 
 apparent from the specimens here given. The language 
 of the south-east part of Dorsetshire is more nearly 
 allied to that of Hants. 
 
 " In the town of Poole," according to Dr. Salter, 
 " there is a small part which appears to be inhabited by 
 a peculiar race of people, who are, and probably long 
 have been, the fishing population of the neighbourhood. 
 Their manner of speaking is totally different from that 
 of the neighbouring rustics. They have a great predi- 
 lection for changing all the vowels into short u, using it 
 in the second person, but without a pronoun, and sup- 
 pressing syllables, e. g. cas'n cart, can you not carry it, 
 &c." Mr. Vernon, in remarking upon these facts, 
 observes, " the language of our seamen in general is 
 well worth a close investigation, as it certainly contains 
 not a few archaisms ; but the subject requires time and 
 patience, for in the mouths of those who call the Belle- 
 rophon and the Ville de Milan, the Billy Ruffian and 
 the Wheel-em-along, there is nothing 
 
 ' But doth suffer a sea-change 
 Into something new and strange.' ' 
 
 This must be received with some limitation, and perhaps 
 applies almost entirely to difficult modern terms not 
 easily intelligible to the uneducated. Many of the prin-
 
 32 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 cipal English nautical terms have remained unchanged 
 for centuries. 
 
 Valuable lists of Dorsetshire words have been libe- 
 rally sent me by the Rev. C. W. Bingham, James David- 
 son, Esq., Samuel Bagster, Esq., Dr. Salter, and G. 
 Gollop, Esq. ; but my principal references have been 
 made to the glossary attached by Mr. Barnes to his 
 Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect, 8vo. 1844. 
 The same work contains a dissertation on the dialect, 
 with an account of its peculiar features. The change 
 of o into a, so common in Dorsetshire, completely dis- 
 appears as we proceed in a westerly direction towards 
 Worcestershire. 
 
 A Letter from a Parish Clerk in Dorsetshire to 
 
 AN ABSENT VlCAR, 
 
 In tho Dialect of the County. From Ibems on several Occasions, formerly 
 written by John Free, D. D., 8vo. Lond, 1757, p. 81. 
 
 Meastcr, an't please you, I do zend 
 Theaz letter to you as a vriend, 
 Hoping you'll pardon the inditing, 
 Becaz I am not us'd to writing, 
 And that you will not take unkind 
 A word or zo from poor George Hind, 
 For I am always in the way, 
 And needs must hear what people zay. 
 First of the house they make a joke, 
 And zay the chimnies never smoak. 
 Now the occasion of these jests. 
 As 1 do think, where zwallows nests, 
 That chane'd the other day to vaal 
 Into the parlour sut and aal.
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 33 
 
 Bezide, the people not a few 
 
 Begin to murmur much at you, 
 
 For leaving of them in the lurch, 
 
 And letting straingers zerve the church, 
 
 Who are in haste to go agen, 
 
 Zo, we ha'nt zang the Lord knows when. 
 
 And for their preaching, I do know 
 
 As well as moost, 'tis but zo, zo. 
 
 Zure if the call you had were right 
 
 You ne'er could thus your neighbours slight. 
 
 But I do fear you've zet your aim on 
 
 Naught in the world but vilthy mammon, &c. 
 
 Axen Maidens to goo to Fiair. 
 
 To-marra work so hard's ya can, 
 An' git yer jobs up under han', 
 Var Dick an' I, an' Poll's young man 
 
 Be gwain to fiair; an' zoo 
 If you'll tiake hold ov each a yarm 
 Along the road ar in the zwarm 
 0' vo'ke we'll kip ye out o'harm, 
 
 An' gi ye a fiairen too. 
 
 We woon't stay Hate ther; I'll be boun' 
 We'll bring our shiades back out o' town 
 Zome woys avore the zun is down, 
 
 So long's the sky is clear ; 
 An' zoo, when al yer work's a-done, 
 Yer mother cant but let ye run 
 An' zee a little o' the fun 
 
 Wher nothin is to fear. 
 
 The zun ha' flow'rs to love his light, 
 The moon ha' sparklen brooks at night, 
 The trees da like the playsome flight 
 Ov ayer vrom the west.
 
 34 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 Let zome like empty sounds to mock 
 Ther luonesome vaice by hill or rock, 
 But merry chaps da like t' unlock 
 Ther hearts to maidens best. 
 
 Zoo you git ready now, d'ye hear ? 
 
 Ther's nar another fiair so near, 
 
 An' thiese don't come but twice a year, 
 
 An' you woon't vind us spiaren. 
 We'll goo to all the zights an' shows 
 0' tumblers wi' ther spangled cloa's, 
 An' conjurers wi' cunnen blows, 
 
 An' raffle var a fiairen. 
 
 The "Woodlands. 
 
 O spread agen your leaves an' flow'rs, 
 
 Luonesome woodlands ! zunny woodlands ! 
 
 Here underneath the dewy show'rs 
 
 0' warm-air'd spring-time, zunny woodlands ! 
 
 As when, in drong ar oben groun', 
 
 Wi' happy buoyish heart I voun' 
 
 The twitt'ren birds a-builden roun' 
 
 Your high bough'd hedges, zunny woodlands ! 
 
 Ya gie'd me life, ya gie'd me jay, 
 
 Luonesome woodlands ! zunny woodlands ! 
 
 Ya gie'd me health as in my play 
 
 I rambled droo ye, zunny woodlands ! 
 
 Ya gie'd me freedom var to rove 
 
 In airy mead or shiady grove ; 
 
 Ya gie'd me smilen Fanny's love, 
 
 The best ov all o't, zunny woodlands ! 
 
 My vust shill skylark whiver'd high, 
 
 Luonesome woodlands ! zunny woodlands ! 
 
 To zing below your deep-blue sky, 
 
 An' white spring-clouds, zunny woodlands !
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 35 
 
 An' boughs o' trees that oonce stood here, 
 Wer glossy green the happy year 
 That gie'd me oon I lov'd so dear, 
 
 An' now ha lost, zunny woodlands ! 
 
 let me rove agen unspied, 
 
 Luonesome woodlands ! zunny woodlands ! 
 Along your green-bough'd hedges' zide, 
 
 As then I rambled, zunny woodlands ! 
 An' wher the missen trees oonce stood, 
 Ar tongues oonce rung among the wood, 
 My memory shall miake em good, 
 
 Though you've alost em, zunny woodlands ! 
 
 The Weepen Liady. 
 
 When Hate o' nights, upon the green, 
 
 By thik wold house, the moon da sheen, 
 
 A liady there a-hangen low 
 
 Her head's a-wak-en to an' fro 
 
 In robes so white's the driven snow; 
 
 Wi' oon yarm down, while oon da rest 
 
 Al lily-white upon the breast 
 thik poor weepen liady. 
 
 The curdlin win' an' whislen squall 
 
 Do shiake the ivy by the wall, 
 
 An' miake the plyen tree-tops rock, 
 
 But never ruffle her white frock 
 
 An' slammen door an' rottlen lock 
 That in thik empty house da sound, 
 Da never seem to miake look round 
 Thik downcast weepen liaday, 
 
 A liaday, as the tiale da goo, 
 
 That oonce liv'd there, an' lov'd too true, 
 
 Wer by a young man cast azide 
 
 A mother sad, but not a bride ;
 
 36 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 An' then her father in his pride 
 An anger offer 'd oon o' two 
 Vull bitter things to undergoo 
 To ^ik poor wcepen liady. 
 
 That she herzuf should leave his door, 
 To darken it again noo niuore, 
 Ar that her little playsome chile, 
 A-zent awoy a thousand mile, 
 Should never meet her eyes to smile, 
 An' play again, till she in shiame 
 Should die an' leave a tarnish'd niaine, 
 A sad varsiaken liady. 
 
 " Let me be lost," she cried, "the while, 
 I do but know var my poor chile ;" 
 An' left the huome ov al her pride, 
 To wander droo the wordle wide, 
 Wi' grief that vew but she ha' tried, 
 An' lik' a flow'r a blow ha' broke, 
 She wither'd wi' th'ik deadly stroke, 
 An' died a weepen liady. 
 
 An' she da keep a-comen on, 
 To zee thSk father dead an' gone, 
 As if her soul could have noo rest 
 Avore her teary chiak's a-prest 
 By his vargiv-en kiss : zoo blest 
 ]>e they that can but live in love, 
 An' vine a pliace o' rest above, 
 Unlik' the weepen liady. 
 
 DURHAM. 
 
 The Durham dialect is the same as that spoken in 
 Northumberland and the North Hiding of Yorkshire, 
 the former being more like Scotch, and the latter more
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 37 
 
 like English, but each in a very slight degree. The 
 Durham pronunciation, though soft, is monotonous and 
 drawling. See the Quarterly Review for Feb. 1836, p. 
 358. 
 
 No glossary of Durham words has yet appeared,- but 
 Kennett has recorded a considerable number in his 
 Manuscript Glossary. I have been enabled to add many 
 unknown to that author, derived from communications 
 by the Rev. R. Douglas, George B. Richardson, Esq., 
 Miss Portus, E. T. Warburton, Esq., and Mr. S. Ward. 
 
 If the following anecdote be true, Southern English 
 is but little known amongst some of the lower orders in 
 Durham : 
 
 " John," said a master tanner in South Durham, the 
 other day, to one of his men, " bring in some fuel." 
 John walked off, revolving the word in his mind, and 
 returned with a pitchfork ! " I don't want that," said 
 the wondering tanner; "I want fuel, John." " Beg 
 your pardon," replied the man, ' ; I thought you wanted 
 something to turn over the skins." And off he went 
 again, not a whit the wiser, but ashamed to confess his 
 ignorance. Much meditating, he next pitched upon 
 the besom, shouldering which, he returned to the 
 counting-house. His master was now in a passion. 
 " What a stupid ass you are, John," he exclaimed; " I 
 want some sticks and shavings to light the fire." "Oh- 
 h-h-h !" rejoined the rustic, " that's what you want, is 
 it ? Why couldn't you say so at first, master, instead 
 of using a London dictionary word ?" And, wishful to 
 show that he was not alone in his ignorance, he called 
 a comrade to the tanner's presence, and asked him if he 
 knew what fuel was. " Aye !" answered Joe. "ducks 
 and geese, and sike like !" — Gateshead Observer. 
 
 6 
 
 J 
 
 7282
 
 38 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 ESSEX. 
 
 The dialect of Essex is closely allied in some parts of 
 the county to that of Kent, and in others to that of 
 Suffolk, though generally not so broad, nor spoken with 
 the strong Suffolk whining tone. Mr. Charles Clark 
 has given a glossary of Essex words at the end of John 
 Nbalces and Mary Styles, or an Essex Calf's Visit to 
 Tiptree Races, 8vo. 1839, and I am indebted for many 
 others to the kindness of the Rev. W. Pridden and Mr. 
 Edward T. Hill. A list of Essex words is given in the 
 Monthly Magazine for July, 1814, pp. 498-9. 
 
 From 
 
 A Poem op the Fifteenth Century, 
 
 By the Vicar of Maldon. 
 
 Therfor, my leffe chyld, I schalle teche the, 
 
 Ilerkcn me welle the maner and the gyse, 
 
 How thi sowle inward schalle aqueyntyd be 
 
 With thewis good and vertw in alle wysse : 
 
 Rede and conseyve, for he is to dispice, 
 
 That redyth ay, and noot what is rnent, 
 
 Suche redyng is not but wynde despent. 
 
 Pray thi God and prayse hym with alle thi hart, 
 
 Fadir and modyr have in reverence, 
 
 Love hem welle, and be thou never to smert 
 
 To her mennys consayle, but kepe the thens, 
 
 Tylle thu be clepid be elene withowgt offence: 
 
 Salyw gladly to hym that is moor dygne 
 
 Than art thiself'e, thu schalt thi plase resygne. 
 
 Drede thi mayster, thy thynge loke thu kepe, 
 
 Take hede to thy housohl. ay love thy wyff, 
 
 Plesaunte wordes ougt of thi mowth schalle crepe; 
 
 Be not irous, kepe thi behest os lyff, 
 
 Be tempryd, wyjte, and non excessyff ;
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 39 
 
 Thy wyves wordes make thu noon actorite, 
 In folisciepe no moor tlianne nedyth the. 
 
 MS. Earl. 271, f. 26. 
 
 Cock-a-Bevis Hill. 
 
 At Tottum's Cock-a-Bevis Hill, 
 
 A sput suppass'd by few, 
 Where toddlers ollis haut to eye 
 
 The proper pritty wiew; 
 
 Where people crake so ov the place 
 
 Leas-ways, so I've hard say ; 
 An' fruni its top yow, sarteny, 
 
 Can see a nionsus way. 
 
 'Bout this oad Hill, I warrant ya, 
 
 Their bog it nuver ceases ; 
 They'd growl shud yow nut own that it 
 
 Beats Danbury's au' to pieces. 
 
 But no sense ov a place, some think, 
 
 Is this ere hill so high, — 
 Cos there, full oft, 'tis nation coad, 
 
 But that don't argufy. 
 
 Yit, if they their inquirations maake 
 
 In winter time, some will 
 Condemn that place as no great shakes, 
 
 Where folks ha' the coad-chill! 
 
 As sum'dy, 'haps, when nigh the sput, 
 
 May ha' a wish to see't, — 
 From Mauldon toun to Keldon 'tis, 
 
 An' 'gin a four releet, 
 
 Where up the road the load it goos 
 
 So lugsome an' so stiff, 
 That bosses mosly kitch a whop, 
 
 Frum drivers in a tiff.
 
 40 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 But who'd pay a hoss when tugging on ? 
 
 None but a tetchy elf: 
 Tis right on plain etch chap desarves 
 
 A clumsy thump himself. 
 
 Haul'd o'er the coals, sich fellars e'er 
 
 Shud be, by Martin's Act; 
 liut, then, they're rayther muggy oft, 
 
 So with uin we're not zact. 
 
 But thussina, 'haps, to let him oaf 
 
 Is wrong, becos etch carter. 
 If maade to smart, his F's and Q's 
 
 He'd mine forever arter. 
 
 At Cock-a-Bevis Hill, too, the 
 
 Wiseacres show a tree, 
 Which if yow clamber up, besure, 
 
 A precious way yow see. 
 
 I dorn't think I cud clime it now, 
 
 Aldoe I uster cud ; 
 Ishud'nt warsley loike to troy, 
 
 For guelch cum down I shud. 
 
 My head 'ood swim, — I 'oodn't do'it 
 
 Nut even for a guinea: 
 A naarbour ax'd me, tother day, 
 
 " Naa, naa," says I, " nut quinny." 
 
 At Cock-a-Bevis Hill, I was 
 
 A-goon to tell the folks, 
 Some warses back — when I bargun — 
 
 In peace there lived John Noakes. 
 
 GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 
 
 It has been already remarked that the organic forms 
 of the Gloucestershire dialect have remained unchanged 
 for centuries, and are to be traced in Robert of Glou-
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 41 
 
 cester's Chronicle. Many Anglo-Saxon words are here 
 preserved in great purity. " He geunne it him," he 
 gave it him, the verb geunne being in general use 
 amongst the peasantry. The dialect is more similar to 
 that of Somersetshire than of the adjoining counties, 
 though not so strongly marked as a Western dialect. 
 They change o into a, s into z, /into v, t into d,p into 
 b, short a into i or aoy, long e into eea, long i into ey, 
 long o into ooa. The Anglo-Saxon termination en is 
 still preserved ; thee is used for thou and you; thilk is in 
 constant use ; her is put for she, she for her, I for me, 
 and ou for he, she, or it. Communications of Gloucester- 
 shire words have been received from the Rev. H. T. 
 Ellacombe, Miss Shipton, and Mr. E. Wright. 
 
 George Ridler's Oven. 
 
 The stwons that built George Ridler's oven, 
 And thauy qeum from the Bleakeney's quaar ; 
 
 And George he wur a jolly old mon, 
 And his yead it graw'd above his yare. 
 
 One thing of George Ridler I must commend, 
 
 And that wur not a notable theng ; 
 He mead his braags avoore he died, 
 
 Wi' any dree brothers his zons zs'hou'd zeng. 
 
 There's Dick the treble and John the mean, 
 Let every mon zing in his auwn pleace ; 
 
 And George he wur the elder brother, 
 And therevoore he would zing the beass. 
 
 Mine hostess's moid (and her neaum 'twur Nell) 
 
 A pretty wench, and I lov'd her well ; 
 I lov'd her well and good reauzon why, 
 
 Because zshe lov'd my dog and I.
 
 42 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 My dog is good to catch a hen, 
 A duck or goose is vood for men ; 
 
 And where good company I spy, 
 thethcr gwoes my dog and I. 
 
 My mwother told I when I wur young, 
 
 If I did vollow the strong-beer pwoot ; 
 That drenk would pruv my auverdrow, 
 And meauk me wear a thzread-bare cwoat. 
 
 My dog has gotten zitch a trick, 
 
 To visit moids when thauy be zick ; 
 When thauy be zick and like to die, 
 O thether gwoes my dog and I. 
 
 When I have dree zispences under my thumb, 
 then I be welcome wherever I come ; 
 
 But when I have none, then I pass by, 
 'Tis poverty pearts good company. 
 
 If I should die, as it may hap, 
 
 My greauve shall be under the good yeal tap ; 
 In vouled earms there wool us lie, 
 
 Cheek by jowl my dog and I ! 
 
 HAMPSHIRE. 
 
 The romance of Octovian, according to Mr. D'Israeli, 
 " is in the Hampshire dialect nearly as it is spoken 
 now." Although somewhat doubtful as to the literal 
 correctness of this opinion, an extract from it may be 
 compared with a modern specimen of the dialect. A 
 short glossary of Hampshire words is given in War- 
 ner's collections for that county. The dialect of the
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 43 
 
 west of the county is similar to that of Wiltshire, / 
 being changed into v, and th into d ; and un for him, 
 her, it. It is a common saying, that in Hampshire, 
 every thing is called he except a tom-cat which is called 
 she. 
 
 Extract from the early Romance of 
 OCTOVIAN IMPERATOR. 
 
 The knyjtys logh yn the halle, 
 
 The mantellys they yeve menstrales alle ; 
 
 Lavor and basyn they gon calle 
 
 To wassche and aryse, 
 And syth to daunce on the walle 
 
 Of Parys. 
 
 Whan the soudan thys tydyng herde, 
 For ire as he wer wod he ferd ; 
 He ran with a drawe swerde 
 
 To hys mauientrye, 
 And alle hys goddys ther he amerrede 
 
 With greet envye. 
 
 Asterot, Jopyn, and Mahoun 
 He alle to-hew with hys fachoun, 
 Ahd Jubiter he drew adoun 
 
 Of hys autere : 
 He seyde, by nere worth a scaloune 
 
 Alle y-fere. 
 
 Tho he hadde hys goddys y-bete, 
 
 He was abated of alle hys hete. 
 
 To sende hys sendys nolde he najt lete, 
 
 Tho anoonryjt, 
 To Babylonye after lordes grete 
 
 To help hyni fyxt. 
 
 MS. Cott. Calig. A. ii. f. 28.
 
 44 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 To the Editor of the Times, from a Poor Man at Andovcr, 
 
 A Letter on the Union Workhouse. 
 
 Sir, — Hunger, as I've heerd say. breaks through 
 Stone Walls ; but yet I shodn't have thought of letting 
 
 you know about my ] r .Missus's death, but all my 
 
 neibours say tell it out, and it can't do you no harm 
 and may do others good, specially as Parliament is to 
 meet soon, when the I ientlefoke will be talking about the 
 working f'oke. 
 
 I be but a farmers working man, and was married to my 
 Missus 2G years agone, and have three Childern living 
 with me, one 10, another 7, and t'other 3. I be subject 
 to bad rumatiz. and never earns no more, as you may 
 judge, than to pay rent and keep our bodies and souls 
 together when we be all well. I was tended by Mr. 
 Westlake when he was Union Doctor, but when the 
 Guardians turned him out it was a bad job for all the 
 Poor, and a precious bad job for me and mine. 
 
 Mr. Payne when he come to be our Union Doctor 
 tended upon me up to almost the- end of last April, but 
 when I send up to the Union House as usual, Mr. 
 Broad, the Releving Officer, send back word there was 
 nothing for me, and Mr. Payne wodnt come no more. 
 I was too bad to work and had not Vittals for me, the 
 Missus, and the young ones, so I was forced to sell off 
 the Bed, Bedstead, and furniture of the young ones, to 
 by Vittals with, and then I and Missus and the young 
 ones had only one bed for all of us. Missus was very 
 bad. to, then, but as we knowd twere no use to ask the 
 Union for nothink cept we'd all go into the Workhouse, 
 and which Missus couldn't a bear, as she'd bin parted 
 from the childern. she sends down to tell Mr. Westlake 
 how bad we was a doing off and he comes to us directly 
 and tends upon ns out of charity, ami gives Missus 
 Mutton and things, which he said, and we know'd too 
 well, she wanted of, and he gives this out of his own 
 Pocket.
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 45 
 
 Missus complaint growd upon her and she got so very 
 bad, and Mr. Westlake says to us, I do think the 
 guardians wouldn't let your wife lay here and starve, 
 but would do something for you if they knowed how 
 bad you wanted things and so, says he, I'll give you a 
 Sertificate for some Mutton and things, and you take it 
 to Mr. Broad, the releving officer. Well I does this, 
 and he tells me that hed give it to the guardians and 
 let me know what they said. I sees him again, and 0, 
 says he, I gived that Sertificate to the Guardians, but 
 they chucked it a one side and said they wouldnt tend 
 to no such thing, nor give you nothing, not even if 
 Missus was dying, if you has anything to do with Mr. 
 Westlake, as they had turned him off. 
 
 I told my Missus this, and then says she we must try 
 to get their Union Doctor, Mr. Payne, as we can't go on 
 for ever taking things from Mr. Westlake's Pocket, 
 and he turned out of Place, and so good to many poor 
 folks besides us. So we gets Mr. Payne after a bit to 
 come down ; and he says to Missus your very bad, and 
 I shall order the Union to send you Mutton and other 
 things. Next Week Mr. Payne calls again, and asks Mis- 
 sus did she have the things he'd ordered for her to have ? 
 She says I've had a shillings worth of Mutton, Sir. 
 Why, says he, you wants other things besides Mutton, 
 and I ordered them for you in the Union Book, and you 
 ought to have them in your bad state. This goes on for 
 5 or 6 weeks, only a shillings worth of Mutton a Week 
 being allowed her, and then one Week a little Gin was 
 allowed, and after that as Missus couldnt get out of bed 
 a Woman was sent to nurse and help her. 
 
 I didnt ask Mr. Payne to order these ere things, tho' 
 bad enof God knows they was wanted ; but in the first 
 week in last November I was served with a summons to 
 tend afore our Mayor and Justices under the Vagrance 
 Act ; I think they said twas cause I had not found these 
 things for Missus myself; but the Union Doctor had 
 
 7
 
 46 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 ordered em of the ( ruardians on his sponsibility. Well, 
 I attends afore the Justices, and there was nothing 
 against me, and so they puts it oif, and orders nie to tend 
 afore em again next week, which I does, and then there 
 wasnt enof for cm to send me to Gaol, as the Guardians 
 wanted, for a Month, and they puts it off again for an- 
 other Week, and says I must come afore em again, and 
 which I does; and they tells me theres nothing proved, 
 that I could aford to pay for the things, and 1 mite go 
 about my business. 
 
 I just loses three days' work, or pretty handy, by this, 
 and that made bad a good bit worse. Next Pay Mr. 
 Payne comes again, and Missus was so outdaceous bad, 
 she says cant you give me something to do me good 
 and ease me a bit ; says Mr. Payne, I dont see you be 
 much worse. Yes, I be, says Missus, and I wish you'd be 
 so good as to let me send for Mr. Westlake, as I thinks 
 he knows what'd make me easier, and cure the bad pains 
 I do suffer. Mr. Payne abused my poor Missus, and 
 dared her to do anything of that sort, and so we were 
 feared to do it, lest I should be pulled up again afore the 
 Justices, and lose more days work and prhaps get sent 
 to Gaol. Eight days after this Mr. Payne never having 
 come nist us, and the Union having lowed us nothing 
 at all, my poor Missus dies, and dies from want, and in 
 agonies of pain, and as bad off as if shed been a Savage, 
 for she could only have died of want of them things 
 which she wanted and I couldnt buy if she'd been in a 
 foreign land, were there no Parsons and People as I've 
 heard tell be treated as bad as dogs. 
 
 Years agone, it' any body had been half so bad as my 
 Missus, and Dobody else would have tended to her there'd 
 been the clergyman of the parish, at all events, who'd 
 have prayed with her, and seen to that she didn't die 
 of starvation, but our Parson is in favor of this here 
 new Law, and as he gets 60?. a year from the (iuardians, 
 he arnt a going to quarrel with his Bread and Cheese
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 47 
 
 for the likes of we, and so lie didnt come to us. Altho' 
 he must have knowed how ill Missus was; and she, poor 
 creature, went out of this here world without any Spirit- 
 ual consilation whatsoniever from the Poor Man's Church. 
 
 We'd but one bed as I've telled you, and only one 
 Bedroom, and it was very bad to be all in the same Booni 
 and bed with poor Missus after she were dead ; and as 
 I'd no money to pay for a Coffin, I goes to Mr. Broad, 
 then to Mr. Majer, one of the Guardians, and their 
 to the overseers and axes all of 'em to find a Coffin, but 
 'twere no use, and so, not knowing what in the World 
 to do, off I goes to tell Mr. Westlake of it, and he was 
 soon down at the House, and blamed me much for not 
 letting he know afore Missus died, and finding we'd no 
 food nor fire, nothing for a shrowd cept we could 
 wash up something, and that we'd no soap to do that 
 with, he gives us something to get these ere things, and 
 tells me to go again to the Releving Officer and t'others 
 and try and get a Coffin, and to tell un Missus ought to 
 be burried as soon as possible, else t'would make us all 
 ill. This I does as afore, but get nothing, and then Mr. 
 Westlake give me an order where to get a Coffin, and if 
 he had not stood a friend to me and mine I can't think 
 what would have become of em, as twas sad at Nights 
 to see the poor little things pretty nigh break their hearts 
 when they seed their poor dead mother by their side upon 
 the Bed. 
 
 My troubles wasnt to end even here, for Strang to tell 
 the Begistrer for Deaths for this District dont live in 
 this the largest Parish with about 5000 inhabitants, but 
 at a little Village of not more then 400 People and 5 
 Miles off, so I fyad to walk there and back ten miles, 
 which is very hard upon us poor folk, and what is worse 
 when I got there the Begistrer wasnt up ; and when he 
 got up he wouldnt tend to me afore hed had his 
 breakfast and I was aforced to wait about until hed had 
 done breakfast and it seemed as 'twas a very long time
 
 48 PRO VINCI AL DIALECTS. 
 
 for a poor chap like me to be kept a waiting, whilst a 
 man who is paid foT doing what I wanted won't do such 
 little work as that afore here made hisself comfortable, 
 fcho' I tolled him how bad I wanted to get back, and 
 that I shnold loose a Day by his keeping me waiting 
 about. 
 
 That this is mostly the fault of the Guardians rather 
 than anybody else is my firm beleif tho' if Mr. Payne 
 had done his duty bed a been with Missus many times 
 afore she died and not have left her as he did, when he 
 knowed she was mi bad, and bed a made un give her 
 what she wanted; but then he must do, he says, just 
 what tht' ( i uardians wishes, and that arnt to attend much 
 on the Poor, and the Releving Officer is docked if what 
 he gives by even the Doctors orders arnt proved of by 
 the Guardians aterward, and he had to pay for the little 
 Gin the Doctor ordered out of his own Pocket, and. as 
 the Newspaper says, for the Nurse, as this was put in 
 our Paper by I'm sure I don't know who, but I believes 
 tis true, last week. 
 
 And now, Sir, I shall leave it to you to judge whether 
 the Poor can be treated any where so bad as they be in 
 the Andover Union. 
 
 HEREFORDSHIRE. 
 
 The pronoun a is used for he, she, or it. Strong 
 preterits are current, climb, cl<mil<. heave, hove, pick, 
 puck, shake, shi(c7c, squeeze, squozr>, &c. The dialect of 
 this county must be classed as belonging to the Midland 
 division. The word just is used in rather a peculiar 
 manner. Instead of saying, I have but just returned, 
 they say I returned but just. A list of Herefordshire 
 words is given in Duncumb's History of Hereford, and
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS 49 
 
 a more extended one has recently been separately pub- 
 lished, 8vo. 1839. I am indebted for many words not 
 to be found in either of these to lists given me by Sir 
 S. R. Meyrick, T. W. Lane, Esq., and Mr. Perry. 
 
 From 
 
 Maximon, 
 
 A tale in a manuscript written in Herefordshire of the time of Edward II. 
 
 Herkne to my ron, 
 As ich ou telle con, 
 
 Of elde al hou yt gos, 
 Of a mody mon, 
 Hibte Maxumon, 
 
 Soth withoute les. 
 Clerc he was ful god, 
 So moni mon understod. 
 
 Nou herkne hou it wes. 
 
 Ys wille he hevede y-noh, 
 Purpre and pal he droh, 
 
 Ant other murthes mo. 
 He wes the feyrest mon, 
 With-outeu Absolon, 
 
 That seththe wes ant tho. 
 Tho laste is lyf so longe, 
 That he bigan unstronge, 
 
 As mony tides so. 
 Him con rewe sore 
 Al is wilde lore, 
 
 For elde him dude so wo ; 
 
 So sone as elde him com 
 Ys boc and honde he nom, 
 
 Ant gan of reuthes rede, 
 Of his herte ord 
 He made moni word, 
 
 Ant of is lyves dede.
 
 50 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 He gan mene is mone ; 
 So feble were is bone, 
 
 STs hew bigon to \ve<le, 
 So elene be was y-gon 3 
 Thai lieu ne bade be non : 
 
 Ys berte gan to blcde. 
 
 Cave and kunde of elde 
 Maketb mi body felde, 
 
 That y ne niai stonde upriht; 
 Ant min berte unbolde, 
 Ant mi body to coble. 
 
 That er thou wes so lybt. 
 Ant mi body thunne, 
 Such is worldes wunne, 
 
 This day me tbinketh nybt. 
 
 MS. Harl. 2253, f. 82. 
 
 From an English translation of 
 
 Macer de Virtutibus Herbarum, 
 
 Made by John Lelamour, scolemaister of Herforde, 1373. 
 
 Mowsere growith lowe by the grownde, and berith a 
 yellowe floure. Drinke the juis with wyne other ale, and 
 anoynte the reynes and the bak with the blode of a fox, 
 for the stone. Also stampe him and mylfoly togadyr, 
 and drinke that juis with white wyne, and that wille 
 make one to pisse. Also drinke the juis with stale ale, 
 a seke man that is woundid, and yf be bolditbe that 
 drinke he shalle lyfc, and yf he caste hit he shall dye. 
 Also drinke the juis of this erbe for the squy nancy. 
 
 MS. Sloane 5, f 35. 
 
 HUNTINGDONSHIRE. 
 
 There seem to be no peculiarities of dialect here which 
 arc not common to the adjoining county of Cambridge-
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. . 51 
 
 shire. They say mort for a quantity ; a mort of people, a 
 mort of rain. To-year for this year, like to-day or to-mor- 
 row. Wonderful for very; his pain were wonderful great. 
 To get himself ready , for to dress himself; he is too weak 
 to get himself ready. If a disorder or illness of any 
 kind be inquired for they never say it is better or worse, 
 but ^ai'sbetter, or that's worse, with an emphasis on that. 
 The Rev. Joseph Horner kindly favoured me with a 
 list of the few provincial words which may be pecu- 
 liar to this county. 
 
 ISLE OF WIGHT. 
 
 The dialect of the native inhabitants of this island 
 differs in many respects from the county to which it is 
 opposite. The accent is rather mincing than broad, and 
 has little of the vulgar character of the West Country 
 dialects. The tendency to insert y in the middle of 
 words may be remarked, and the substitution of v for f 
 is not uncommon among the peasantry, but by no means 
 general. The pronunciation may generally be correctly 
 represented by the duplication of the vowels. 
 
 No printed glossary of Isle of Wight provincialisms 
 has yet appeared, but a very valuable one in manuscript, 
 compiled by Captain Henry Smith, was most kindly 
 placed at my disposal by his relative, Charles Roach 
 Smith, Esq., F. S. A. Useful communications have also 
 been received from E. J. Vernon, Esq., Dr. Broomfield, 
 and Dr. Salter.
 
 52 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 Specimen op the Isle of Wight dialect. 
 
 Jan. What's got there you? 
 Will. A hlustnashun straddlebob craalun about in the 
 
 nainmut bag. 
 Jan. Straddlebob ! Where ded'st leyarn to caal'n by 
 
 that oeyam ? 
 Will. Why, what shoud e caal'n ? tcs the right neyam 
 
 csn ut? 
 Jan. Right neyam, no ! why ye gurt zote vool, casn't 
 
 zee tes a Dumbledore ? 
 Will. I knows tes, but vur aal that Straddlebob's zo 
 
 right a neyam vorn as Dumbledore ez. 
 Jan. Come, I'll be deyand if I doant laay thee a quart 
 
 o' that. 
 Will. Done ! and I'll ax meyastur to night when I goos 
 whooam, bee't how't wool. 
 (Accordingly meyastur was applied to by Will, 
 who made his decision known to Jan the 
 next morning.) 
 Will. I zay, Jan ! I axed meyastur about that are last 
 
 night. 
 Jan. Well ! what ded 'ur zay? 
 
 117//. Why a zed one neyam ez jest zo vittun vorn as 
 tothcr, and he louz a ben caaled Straddlebob 
 ever zunce the island was vust meyad. 
 Jan. The devvul a hav ! if that's the keeas I spooas I 
 
 lost the quart. 
 Will. That thee has't lucky ! and we'll goo down to 
 Arverton to the Red Lion and drink un ater 
 we done work. 
 
 KENT. 
 
 The modern Kentish dialect is slightly broad, indeed 
 more SO than that of Surrey or Sussex. Dai//, plaiy,
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 53 
 
 war?/, for day, play, way, &c. They say toho for how, 
 and vice versa. Mate, instead of boy or lad, is the usual 
 address amongst equals. The interchange of v and w is 
 common here as well as in the metropolis. As in most 
 parts of England, the pronunciation of names of places 
 differs very much from the orthography, e. g. Sunnuck 
 for Sevenoaks, Dairn for Darenth, Leusum for Lewis- 
 ham, &c. No glossary of Kentish words has yet been 
 published, unless we may so style a short list of words 
 in Lewis's History and Antiquities of the Isle of Tenet, 
 1736, pp. 35-39, but I have received valuable commu- 
 nications from the Rev. M. H. Lloyd, John Brent, Esq., 
 the Rev. Thomas Streatfeild, the Rev. L. B. Larking, 
 John Pemberton Bartlett, Esq., the Rev. Dr. Hussy. 
 Thomas Wright, Esq., Miss Cotterell, J. R. Hughes, 
 Esq., and A. J. Hunkin, Esq. An early song in this 
 dialect occurs in Raveuscroft's Melismata, 1611. 
 
 We have a most curious specimen of the Kentish 
 dialect of the fourteenth century (1340) in the Ayenhyte 
 of Inwyt, a manuscript in the Arundel Collection. An 
 extract from it will be found at p. 801, and another is 
 here given. The change of/ into v, and s into z, are 
 now generally peculiar to the West Country dialect, but 
 appear at this early period to have extended over the 
 South of England. In the next century, the broadness 
 of the dialect was not so general. At least, a poem of 
 the fifteenth century, in a manuscript at Oxford, written 
 in Kent, is remarkably pure, although the author excuses 
 himself for his language : 
 8
 
 54 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 And though myn English be sympill to myn entent, 
 Hold luc excusid, for I was burne in Kent. 
 
 MS. Laud. 416, f. 49. 
 
 The principal peculiarity in this manuscript seems to 
 consist in e being the prefix to the verb instead of /or//. 
 For a long period, however, the dialect of the Kentish 
 peasantry was strongly marked. In a rare tract entitled, 
 How the Plowman lerned his Paternoster, a character is 
 thus mentioned : 
 
 He was patched, tome, and all to-rente : 
 It semed by his langage that he was borne in Kente. 
 
 Reliquiae Antiquse, vol. i, p. 40. 
 
 The following very curious passage from Caxton will 
 further illustrate this fact : 
 
 And certayrily our langage now used varyeth ferre 
 from that whiche was used and spoken whan I was 
 borne, for we Englysshemen ben borne under the 
 domynacyon of the mone, whiche is never stedfaste, but 
 ever waverynge, wexynge one season, and waneth 
 and dyscreaseth another season ; and that comyn Eng- 
 lysshe that is spoken in one shyre varyeth from ano- 
 ther, insomoche that in mydayes happened that certayn 
 marchauntes were in a shippe in Tamyse for to have 
 sayled over the sec into Zelande, and for laeke of wynde, 
 thei taryed atte Forlond, and wente to lande for to 
 refreshe them. And one of theym, named Sheffelde, a 
 mercer, cam into an hows and axed for mete, and specy- 
 ally lie axyd after eggys ; and the goode wyf answerde 
 that she coude speke no Frenshe. and the niarchaunt 
 was angry for he also coude speke no Frenshe, but wolde 
 have hadde egges and she understode hym not; and 
 thenne at laste another sayd that he wolde have eyren.
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 55 
 
 Then the good wyf said that she understod hym wel- 
 Loo, what sholde a man in thyse dayes now wryte egges 
 or eyren ! Certaynly it is harde to playse every man, 
 bycause of dyversite and chaunge of langage. 
 
 Gaxton's Eneydos, 1490. 
 
 Extract from the Ayenbyte of Inwyt, MS. 
 Arundel 57, ff. 86-87. 
 
 Me ret ine lives of holy vaderes thet an holy man 
 tealde hou he com to by monek, and zede hou thet he 
 hedde y-by ane payenes zone, thet wes a prest to the 
 momenettes. And tho he wes a child on time he yede 
 into the temple mid his vader priveliehe : ther he yzcg 
 ane gratne dyevel thet zet ope ane vyealdinde stole, and 
 al his rnayne aboute him- , Ther com on of the princes, 
 and leat to him ; tho he him aksede the ilke thet zet ine 
 the stole huannes he com, and he ansuerede thet he com 
 vram ane londe huer he hedde arered and y-mad manye 
 werren and manye vigtinges, zuo thet moche volk weren 
 y-sslage and moche blod ther y-ssed. The mayster him 
 acsede ine hon moche time he hette thet y-do, and he 
 ansuerede ine thritti dages. He him zede, Ine zuo 
 moche time hest zuo lite y-do ? Tho he het thet ha wer 
 rigt wel y-beate, and evele y-drage, Efter than com an 
 other thet alsuo to him leat ase the verste. The mayster 
 him acsede huanues ha com. He ansuerede thet he com 
 vram the ze huer he hedde y-mad manye tempestes, vele 
 ssipes to-broke, and moche volk adreyct. The maister 
 acsede ine hou long time. He ansuerede ine tuenti 
 dages. He zayde, ine zuo moche time hest zuo lite y-do ? 
 Efterward com the thridde, thet ansuerede thet he com 
 vra mane cite huer he hedde y-by at ane bredale, and ther 
 he hedde arered and y-mad cheastes and striff, zuo thet 
 moche volk ther were y-slage and ther-to he hedde y- 
 slage thane hosebounde. The maister him acsede hou 
 long time he zette thet vor to done. He ansuerede thet
 
 56 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 ine ten dages. Tho he het thet he were wel y-byate vor 
 thet he heckle zuo alonge abide thet to done without 
 more. Ate lasten come another to-vore the prince, and 
 to him he beag ; and he him acsede, huannes comst 
 thou ? He ansuerede thet he com vram the ermitage 
 huer lie heddc y-by vuurti yer vor to vondi ane monek of 
 lornicacion, thet is the zenne of lecherie, and zuo moche 
 ich habbe y-do thet ine thise nygt ich bine habbe over- 
 come, and y-do him valle into the zenne. Tho lhip op 
 the mayster, and him keste and beclepte, and dede the 
 coroune ope his heved, an dede him zitte bezide him, 
 and to him zede thet he hedde grat thing y-do and grat 
 prowesse. Tho zayde the guode man thet huanne he 
 hedde thet y-hyerd and thet y-zoge, thet he thogte thet 
 hit were grat thing to by monek, and be tho encheysoun 
 he becom monek. 
 
 Extract from MS. Laud. 416, written by a na- 
 tive of Kent about 1460. 
 
 Also use not to pley at the dice ne at the tablis, 
 
 Ne none maner gainys uppon the holidais; 
 
 Use no tavernys where be jestis and fablis, 
 
 Syngyng of lewde balettes, rondelettes, or virolais ; 
 
 2s ( ir erly in mornyng to fecche home fresch mais, 
 
 For yt makyth maydins to stomble and falle in the breirs, 
 
 And afterward they telle her councele to the freirs. 
 
 Now y-wis yt were wele done to know 
 
 The dyfference bytwene a damselle and a maide, 
 
 For alle bene lyke whan they stond in a row; 
 
 But 1 wylle telle what experience said, 
 
 And in what wyse they be entyrid and araied j 
 
 Maydyns were callis of silk and of thred, 
 
 And damscllis kerchevis pynnid uppon ther hed. 
 
 Wyffis may not to chirch tille they be entyred, 
 Ebridyllid and paytrellid, to shew her aray, 
 And fetyd alle abowte as an hacony to be hyred ;
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 57 
 
 Than she lokyth aboute her if eny be so gay ; 
 And oon thyng I comend, which is most to my pay, 
 Ther kerchef hanggyth so low, that no man can a-spye, 
 To loke undirnethe oons to shrew her eie. 
 
 Janeglyng in chirche among hem is not usid, 
 To telle alle her howswyfry of the weke byfore ; 
 And also her husbondis shalle not be accusid, 
 Now crokyd and crabbed they bene ever more ; 
 And suche thyngges lo ! they can kepe no store, 
 They bene as close and covert as the horn of Gabriellc, 
 That wylle not be herd but from hevyn to belle. 
 
 From Dick and Sal, a modern Poem in the Kent- 
 ish Dialect. 
 
 Ya see, when Middlemas come roun, 
 
 I thought dat Sal and I 
 Ud go to Canterbury town, 
 
 To see what we cud buy. 
 
 Fer when I liv'd at Challock Leys, 
 
 Our Secont-man had been : 
 An wonce, when we was carrin peas, 
 
 He told me what he'd sin. 
 
 He said dare was a teejus fair, 
 
 Dat lasted for a wick ; 
 An all de ploughmen dat went dare, 
 
 Must car dair shining stick. 
 
 And how dat dare was nable rigs. 
 
 An Merriander's jokes; 
 Snuff-boxes, shows, and whirligigs, 
 
 An houged sights a folks. 
 
 But what queer'd me, he sed 'twas kep 
 
 All roun about the church ; 
 An how dey had him up de steps, 
 
 And left him in de lurch.
 
 58 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 At last he got into de street, 
 An den lie lost his road ; 
 
 An Dot an he come to a gate, 
 Where all de Boadgers stood. 
 
 Den she keteht fast hold av his han, 
 For she was rather scar'd ; 
 
 Tom sed, when fust he see 'em stan, 
 He thought she'd be a-fared. 
 
 *e* 
 
 LANCASHIRE. 
 
 The dialect of Lancashire is principally known by 
 Collier's Dialogue, published under the name of Tim 
 Bobbin. A glossary of the fifteenth century, written 
 in Lancashire, is preserved in 31S. Lansd. 560, f. 
 45. A letter in the Lancashire dialect occurs in Braith- 
 waite's Two Lancashire Lovers, 1640, and other early 
 specimens are given in Haywood's Late Lancashire 
 Witches, 4to. ] 634, and Shadwell's Lancashire Witches, 
 4to. 1682. The glossary at the end of Tim Bobbin is 
 imperfect as a collection for the county, and I have been 
 chiefly indebted for Lancashire words to my father, 
 Thomas Halliwell, Esq. Brief notes have also been re- 
 ceived from the Rev. L. Jones, George Smeeton, Esq., 
 the Rev. Dr. Hume, G. R. Spencer, Esq., and Mr. R. 
 Proctor. The features of the dialect will be seen from 
 the following specimens ; o and on are changed into «, ea 
 into o, al into au, g into k, long o into oi, and </ final 
 into t. The Saxon termination en is retained, but gen- 
 erally mute.
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 59 
 
 Extract from Tim Bobbin's Dialogue between 
 tummus and meary. 
 
 M. Odds fish ! boh that wur breve. I wou'd I'd bin 
 eb yore Kele. 
 
 T. Whau wbau, bob tbeawst hear. It wur o dree 
 wey too-to ; beawe'er I geet tbere be suse o'clock, on 
 before eb opp'nt dur, I covert Nip with th' cleawt, ot eh 
 droy meh nese web, t'let him see heaw I stoart ber. 
 Then I opp'nt dur; on wbot te dule dust think, boh 
 three little tyney Bandyhewits cooni weaughing os if th' 
 little ewals wou'd o worrit me, on after that swallut me 
 whick : Boh presontly tbere coom o fine wummon ; on I 
 took ber for a boo justice, boor so meety fine : For I 
 heard Ruchott o' Jack's tell mehmeastor, that boo jus- 
 tices awlus did th' mooast o'th' wark : Heawe'er, I axt 
 bur if Mr. Justice wur o whoam; hoo cou'd naw opp'n 
 hur meawth t'sey eigh, or now ; boh simpurt on sed iss 
 (tbe dickkons iss hur on him too)— Sed I, I wuddid'n tell 
 him I'd fene speyk to him. 
 
 A Letter printed and distributed in the Proces- 
 sion THAT WAS FORMED AT MANCHESTER IN 'COM- 
 MEMORATION of Free Trade. 
 
 Bury, July 15th, 1846. 
 
 To Me Lawrd Jhon Russell, — Well, me Lawrd, 
 yoan gett'n ut last up to th' top o' th' ladthur, un th' 
 heemust stave asnt brokk'n wi yo this time us it did afore. 
 Wayst see i' t'neaw wethur yo kun keep yur stonniu ur 
 not ; awm rayther fyert ut yoan find it slippy un noan 
 safe footin ; but, heawsumevvur, thirs nawt like thryin. 
 
 But wot'r yo fur dooin ? Yo seemn to think ut o vast 
 dyelo things wants mendin, un yo tbinkn reet, for they 
 dun : — but kon yo man nidge um ? Yur fust job '11 be 
 a twoff un ; un tho it'll be o sweet subjek, it'll ha sum
 
 60 PKOVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 seawr stuff obeawt it. But scawr ur not yo mun stick 
 like breek, un not let that can tin, lcawsy stuff obeawt 
 " slave-groon un free-groon " stop yo. Bless me life 
 mon ! its anoof to gie won th' bally wratch to yer o 
 set o gawnblins uts beyyin, un spinnin, un weyvin, un 
 warm slave-groon kottn eitch day o thir lives, tawk 
 obeawt thir konshunsus nor lettin urn sweetn thir faybry 
 pie fur th' chilthur wi o bit o slave-groon shugur. It's 
 oa humbug, me Lawrd, un tell um aw say so. Stick yo 
 fast to the skame o' having oa th' dewties olike : but yo 
 may slip eawt thoos twothrey yer ut yore fur keepin up 
 o differunce, us soon us ynn o mind. We kun spare om 
 wen wer bizzy. 
 
 Sum o yur skames ur weel onoof ; but th' main thing 
 '11 be for yo to ta care to spend us little brass us yo kon, 
 un giv us o gud thrade. 
 
 Yoan lettn Sur Robbut (yoa knoan he's a Berry muff 
 un we're sharp chaps) — aw say yoan lettn Sur Robbut 
 get howd o yur tools and wurtch wi um wonst, wi not 
 beein sharp onooff. He made o gud hondlin on um, too 
 uns gettn t'wajus for his wark, tko' t'skame wur yoars, 
 un iv yo dunnut mind he'll do t'same ogen. He'll let 
 yo get th' patthurns reddy, and make t'kestins, un 
 t'bowts, un t'skrews un sitchn : but he'll put t'mosheen 
 together, un dray th' wage ut th' Sethurde neet, iv yo 
 annut yur een obeawt yo. 
 
 Dunnot be fyert, mon, but rap eawt wi awt uts reet, 
 un us Berry fokc '11 elp yo us ard as we kon. Wayn 
 helpt Kobdin un wayn elp yo, if yoan set obeawt yur 
 wark gradely. 
 
 Wayre havvin o greyt stur to day beer for us wurtchin 
 foke, un wayre to have doance o Munday neet. Aw 
 nobbut wush ut yo k'd kum deawn un see us — yoad see 
 sitch o seet un yer sitch sheawtin yoa ne'er seed nur i 
 yor life. They konnut sheawt i Lunnon — its nobbot 
 gradely butthermilk un porritoh Lankeshur lads ut kun 
 sheawt wot koin sheawtin.
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 61 
 
 But yo man ne'er heed, Lawrd John. Punnos be 
 fyert, us aw sed ofore, but ston up for wots reet, un iv 
 t' parlyment winnit let yo ha yer oan rode, kum eawt, un 
 let t' gangway kawves thry how thay kun seawk t' pub- 
 lic pap. 
 
 Awm noan yust to ritin, un aw feel tyert, so aw mun 
 lyev awt moor ut aw av to say tell me honst's restut itsel. 
 So aw remain, me Lawrd, 
 
 Yours for evvnr, 
 
 Bury Muff. 
 
 A Lancashire Ballad. 
 
 Now, aw me gud gentles, an yau won tarry, 
 He tel how Gilbert Scott soudn's mare Berry. 
 He soudn's mare Berry at Warikin fair; 
 When heel be pade, hee knows not, ere or nere. 
 Soon as hee coom whoom, an toud his wife Grace, 
 Hon up wi th' kippo, an swat him ore th' face ; 
 Hoo pickdt him oth' hilloc, wi sick a thwack, 
 That hoo had whel ni a brokken his back. 
 Thou hooer, quo hee, wo't but lemme rise, 
 He gi thee auth' leet, wench, that imme lies. 
 Thou udgit, quo hoo, but wher dus hee dwel ? 
 Belakin, quo hee, but I connan tel. 
 I tuck him to be sum gud greslmon's son ; 
 He spent too pense on mee when hee had doon. 
 He gin mee a lunch'n o denty snig py, 
 An shaukdt mee bith' haundt most lovingly. 
 Then Grace, hoo prompdt bur, so neeat an so fine. 
 To War'kiu hoo went, o Wensday betime. 
 An theer too, hoo stade ful five markit days, 
 Til th' mon, wi th' mare, were coom to Raunley Shaw's. 
 As Grace was restin won day in hur rowm, 
 Hoo spydt th' mon a ridin o th' mare down the town. 
 Bounce gus hur hart, an hoo wer so glopen 
 That out o th' windo hoo'd like fort lopen. 
 9
 
 C2 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 Hoo staumpdt, an hoo star'dt, an down stairs hoo run, 
 
 Wi' th' hat under th' arm. an windt welly gon. 
 
 Hur bed-gear flew off. an so did hur snowd, 
 
 Hoo staumpdt, an hoo star'dt. as an hoo'd been wood. 
 
 To Raunley's hoo hy'd, an hoo hove up th' latch, 
 
 Afore th' nmii had teed th' mare welly too th' cratch. 
 
 Mc gud inoii. quo hoo. frend, hoc -rods yau merry. 
 
 An desires yau'd send him money for Berry. 
 
 Ay. money, quo hee, that ! connan spare : 
 
 Belakin, quo hoo, hut then He ha th' mare. 
 
 Hoo poodt. an hoo thromperdt him. shaum't be seen ; 
 
 Thou hangmon, quo hoo, He poo out thin een : 
 
 lie mak thee azompan, haud thee a groat 
 
 He oth'r ha' th' money, or poo out the throat ; 
 
 'Tween them they made such a wearison din, 
 
 That for t' intreat them. Raunly Shaw coom in, 
 
 Coom. fy, I'y. naunt (irace, coom, i'y. an a doon; 
 
 What, deel, ar yau monkeen, or ar yau woon ? 
 
 Belakin, quo hee, yau lane so hard on — 
 
 I think now that th' woman has quite spoildt th' mon. 
 
 Coom, fy, i'y. naunt Grace, coom, I'y. an a doon ; 
 
 Yaust ha' th' mare, or th' money, whether yau won. 
 
 So Grace got th' money, an whoomwardt hoo's gon, 
 
 Hoo keeps it aw, an gees Gilbert Scott non. 
 
 LEICESTERSHIRE. . 
 
 The dialect of this county has been entirely neglected, 
 with the exception of a few brief remarks in Macaulay's 
 History of Olaybrook, 1791 ; hut it deserves a careful 
 study. A valuable glossary of Leicestershire words was 
 given me by Mr. John (iibson, but too late to be used in 
 the early part of the work. 
 
 The dialect of the common people, though broad, is
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 63 
 
 sufficiently plain and intelligible. They have a strong 
 propensity to aspirate their words ; the letter h comes in 
 almost on every occasion where it ought not, and is as 
 frequently omitted where it ought to come in. The 
 words fine, mine, and such like, are pronounced as if 
 they were spelt foine, moine ; place, face, &c. as if they 
 were spelt pleace, feace', and in the plural sometimes 
 you hear pleacen ; closen for closes ; and many other 
 words in the same style of Saxon termination. The 
 words there and where are generally pronounced thus, 
 tin err, wheere; the words mercy, deserve, cY.c. thus marry, 
 desarve. The following peculiarities of pronunciation 
 are likewise observable : uz, strongly aspirated, for us, 
 war for was, meed for maid, faiiher for father, e'ery for 
 every, brig for bridge, thurrough for furrow, hawf for 
 half, c&vt-rit for rut, malefactory, for manufactory inac- 
 tions for anxious. 
 
 JIacaulay's Claybrook, 1791, pp. 128-9. 
 
 LINCOLNSHIRE. 
 
 The river With am may be considered with tolerable 
 accuracy the boundary line between the Northern and 
 Southern dialects of the county, which differ consider- 
 ably from each other ; the former being more nearly al- 
 lied to that of Yorkshire, the latter to the speech of 
 East Anglia, but neither are nearly so broad as the more 
 Northern dialects. Many singular phrases are in use. 
 They say, Very not well, I used to could, You shouldn't 
 have ought, &c. The Lincolnshire words were partially 
 collected by Skinner in the seventeenth century, but no 
 regular glossary has yet appeared. This deficiency,, 
 however, as- far as the present work is concerned, has
 
 64 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 been amply supplied by as many as nineteen long com- 
 munications, eacb forming- a small glossary by itself, and 
 of peculiar value, from tbe Rev. James Adcock of Lin- 
 coln, to whom 1 beg to return my best acknowledg- 
 ments. I have also to acknowledge assistance from Sir 
 E. F. Bromhead, Bart., tbe Rev. Dr. Oliver, Robert 
 Goodacre, Esq., T. R. Jackson, Esq., Mr. E. Johnson, 
 and papers kindly inserted at my suggestion in the Lin- 
 coln Standard. 
 
 Extract from MS. Digby 86, written in Lincoln- 
 shire, temp. Edw. I. 
 
 Nigtingale, thou havest wrong, 
 Wolt thou me senden of this lond, 
 
 For ich holde with the rigtte; 
 I take witnesse of sire Wawain, 
 That Jhesu Crist jaf migt and main, 
 
 And strengthe for to figtte. 
 
 So wide so he hevede i-gon, 
 Trewe ne founde he nevere non 
 
 Bi daye ne bi nijtte. 
 Fowel, for thi false mouth, 
 Thi sawe shal ben wide couth, 
 
 I rede the fie with mijtte. 
 
 Ich habbe leve to ben here, 
 In orchard and in erbere, 
 
 Mine songes for to singe ; 
 Herdi nevere bi no levedi, 
 Bote hendinese and curteysi, 
 
 And joye hy gunnen me bringe. 
 
 Of muchele murthc hy telleth me, 
 Fere, also I telle the, 
 
 IJy liveth in louginginge.
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 65 
 
 Fowel, thou sitest on hasel bou, 
 Thou lastest hem, thou havest wou, 
 Thi word shal wide springe. 
 
 Hit springeth wide, wel ich wot, 
 Hou tel hit him that hit not, 
 
 This sawes ue beth nout newe ; 
 Fowel, herkne to mi sawe, 
 Ich wile the telle of here lawe, 
 
 Thou ne kepest nout hem, I knowe. 
 
 Thenk on Constantines quene, 
 Foul wel hire semede fow and grene, 
 
 Hou sore hit son hire rewe : 
 Hoe fedde a crupel in hire hour, 
 And helede him with covertour, 
 
 Loke war wimmen ben trewe. Reliq. Antiq. 
 
 From 
 
 " Neddy and Sally ; a Lincolnshire Tale," 
 
 By John Brown, 12mo. n. d. 
 
 Cum, Sail, its time we started now, 
 Yon's Farmer Haycock's lasses ready, 
 
 And maister says he'll feed the cow, 
 He didn't say so, — did he Neddy ? 
 
 Yees, that he did, so make thee haste, 
 And git the sen made smart and pretty, 
 
 We yaller ribbon round the waist 
 
 The same as oud Squire Lowden's Kitty. 
 
 And I'll go fetch my sister Bess, 
 I'm sartin sure she's up and ready, 
 
 Come gie's a bus, thou can't do less, 
 Says Sally, No, thou musn't, Neddy.
 
 66 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 See, yonder's Besa a cummin cross 
 The fields, we lots o' lads and lasses, 
 
 All haim be haini. and brother doss 
 A shouting to the folks as passes. 
 
 Odds dickens. Sail, we'll hev a spree, 
 Me heart's as light as ony leather, 
 There's nol a chap dost russel me, 
 
 Not all the town's chaps put together. 
 
 MIDDLESEX. 
 
 The metropolitan county presents little in its dialect 
 worthy of remark, being for the most part merely a coarse 
 pronunciation of London slang and vulgarity. The lan- 
 guage of the lower orders of the metropolis is pictured 
 very faithfully in the works of Mr. Dickens. The in- 
 terchange of v and w is a leading characteristic. Some 
 of the old cant words mixed with numerous ones of late 
 formation, are to be traced in the Loudon slang. 
 
 *> 
 
 The Thimble Rig. 
 
 "Now, then, my jolly sportsmen! I've got more 
 money than the parson of the parish. Those as don't 
 play can't vin, and those as are here harnt there ! I'd 
 hold any on you, from a tanner to a sovereign, or ten, 
 as you don't tell which thimble the pea is under." " It's 
 there, sir." " 1 ban tellings." " I'll go it again." 
 " Vat you don't see don't look at, and vat you do see 
 don't tell. Ill hould you a soveren, sir, you don't tell 
 me vitch thimble the pea is under." " Lay him, sir, 
 (in a whisper); it's under the middle'un. I'll go you
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 67 
 
 halves." " Lay him another ; that's right." " I'm 
 blow'd but we've lost; who'd a thought it?" Smack 
 goes the flat's hat over his eyes ; exit the confederates 
 with a loud laugh. 
 
 NORFOLK. 
 
 " The most general and pervading characteristic of 
 our pronunciation," observes Mr. Forby, " is a narrow- 
 ness and tenuity, precisely the reverse of the round, 
 sonorous, mouth-filling tones of Northern English. The 
 broad and open sounds of vowels, the rich and full tones 
 of diphthongs, are generally thus reduced." The same 
 writer enters very minutely into the subject of the pecu- 
 liarities of this dialect, and his glossary of East Anglian 
 words, 2 vols. 8vo. 1830, is the most complete publica- 
 tion of the kind. A brief list of Norfolk words is given 
 in Brown's Certain Miscellany Tracts, 8vo. 1684, p. 146. 
 A glossary of the provincialisms of the same county 
 occurs in Marshall's Rural Economy of Norfolk, 1787, 
 and Observations on the Dialect in Erratics by a Sailor, 
 1809. In addition to these, I have had the advantage 
 of using communications from the Rev. George Mun- 
 ford, the Very Rev. F. C. Husenbeth, Mrs. Robins, and 
 Goddard Johnson, Esq. 
 
 A vocabulary of the fifteenth century written in Nor- 
 folk, is preserved in MS. Add it. 12,195, but the Prompt- 
 orium Parvulorum is a much more valuable and exten- 
 sive repository of early Norfolk words. A manuscript 
 of Capgrave's Life of St. Katherine in the Bodleian 
 Library, 'MS. Rawl. Poet, 118, was written in this
 
 08 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 county. It would appear from the following passage 
 that Norfolk was, in early times, one of the least 
 refined parts of the island : 
 
 I wende riflynge Tore restitucion, quod he, 
 
 For I lerncd nevere rede on boke ; 
 
 And I kan no Frensshe, in feith, 
 
 But of the fertheste ende of Northfolk. 
 
 Piers Ploughman, ed. Wright, p. 91. 
 
 Old Measures of Weight. 
 
 From MS. Cotton, Claudius E. viii. fol. 8, of the fourteenth century, written at 
 
 Norwich. 
 
 Sex waxpunde makiet .j. ledpound. .xij. ledpunde .j. 
 fotmel. .xxiiij. fotmel .j. fothir of Bristouwe, ys haved 
 .cc. and .xxviij 1 '. wexpound. 
 
 Sex waxpunde makiet .j leedpound. .xviij. leedpund 
 .j. leed bole, .xviij. leed boles, .j. fothir of the North- 
 leondes, ys haat .xc. and .xiiij. leed punde, that beeth 
 .xix. hundryd and foure and fourti wexpunde, and ys 
 
 avet more bi six and leed punde, that beeth to 
 
 hundred and sextene wexpunde. 
 
 Sevene waxpund makiet onleve ponde one waye, twelf 
 we}"en on fothir, this aveit two thousand and .ix. score 
 and foure wexpund, that beeth thre hundryd and twelf've 
 leedpound, this his more than that of the Norethlandbe 
 foure and thritti more of leedpoundcs, that beeth foure 
 and twenti lasse. 
 
 Norfolk Degrees of Comparison. 
 
 Positive. Comparative. Superlative. 
 
 Little . . Less .... Least 
 
 Lesser . . . Lessest 
 
 Lesserer . . . Lessercst. 
 
 Lesserer still . Lessest of all. 
 
 Littler .... Littlest. 
 
 Tiny . Tinier . . . Tiniest. 
 
 Titty . . Tittier .... Tittiest
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 69 
 
 NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 A midland dialect, less broad and not so similiar to 
 the Northern as Warwickshire. I have to acknowledge 
 communications on the dialect of this county from the 
 Rev. J. B. P. Dennis, and Charles Young, Esq. 
 
 NORTHUMBERLAND. 
 
 Northumberland has a dialect the most broad of all 
 the English counties, nearly approaching the Scotch, the 
 broadest of all English dialects. The Scottish bur is 
 heard in this county and in the North of Durham. A 
 large number of specimens of the dialect have been pub- 
 lished, and the provincial words have been collected by 
 Mr. Brockett, but no extensive glossary of words pecu- 
 liar to the county has been published separately. A 
 short list, however, is given in Ray's English Words, ed. 
 1691 ; and others, recently collected, were sent me by 
 George B. Richardson, Esq. and the Rev. R. Douglas. 
 An early specimen of the Northumberland dialect occurs 
 in Bullein's Dialogue, 1564, reprinted in Waldron's 
 notes to the Sad, Shepherd, p. 187. 
 
 NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. 
 
 Formerly belonged in dialect to the Northern division, 
 but may now, I believe, be included in the Midland. 
 I speak, however, with uncertainty, no work on the 
 Nottinghamshire dialect having yet appeared. 
 10
 
 70 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 From a Treatise ox tiik Fistula in axo, by John 
 Arderne. of Newark. 
 
 Johan Arderne fro the first pestelence that was in 
 the yere of our Lord 1349, duelled in Newerke in Not- 
 inghamschire unto the yere of our Lorde 1370, and ther 
 I heled many men of fistula in ano ; of which the first 
 was Sir Adam Everyngham of Lax ton in the Clay byside 
 Tnkkesfordj whiche Sir Adam for sothe was in (lascone 
 with Sir Henry that tyme named herle of Derby, and 
 after was made Duke of Laneastre, a noble and worthy 
 lord. The forsaid Sir Adam forsoth sufferend fistulam 
 in ano, made for to aske counsell at alle the lecdicz and 
 corurgienz that he myght fynd in Gascone, at Burdeux, 
 at Briggerac, Tolows, and Neyybon, and Peyters, and 
 many other placez, and alle forsoke hym for uncurable; 
 whiche y-se and y-herde, the forsaid Adam hastied for 
 to torne home to his contree, and when he come home 
 he did of al his knyghtly clothings, and cladde mourn- 
 yng clothes in purpose of abydyng dissolvyng or lesyng 
 of his body beyng nyg to hym. At the laste I forsaid 
 Johan Arderne y-sogt and covenant y-made, come to 
 hyine and did my cure to hym, and. our Lorde beyng 
 mene, I heled hyme perfitely within halfe a yere, and 
 afterward hole and sound he ledde a glad life 30 yere 
 and more. For whiche cure I gate myche honour and 
 lovyng thurg alle Ynglond ; and the forsaid Duke of 
 Laneastre and many other gentilez wondred thereof. 
 Afte[r]ward I cured Hugon Derlyng of Fowick of Dalne 
 by Snaythe. Afterward I cured Johan Schefeld of 
 Rightwelle aside Tekille. 
 
 MS. Shane. 5G3, f. 124.
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 71 
 
 OXFORDSHIRE. 
 
 The provincial speech of this county has none of the 
 marked features of the Western dialect, although many 
 of the Gloucestershire and Wiltshire words are in use. 
 The Oxfordshire dialect may he descrihed as rather 
 broad, and at the same time sharp, with a tendency to 
 contraction. Us is used instead of 7, as in some other 
 counties. There are not a large number of words quite 
 peculiar to the county, and no glossary has yet been 
 published. Kennett has preserved many now obsolete, 
 and I am indebted for several to Mr. A. Chapman, and 
 Francis Francillon, Esq. In the sixteenth century, the 
 Oxfordshire dialect was broad Western. In Scogin's 
 Jests, we have an Oxfordshire rustic introduced, saying 
 ich for I, dis for this, vay for fay, chill for I will, vor 
 for for, &c. 
 
 RUTLANDSHIRE. 
 
 The dialect of Rutlandshire possesses few, if any, 
 features not to be found in the adjoining counties. It 
 would appear to be most similiar to that of Leicester- 
 shire, judging from a communication on the subject from 
 the Rev. A. S. Atcheson. 
 
 SHROPSHIRE. 
 
 In the modern dialect of this county, a is frequently 
 changed into o or e ; c into q, co into qu ; d final is often 
 suppressed or commuted into t in the present tense ; e
 
 72 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 is sometimes lengthened at the commencement of a word, 
 as eend, end, and it is frequently changed into a ; g is 
 often omitted before h ; the h is almost invariably 
 wrongly used, omitted where it should be pronounced, 
 and pronounced where it should be omitted ; i is changed 
 into ci ore; I into w ; o is generally lengthened ; r when 
 followed by s is often dropped, the sin such cases being 
 doubled; t is entirely dropped in many words where it pre- 
 cedes s, and is superseded by e, especially if there be any 
 plurality ; y is prefixed to a vast number of words which 
 commence with the aspirate, and is substituted for it. 
 See further observations in Mr. Hartshorne's Shropshire 
 glossary appended to his Salopia Antiqua, 8vo. 1841, 
 from which the above notices of the peculiarities of the 
 dialect have been taken. To this work I have been 
 chiefly indebted for Shropshire words, but many un- 
 known to 31r. Ilartshorne have been derived from 
 Llhuyd's MS. Additions to Ray, a manuscript glossary 
 compiled about 1780, and from communications of the 
 Rev. L. Darwall and Thomas Wright, Esq. 
 
 A translation of the Pars Ocidi'm English verse, made 
 by John Mirkes, a canon of Lilleshul, in Shropshire, is 
 preserved in MS. Cotton. Claud., A. ii and MS. Douce, 
 60, 103, manuscripts of the fifteenth century. The 
 poem commences as follows : 
 
 (Jod seyth hymself, as wryten we fynde, 
 That whenne the blynde ledeth the blynde, 
 Into the dyche they fallen boo, 
 For they ne sen whare by to go. 
 
 MS. Oott. Claud., A. ii, f. 127.
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 73 
 
 God seith himself, as writen y fynde, 
 That whan the blynde ledeth the blynde, 
 Into the diche they i'alleth bo, 
 For they ne seen howe they go. 
 
 MS. Douce, 60, f. 147. 
 
 It should not be forgotten that the dialect of a manu- 
 script is not necessarily that used by the author himself. 
 It oftener depended on the scribe. We have copies of 
 Hampole's Prick of Conscience written in nearly every 
 dialect. 
 
 The Poems of John Audelay, a monk of Haghmon, 
 who wrote about 14(30, afford a faithful specimen of the 
 Shropshire dialect of that period. A small volume of 
 his poetry was printed by the Percy Society, 8vo. 1844 : 
 
 As I lay seke in my langure, 
 
 In an abbay here be West, 
 This boke I made with gret dolour, 
 
 When I mygt not slep ne have no rest; 
 Offt with my prayers I me blest, 
 
 And sayd hyle to heven kyng, 
 I knowlache, Lord, hit is the best 
 
 Mekele to take thi vesetyng, 
 Ellis wot I wil that I were lorne. 
 
 Of al lordis be he blest ! 
 
 Fore al that ge done is fore the best, 
 
 Fore in thi defawte was never mon lost, 
 That is here of womon borne. 
 
 Mervel ge not of this makyng, 
 
 Fore 1 me excuse, hit is not Ij 
 This was the Hole Gost wercheng, 
 
 That sayd these wordis so faythfully ; 
 Fore I quoth never hot hye foly, 
 
 God hath me chastyst fore my levyng !
 
 74 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 I thong my God my grace treuly 
 
 Fore his gracious vesityag. 
 Beware, seris. T goue pray, 
 
 Fore I mad this with good entent, 
 
 In the reverens of God omnipotent; 
 
 Prays fore me that beth present. 
 My name is Jon the blynd Awdlay. 
 
 The similarities between the dialect of Audelay's 
 poems and that of modern Shropshire are not very 
 easily perceptible. The tendency to turn o into a, and 
 to drop the h, may be recognized, as aid for hold, &c. 
 1 is still turned into e, which may be regarded as one of 
 Audelay's dialectical peculiarities, especially in the pre- 
 fixes to the verbs ; but the ch for sh or sch, so common 
 in Audelay, does not appear to be still current. There 
 is much uncertainty in reasoning on the early provin- 
 cial dialects from a single specimen, owing to the wide 
 difference between the broad and the more polished 
 specimens of the language of the same county ; and Au- 
 delay's poems can be by no means considered as afford- 
 ing an example of the broadest and purest early Salo- 
 pian dialect. 
 
 SOMERSETSHIRE. 
 
 The Parret divides the two varieties of the dialects 
 of Somersetshire, the inhabitants of the west of that 
 river using the Devonshire language, the difference be- 
 ing readily recognized by the broad ise for I, er for he, 
 and the termination th to the third person singular of 
 the present tense of the indicative mood. The Somer-
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 75 
 
 setshire dialect changes th into d, s into z, / into v, in- 
 verts the order of many of the consonants, and adds y 
 to the infinitive of verbs. It also turns many mono- 
 syllables into words of two syllables, as oyer, air, booath, 
 both, fayer, fair, vier, fire, stayers, stairs, shower, sure, 
 &c. See Jennings' Observations on some of the Dialects 
 in the West of England, 1825, p. 7. 
 
 A singularly valuable glossary of Somersetshire words 
 was placed in my hands at' the commencement of the 
 present undertaking by Henry Norris, Esq., of South 
 Petherton. It was compiled about fifty years since by 
 Mr. Norris's father, at the suggestion of the late Mr. 
 Boucher, and Mr. Norris has continually enriched it 
 with additions collected by himself. To this I am in- 
 debted for several hundred words which would other- 
 wise have escaped me ; and many others have been de- 
 rived from lists formed by my brother, the Rev. Thom- 
 as Halliwell of Wrington, Thomas Elliott, Esq., Miss 
 Elizabeth Carew, the Rev C. W. Bingham, Mr. Elijah 
 Tucker, and Mr. Kemp. 
 
 Numerous examples of the Somersetshire dialect are 
 to be found in old plays, in which country characters 
 are frequently introduced and in other early works. It 
 should, however, be remarked that many writers have 
 unhesitatingly assigned early specimens, containing the 
 prevailing marks of Western dialect, to this county, 
 when the style might be referred to many others in the 
 South and West of England ; and on this account I have 
 omitted a list of pieces stated by various authors to be 
 specimens of Somersetshire dialect. We have already
 
 76 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 seen that though the essential features of the present 
 West country dialect may he found, they may possibly 
 suit specimens of the South, Kent, or even Essex dia- 
 lects, in the state the latter existed two or three centu- 
 ries ago. 
 
 The Peasant in London, 
 
 From a Work of the Seventeenth Century. 
 
 Our Taunton-den is a dungeon, 
 
 And yvaith cham glad chain here ; 
 This vamous zitty of Lungeon 
 
 Is worth all Zoinerset-zhere ; 
 In wagons, in carts, and in coaches, 
 
 Che never did yet zee more horse, 
 The wenches do zhine like roches, 
 
 And as proud as my fathers vore horse. 
 
 Fairholt's Lord Mayors' Pageants, ii, 217. 
 
 John's account of his Trip to Bristol, on the 
 occasion of Prince Albert's visit, to his Uncle 
 Pen, 1843. 
 
 Nunk ! did ever I tell thee o' my Prister trip, 
 
 Ta zee Purnce Albert an' tha gurt irn ship? 
 
 How Meary goo'd wi' me (thee's know Meary mi wife) 
 
 An' how I got vrighten'd maust out o' mi life ? 
 
 Nif us niver did'n, 'ch 'eel tell thee o't now ; 
 An' be drat if tid'n true iv'ry word, I da vow ! 
 Vor Measter an' Miss war bwoth o'm along; 
 Any one o'm ool tell thee nif us da zay wrong. 
 
 We goo'd to Purgeoter wi' Joe's liddle 'oss ; — 
 Thee's know thick us da meanne, tha da call'n wold 
 
 Boss : 
 An' a trotted in vine style ; an' when we got there, 
 The voke was sa thick that 'twas jiss lik a vair.
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 77 
 
 We did'n goo droo et, but goo'd to tha station — 
 There war gurt irn 'osses all in a nlw vashion ; 
 An' there war gurt boxes ta 'old moor'n a thousan', 
 Za long as all Petherton, an' za high as tha houzen, 
 
 Ther war gennelmens' sarvants a-dresscd all in blue, 
 Wi' rud-collar'd quoats, an' a lot o' em too; 
 An' all o' em number'd — vor one us did zee 
 War mark'd in gurt viggers, a hunderd an' dree. 
 
 Hem war nation aveard when tha vuss put hem in 
 Ta the "-rut ooden box, maust sa bi^-'s a corn binn ; 
 ^'had two gurt large winders wi' 'oles vor tha glass; 
 Tha lock'd op tha doors, an' there hem war vass. 
 
 Hem had'n bin there more'n a minnit or zoo, 
 Vore zumbody wussell'd an' off us did goo ! 
 My eyes ! how hem veel'd ! — what a way vor ta ride ! 
 Hem dra'd in her breath, an' hem thought hein'd a 
 died. 
 
 Vore ever us know'd et us 'oller'd out ' ; stap !" 
 Hem opp'd wi' es hond an' catch'd wukl o' es 'at ; 
 All the voke laugh'd at hem, an' that made hem mad ; 
 But thof a' zed nothin, him veel'd cruel bad. 
 
 When vust hem look'd out, hem war vrighten'd still 
 
 moor ; 
 Hem thoft 'twar tha " wuld one" a-draggin, vor sure ; 
 Vor narry a 'oss, nor nothin war in et ; 
 I'll be clurn'd if we did'n goo thirty miles in a minit. 
 
 Tha cows in tha veels did cock up their tails, 
 An' did urn vor their lives roun' tha 'edges an' rails ; 
 Tha 'osses did glowy, an' tha sheep glowied too, 
 An' the jackasses blared out " ooh — eh — ooh !" 
 
 About a mile off hem zeed a church-steeple, 
 An' in less 'an a minnit a zeed all the people ; 
 11
 
 78 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 Us war plowing right at 'cm ta zee who hem cou'd vind, 
 But avore hem cou'd look, tha war a mile behind. 
 
 Thee'st bin to a vare where the conjercrs ply — 
 " Pristo Jack an' begone !" and tha tilings vice awy ; 
 Dash my wig ! an' if 'twad'n the same wi' tha people, 
 Wi' the waggins an' 'osses, tha church an' tha steeple. 
 
 (J wain auver a brudge, athurt a gurt river, 
 Tha dreyv'd jis sa hard an' sa ventersom's iver; 
 An' rummcU'd lik thunder; hem thof't to be ground 
 All ta pieces, an' smash'd, an' murder'd, an' drown'd.   
 
 Oh dear ! my poor hed ! when us think o'et now, 
 How us ever got auver't hem can't tell thee 'ow; 
 Mi bed did whirdlely all roun' and roun' — 
 Hem cou'd'n ston' op, nor hem cou'd'n zit down. 
 
 When us got in ta Brister — But hem wo'n't tell the 
 
 now, 
 (Vor 1 da zee thee art vidgetty naw vor ta goo) 
 How hem zeed tha Queen's husbond the Pirnce an' 
 
 hes train ; 
 How tha Pirnce an' tha ship war buoth catch'd in tha 
 
 rain. 
 
 Uch '1 tell'ee tha rest o'et zum other time, 
 
 Vor hem promised hem's wile hein'd be woam avore 
 
 nine ; 
 An' now tha clock's hattin a quarter past ten j 
 Zo gee us tlii bond, an' good night, N uncle Ben ! 
 
 Mr. Guy and the Bobbers. 
 
 Mr. Guy war a go nn el man 
 0' Huntspill, well knawn 
 
 As a grazier, a hirch one, 
 Wi' Ions o' hiz awn.
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 79 
 
 A oten went ta Lunnun 
 
 Hiz cattle vor ta zill ; 
 All tha hosses that a rawd 
 
 Niver minded hadge or hill. 
 A war afeard o' naw one ; 
 
 A niver made hiz will, 
 Like wither vawk, avaur a went 
 
 Hiz cattle vor ta zill. 
 One time a'd bin ta Lunnun 
 
 An zawld iz cattle well ; 
 A brought awa a power o' gawld, 
 
 As I've a hired tell. 
 As late at night a rawd along 
 
 All droo a unketood, 
 A ooman rawze vrom off tha groun, 
 
 An right avaur en stood. 
 She look'd za pitis Mr. Guy 
 
 At once hiz hoss's pace 
 Stapt short, a wonderin how, at night, 
 
 She com'd in jitch a place. 
 A little trunk war in her hon ; 
 
 She zim'd vur «;won wi' chile. 
 She ax'd en nif a'd take er up 
 
 An cor er a veo mile. 
 Mr. Guy, a man o' veelin 
 
 Vor a ooman in distress, 
 Than took er up behind en; 
 
 A cood'n do na less. 
 A corr'd er trunk avaur en, 
 
 An by hiz belt o'leather 
 A bid er hawld vast : on tha rawd 
 
 Athout much tak, together. 
 Not vur tha went avaur she gid 
 
 A whissle loud an long, 
 Which Mr. Guy thawt very strange ; 
 
 Er voice too zim'd za strong ! 
 She'd lost er dog, she zed ; an than 
 
 Another whizzle blaw'd,
 
 80 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 That stortled Mr. Guy ; — a stapt 
 
 lliz hoss upon the rawd. 
 Goo on, zed she ; bit Mr. Guy 
 
 Zum rig beginn'd ta fear : 
 Vor voices rawze upon tha wine, 
 
 An zim'd a comin near. 
 Again tha rawd alonp;; again 
 
 She whissled. Mr Guy 
 Whipt out hiz knife an cut tha belt, 
 
 Than push'd er off! — Vor why? 
 Tha ooman he took up bchine, 
 
 Begummers, war a man ! 
 Tha rubbers zaw ad lad th«r plots 
 
 Our grazier to trepan. 
 I sholl not stap ta tell what zed 
 
 Tha man in ooman's clawze ; 
 Bit he, an all o'm jist behine, 
 
 War what you mid suppawze, 
 Tha. cust. tha. swaur, tha dreaten'd too, 
 
 An ater Mr. Guy 
 Tha gallop'd all ; 'twar niver-tha-near : 
 
 lliz hoss along did vly.' 
 Auver downs, droo dales, awa a went, 
 
 'Twar da-light now amawst, 
 Till at an inn a stapt. at last, 
 
 Ta thenk what he'd a lost. 
 A lost ? — why. nothin — but hiz belt ! 
 
 A zummet moor ad gain'd : 
 Thic little trunk a corr'd awa — 
 
 It gawld g'lore contain 'd ! 
 Nif Mr. Guy war hirch avaur, 
 
 A now war hircher still : 
 Tha plunder o' tha hi^hwamen 
 
 Hiz coffers went ta vill. 
 In safety Mr. Guy rawd whim ; 
 
 A otcn tawld tha storry. 
 Ta meet wi' jitch a rig myzel 
 
 I shood'n, soce, be zorry.
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 81 
 
 STAFFORDSHIRE. 
 
 Kennett has recorded numerous Staffordshire provin- 
 cialisms, most of which are probably now obsolete, and 
 would have escaped me but for his valuable collections. 
 A valuable manuscript glossary by Mr. Clive, but ex- 
 tending no further than B in the part seen by me, was 
 also found of use, and a few words in neither of these 
 manuscripts were given me by Miss L. Marshall and 
 Mr. Edward T. Gooch. The following specimen of the 
 dialect, taken from Knight's Quarterly Magazine, 1823, 
 will sufficiently exhibit its general character. The 
 lengthening of the vowel i appears very common. In 
 the collieries surnames are very frecpuently confused. 
 It constantly happens that a son has a surname very 
 different from that of his father. Nicknames are very 
 prevalent, e. g. Old Puff, Nosey, Bullyhed, Loy-a-bed, 
 Old Blackbird, Stumpy, Cowskin, Spindle-shanks, Cock- 
 eye, Pigtail, Yellow-belly, &c. 
 
 Dialect of the Bilston Folk. 
 
 The dialect of the lower order here has frequently 
 been noticed, as well as the peculiar countenance of the 
 real " Bilston folk." "We noticed ourselves (upon the 
 excursion) the following: — "Thee shatn't," for "you 
 sh'a'nt;" "thee cost'na," for "you can't;'' " thee host 
 aff, surry, or oil mosh thoi yed fur thee," for " take 
 yourself away, sirrah, or I'll crush your head;" " weear 
 bist thee ?" for " where are you ?" "in a cazulty wee 
 loik," for "by chance;" with " thee bist, thee shonna;" 
 "you are, you sha'n't." A young woman turned around 
 to address a small child crying after her upon the thresh-
 
 82 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 old of the hovel, as she went off towards the mine, " Ah, 
 be seized, yung'un if thee dos'n'r knoo' my bock as well 
 as thee knoo asi moy ice-;-." Some of the better 
 appareled, who affect a superior style, use words which 
 they please to term " dicksunary words," such as " ease- 
 ment, convinciated, abstimonious, timothy" (for timid). 
 One female, in conversation with a crony at the " truck- 
 shop" door, spoke of " Sal Johnson's aspirating her 
 mon's mind soo'a, and 'maciating his temper." and " I 
 never seed a sentiment o' nothin' bod till it took Turn 
 all at once't," (sentiment here used for symptom) 
 speaking of indisposition. — Wanderings of a Pen and 
 Pencil. 
 
 Conversation between a Staffordshire Canal 
 Boatman and his Wife. 
 
 Lady. Dun yo know Soiden-mouth, Tummy ? 
 
 Gent. Eees ; an' a' neation good feller he is tew. 
 
 Lady. A desput quoiet mon ! But he loves a sup o' 
 drink. Dun yo know his woif ? 
 
 (rent. Know her ! ay. Her's the very devil when 
 her sperit's up. 
 
 Lady. Her is. Her uses that mon sheamful — her 
 rags him every neet of her loif. 
 
 Gent. Her does. Oive known her come into the 
 public and call him all the neames her could lay her 
 tongue tew afore all the company. Her oughts to stay 
 till her's got him i'the boat, and then her mit say wha 
 her'd a moind. But her taks aiter her feyther. 
 
 Lady. Hew was her feyther ? 
 
 Gent. Whoy, singing Jemmy. 
 
 Lady. Oi don't think as how Oi ever know'd sing- 
 ing Jemmy. Was he ode Soaker's brother ? 
 
 Gent. Eees, he was. lie lived a top o' Hell Bonk. 
 He was the wickedest, swearninst mon as ever I know'd. 
 I should think as how he was the wickedest mon i' the 
 wold, and sav he had the rheuinatiz so bad.
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 83 
 
 SUFFOLK. 
 
 The characteristics of the Suffolk dialect are in all 
 essential particulars the same as those of the Norfolk, 
 so carefully investigated by Mr. Forby. The natives 
 of Suffolk in speaking elevate and depress the voice in 
 a very remarkable manner, so that " the Suffolk whine" 
 has long been proverbial. The natives of all parts of 
 East Anglia Generally speak in a kind of sing-song 
 tone. The first published list of Suffolk words is given 
 in Cullum's History of Hawsted, 1784, but no regular 
 glossary appeared till the publication of Major Moor's 
 Suffolk Words and Phrases, 8vo. 1823, a very valuable 
 collection of provincialisms. With the greatest liber- 
 ality, Major Moor kindly placed in my hands his inter- 
 leaved copy of this work, containing copious and import- 
 ant additions collected by him during the last twenty 
 years ; nor have I been less fortunate in the equally 
 liberal loan of most valuable and numerous manuscript 
 additions to Forby's East Anglia, collected in Suffolk by 
 D. E. Davy, Esq. Brief lists have also been sent by 
 Miss Ac;nes Strickland and the Rev. S. Charles. 
 
 An early book of medical receipts, by a person who 
 practised in Suffolk in the fifteenth century, is preserved 
 in MS. Harl. 1735; an English poem, written at Clare 
 in 1445, is in MS. Addit. 11,814 ; and Bokenham's 
 Lives of the Saints in MS. Arundel, 327, transcribed in 
 1447, is also written in the Suffolk dialect.
 
 84 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 Extract prom \ MS. of English poetry of the 
 
 FIFTEENTH CENTURY, WRITTEN IN SUFFOLK, IN THE 
 
 possession of W. S. Fitch, Esq. 
 
 Herketh now further at this frome, 
 
 How this sheperd wolde coine; 
 
 To Abraham the tydyngus coniyn, 
 
 The prophetys hit undernomyn, 
 
 That is Moyses and Jonas, 
 
 Abacnc and Elias, 
 
 Ant Danyell and Jeromie, 
 
 And Davyd and I-saye, 
 
 And Elisen and Samucll, 
 
 Thei seyn Groddys comyng ryght well, 
 
 Lonjr it were of hem alio to telle. 
 
 But herkynth how Ysaycon spelle, 
 
 A child that is i-boryn to us, 
 
 And a sone i-gevyn us, 
 
 That shallc upholden his kyndome, 
 
 And alle this shall byn his noine, 
 
 Wondurfull God and of myght, 
 
 And rewfull, and i'adur of ryght, 
 
 Of the world that hereaftur shall byn, 
 
 And Prince of Pes men shalle him seyn : 
 
 These buth the nomes as ge mowe i-leven, 
 
 That the prophetys to hym gevyn. 
 
 From Bokenam's Livks of the Saints, written 
 
 in 1447. 
 
 Whylom, as the story techy th us, 
 
 In Antyoche, that grete cyte 
 
 A man ther was clepyd Theodosius 
 
 For of paynyinrye the patryark was he, 
 
 And had the reule and al the governaunce, 
 
 To whom alle prestys dede obecyaunce.
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 85 
 
 This Theodosius had a wyf ful mete 
 
 To hys astate, of whom was born 
 
 A doughtyr fayr, and clepyd Margarite, 
 
 But ryht as of a ful sharp thorn, 
 
 As provyded was of (rod beforn, 
 
 Growyth a rose bothe fayr and good ; 
 
 So sprong Margrete of the hethene blood. 
 
 MS. Arundel 327, f. 7. 
 
 A Letter in the Suffolk Dialect, written in 
 
 THE YEAR 1814. 
 
 Dear Frinnd, 
 
 I was axed some stounds agon by Billy P. our 
 'sesser at Mulladen to make inquiration a' yeow if Mas- 
 ter had pahd in that there money into the Bank. 
 
 Billy P. he fare kienda unasy about it, and when I see 
 him at Church ta day he sah timmy, says he, prah ha 
 yeow wrot — so I kienda weft um off — and I sah, says 
 
 I, I heent hard from Squire D as yit, but I dare 
 
 sah, I shall afore long — So prah write me some lines, an 
 send me wahd, wutha the money is pahd a' nae. I 
 dont know what to make of our Mulladen folks, nut I — 
 but somehow or another, theyre alius in dibles. an I'll 
 be rot if I dont begin to think some on em all tahn up 
 scaly at last; an as to that there fulla — he grow so big 
 and so purdy that he want to be took down a peg — an 
 I'm glad to hare that yeow gint it em properly at Wick- 
 hum. I'm gooin to meet the Mulladen folks a' Friday 
 to go a bounden. so prah write me wahd afore thennum, 
 an let me know if the money be pahd, that I may make 
 Billy P. asy. How stammin cowd tis nowadays — we 
 heent no feed no where, and the stock run blorein about 
 for wittles jest as if twa winter — yeow mah pend ont 
 twool be a mortal bad season for green geese, an we 
 shant ha no spring wahts afore Soom fair. I dipt my 
 ship last Tuesday (list a' me — I mean Wensday) an tha 
 
 12
 
 8G PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 scringe up their backs so nashunly I'm afeard they're 
 wholly stryd — but 'strus God tis a strange cowd time. 
 1 heent got do news to tell ye, only we're all stammenly 
 
 set up about that there corn hill — seme folks dent fare 
 ta like it no matters, an tlia sab there was a uasbun noise 
 about it at Norrij last Saturday was a fautnit. The mob 
 thay got 3 efijis, a farmer, a squire, and a mulla, an 
 strus yeowre alive thay hung urn all on one jibbit — so 
 folks sab. Howsomever we arc all quite enough here, 
 case we fare to think it for our good. If you see that 
 there chap Harry, give my sarvice to em. 
 
 SUSSEX. 
 
 The dialect of the east of Sussex is very nearly the 
 same as that of Kent, while that of the west is similar 
 to the Hampshire phraseology. " In Sussex," says Ray, 
 English Words, ed. 1G74. p. 80, " for hasp, clasp, wasp, 
 they pronounce hapse, elapse, wapse, &c. ; for neck, 
 nick ; for throat, throttle ; for choak, chock ; let'n down, 
 let'n stand, come again and fet'n anon." These obser- 
 vations still hold good. In East Sussex day is pro- 
 nounced dee, and the peasantry are generally distin- 
 guished for a broad strong mode of speaking. They 
 pronounce ow final as er, but this habit is not peculiar; 
 and they often introduce an r before the letters d and /. 
 A (Un.^ii,;/ <f tin' Provincialisms in use in tin County 
 of Sussex, by W. I>. Cooper, was printed in ls:->(>. a 
 neat little work, a copy of which, with numerous manu- 
 script additions, was kindly sent me by the author. 
 Several Sussex words, not included in Mr. Cooper's list,
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 87 
 
 were sent to me by M. A. Lower, Esq., the Rev. James 
 Sandham, Colonel Davies, and M. T. Robinson, Esq. ; 
 and Mr. Holloway's General Dictionary of Provincial- 
 isms, 8vo. 1838, contains a considerable number. 
 
 Tom Cladpole's Journey to Lunnun, the first 
 seven stanzas. 
 
 Last Middlemus I 'member well, 
 
 When harvest was all over ; 
 Us cheps had hous'd up all de banes, 
 
 An stack'd up all de clover. 
 
 I think, says I, I'll take a trip 
 
 To Lunnun, dat I wol, 
 An see how things goo on a bit, 
 
 Lest I shu'd die a fool ! 
 
 Fer sister Sal, five years agoo, 
 
 Went off wud Squyer Brown ; 
 Housemaid, or summut; don't know what, 
 
 To live at Lunnun town. 
 
 Dey 'hav'd uncommon well to Sal, 
 
 An ge ur clothes an dat ; 
 So Sal 'hav'd nashun well to dem, 
 
 An grow'd quite tall an fat. 
 
 I ax'd 01' Ben to let me goo, 
 
 Hem rum ol' fellur he, 
 He scratch'd his wig, 'To Lunnun, Tom?' 
 
 Den turn'd his quid, 'I'll see.' 
 
 So strate to mother home goos I, 
 
 An thus to ur did say, 
 Mother, I'll goo an see our Sal, 
 
 Fer measter says I may.
 
 88 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 De poor ol' gal did shake ur head, 
 
 Ah ! Tom, twant never do, 
 Poor Sal is gone a tejus way, 
 
 An must I now loose you ? 
 
 A Dialogue between two Farm-labourers in 
 
 Sussex. 
 
 Tom. Why, Jim, where a bin ? 
 Jim. Down to look at the ship. 
 Tom. Did ye look at the stack ? 
 Jim. Umps, I did, and it roakes terrible ! 
 Tom. Why didn't ye make a hole in it? 
 Jim. I be guain to it. 
 
 Tom. D's a pity, 'twas sich a mortal good 'un. 
 Jim. Es sure ! Well, It's melancholy fine time for 
 the crops, aint it ? 
 
 Tom. Ah ! it'll be ripping time pretty soon now. 
 Jim. Ah ! I shan't do much at that for the rumatiz. 
 Tom. What be guain to do with that ere jug ? You'd 
 better let it bide. Do you think the chimbley sweeper 
 will come to-day. 
 
 Jim. [se ! he's safe to come, let it be how t'wull. 
 Tom. Which way do you think he'll come ? 
 Jim. He'll come athirt and across the common. 
 Tom. What, caterways, aye ? 
 
 Jim. Iss. Did you mind what I was a telling of? 
 Tom. To be sure ; but dang ye if I could sense it, 
 could you ? 
 
 Jim. Lor, yis. I don't think it took much cuteness 
 to do that ! 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 The following observations on the dialect of this 
 county are taken from a manuscript glossary of War- 
 wickshire words, compiled by the late Mr. T. Sharp,
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 89 
 
 and kindly communicated to me by Mr. Staunton, of 
 Longbridge House, near Warwick : " The dipthong ea 
 is usually pronounced like ai, as mait, ait, plaise, paise, 
 waik, say, for meat, eat, please, weak, sea. The vowel 
 o gives place to u, in sung, lung, amung, for sony, lony, 
 among ; wunst for once ; grun, fun, and pun, for ground, 
 found, and pound. Shownd is also frequent for the 
 imperative of show. A and o are often interchanged, 
 as drap, shap, yander, for drop, shop, yonder ; and (per 
 contra) hommer, rot, and gonder, for hammer, rat, and 
 yander. J is substituted for d, in juke, jell, jeth, and 
 jed, for duke, deal, death, and dead ; whilst juice is often 
 pronounced duce. D is added to words ending in own, 
 as drownded and gownd, for drowned and yown. E is 
 sometimes converted into a, as batty, laft, fatch, for 
 betty, left, and fetch. The nom. case and the ace. are 
 perpetually and barbarously confounded in such phrases 
 as, They ought to have spoke to we ; her told him so ; 
 he told she so ; us wont be hurt, will us ? This is one 
 of our most grating provincialisms." This manuscript 
 glossary has been fully used in the following pages. I 
 have also received communications from Mr. Perry, Mr. 
 W. Reader, the Rev. W. T. Bree, the Rev. J. Staunton, 
 Mr. J. T. Watson, and Thomas Haslewood, Esq. The 
 modern dialect of Warwickshire contains a very large 
 proportion of North country words, more than might 
 have been expected from its locality. They say yat for 
 gate, feul, fool, sheeam, shame, weeat, wheat, Yethard, 
 Edward, Jeeams, James, leean, lane, rooad, road, wool, 
 will, p-yaaper, paper, feeace, face, cooat, coat, &c.
 
 90 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 WESTMORELAND. 
 
 A bran new Warkby William de Worfat, containing 
 a true Calendar of his thoughts concerning good nebber- 
 hood, l2mo. Kendal, 17 s "). pp. 44, is a good specimen of 
 the Westmoreland dialect, but of great rarity. This dia- 
 lect is very similar to that of Cumberland. 
 
 A Westmoreland Dialogue. 
 
 Sarah. What ycc hev hard hee yan ev my sweetharts. 
 Lord ! This ward is brimful a lee for sartan. 
 
 Jennet. Aye, thears lees enow, but I reckon that nin. 
 
 Sarah. Yee may be mistaan as weel as udder fowk ; 
 yee mun know I went to Arnside tawer wie aur Breaady 
 toth Bull, an she wod nit stand, but set off an run up 
 Tawer-hill, an throoth loan on tae Middle Barra plane, 
 an I hefter he, tul I wer welly brosen. Dick wor cumin 
 up frae Silver dale, an tornd her, helpt me wie her toth 
 bull, an then went heaam wie me, an while ea leev I'll 
 nivver tak a kaw mair. Ise sure its a varra shamful 
 sarvis to send onny young woman on, en what 1 think 
 nicone hart is dun ea nae spot but Beothans parish. 
 En frae this nebbors ses we er sweetharts. 
 
 A "Grahamed" Letter. 
 
 TET HEDDITUR ET KENDAL MERCURY. 
 
 Sur, — Es as sea oft plaagip ye aboot summut ur udder, 
 it maks me freetend et yell be gittin oot uv o' pashens, 
 but. ye kna, et wer varra unlarncd in oor dawle, en, 
 therefore, obleiged when in a bit ov a difficultee to ax 
 sumbody et can enleeten us ont. Aw whope, hooiver, 
 et this'en el be't last time et al hev occashun for yer 
 advice ; for if aw can manage to git hoad uv this situwa- 
 shun et aw hev uv me ee, al be a gentelman oot days
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 91 
 
 uv me life. Noo, ye see, Mr. Hedditur, yaw day be- 
 fowre t'rent com du, aw meen afowre t'time et fader was 
 stinted to pay't in ; for't landlawrd wiv mickle perswadin 
 gev him a week or twa ower; but he telled him plane 
 enuf if he dudent stum up that he wad send t'Bumbal- 
 lies ta seez t'sticks en turn byath fader en mudder, me- 
 sel en oot barns, tut dner. 0, man, thur landlawrds 
 thur hard-hart' d chaps. Aw beleev he wad du'it tu, 
 for yan niver sees him hike plissant, especialle et farm, 
 for o'its et best condishun, en we've lade sum uv this 
 neu-fashend manner et they co' Guanney ont (Fadder 
 likes to be like t' neabers). Sartenly, it suits for yaw 
 year, en theer's sum varra bounie crops whor its been 
 lade on middlin thick ; but it we'at stand t'end es weel 
 es a good foad midden. Whiah Mr. Hedditur, es aw 
 was gangen to say, yaw day afowre t'time et Fader hed 
 ta pay't rent he sent me wid a coo en a stirk tuv a girt 
 fare, they co Branten Fare, nar Appelby, en aw was to 
 sell them if any body bad me out, for brass he mud hev, 
 whedder aw gat ther woorth ur nut. When aw was ut 
 fare aw gat reet intuit middel uv o'at thrang, whor aw 
 thout aw cudnt help but meet wid a customar; but aw 
 was farely cheetcd, for aw stude theer nar o't day we've 
 me hands uv me pockets, en neabody es mickle es axd 
 me what awd gayne aboot, en ye ma be sure aw pood a 
 langfawce, tell a gude-looken gentleman like feller com 
 up tuv me, and nca dootseen aw was sare grhevd. began 
 ta ax me es to whea aw was ? whor aw coo fra ? hoo me 
 Fadder gat his leeven, en a deel mare sec like questions. 
 Ov coorse, aw telld him nout but truth, for, ye kna aw 
 nivver like ta tell a lee ta neabody, en aw dudnt forgit, 
 et saame time to let him kna hoo badly on' Fadder was, 
 en hoo it wud put him aboot when aw hednt selt beeas. 
 T'gentleman. puer feller! was a varra feelen man, for 
 he seemed a girt deel hurt, en gev me what aw wanted 
 fur me coo en stirk, widoot iver a wurd ov barteren. 
 Efthr o' was sattled, en we'ed gitteu eader a glass, aw
 
 92 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 axed him for his nyame to tak ta Fadder, en he wrayate 
 me't doon wid a wad pensel, ont back uv a Lull green 
 card ; but unfortunatele aw put it intul me waysco-7t 
 pocket en't name gat rubbed oot afowre aw gat hyame. 
 Ont tudder side et card, Mr. Hedditur, was an adver- 
 tisement, ov which this is a wurd for wurd copy : 
 
 • W A XTED 1 M M E 1 1 1 ATE LY, 
 
 A Man of Good Character, 
 
 At a Salary of £500 per Annum, 
 
 To Mind his own Business, 
 
 And a further sum of £500, 
 
 To LEAVE OTHER PEOPLE'S ALONE ! 
 
 B@°" For further particulars inquire of the Secretary 
 for the Home Department." 
 
 Et first aw dudnt tak mickle nouticeont; but sen 
 aw've been consideren that me Fadder is sare fashed 
 we've sea mony ov us, en, as aw suppowse, all hev as 
 gude a chance a gitten a situwashun es onybody else, 
 aw want to kna. Mr. Hedditur, boo aw mun gang aboot 
 it. Aw cannet tell what sud ale me gitten ont, for 
 aw've alias bourne a gude carickter, en thats t'sort uv a 
 chap they want, en aw've nea doot aw cud sune larn 
 t'trade. Aw see it corns ta nar twenty pund a week, 
 fchroot ycr, en its a grand thing for a puer body. T'la- 
 borin fowks aboot here cant hardlys mak hofe es mony 
 shillens. man, t'fowk lies sare shift to git a putten 
 on, noo o' days. But besides o' that, aw can tell ye 
 summet mare underneath, it maks me want ta gang ta 
 Lnnnen sea mickle es aw suppowse its whare this situ- 
 wation is. Ye kna, Mr. Hedditur, me sweethart Nanny 
 (es like ta sham we tellen ye, but ye munnet menshion 
 t'our agen for awt worl) es aw was a Baing me sweethart 
 Nanny went up ta Lunnen ta be a Leddies made, en aw 
 sud like varra we'el to see her et times. Es we ur sea 
 far off taen t'other, we rite letters back en forrett ivery 
 noo en then es udder fowk does ; but theers laytly been 
 sum queer stowries in oor dawlc aboot a feller they co
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 93 
 
 Jammy G-raani. They sa lie's been peepen intul oat 
 letturs et gang up ta Lunnen, en then tellen oot en 
 maken oot mischeef et iver he can. By gum! if aw 
 thouthe'ed been breken t'seals ov my letturs es aw sent 
 ta Nanny — first time aw met him aw wad giv him sic a 
 thumppen es he niver gat in his life befowre. Aw 
 wonder they hev'nt kick'd sec a good-for-nout feller oot 
 uv t'Post lang sen, whon hes gilty uv sec like sneeken 
 lo-lif d tricks es them. Me hand's beginning ta wark, en 
 aw mun finish we beggin ov ye ta tell me o' ye kna 
 aboot situwashun, for es detarmend ta heft, en aw dun- 
 net kna whea Secretary of t'Home Department is, en 
 theei^fowre es at a loss whea ta apply tu. 
 Yer eflecshunet frind, 
 
 Jacob Stubbs, 
 
 29th July, 1844. fra t'Dawle. 
 
 PS. — T'wedder's nobbet been va'rra bad thur twea ur 
 thre days back, en thuuner shooers hevbeen fleen aboot. 
 
 WILTSHIRE. 
 
 The dialect of this county is so nearly related to that 
 which is. denominated the West-Country dialect, that 
 the distinction must be sought for in words peculiar to 
 itself rather than in any general feature. The Saxon 
 plural termination en is still common, and oi is generally 
 pronounced as wit Instances of their perfects may be 
 cited, snap, snopt, hide, hod, lead, lod, scrape, scrope, 
 &c. Some of their phrases are quaint. That's makes 
 me out, puzzles me; a hind of a middling sort of away 
 he is in, out of sorts, &c. Mr. Britton published a gloss- 
 ary of Wiltshire words in his Topographical Sketches 
 
 of North Wilts, vol. iii, pp. 369-80; and a more com- 
 o
 
 94 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 plcte one by Mr. Akcrman has recently appeared, 12rao. 
 L842. Many words peculiar to this county will be 
 found in the following pages which have escaped both 
 these writers, collected chiefly from Kennett, Aubrey, 
 and MS. lists by the Rev. Dr. Hussey, Dr. S. Merri- 
 man, the Rev. Richard Crawley, and Mr. M. Jackson. 
 The Chronicon Vilodunense, edited by W. H. Black, 
 fol. 1830, is a specimen of the Wiltshire dialect in the 
 fifteenth century. It is so frequently quoted in this 
 work that any further notice is unnecessary. The fol- 
 lowing clever pieces in the modern dialect of the county 
 are from the pen of Mr. Akerman. 
 
 The Harnet and the Bittle. 
 
 A harnet zet in a hollur tree, — 
 
 A proper spiteful twoad was he ; 
 
 And a merrily zung while he did zet 
 
 His stingc as shearp as a bagganet : 
 Oh, whoso vine and bowld as I, 
 I vears not bee, nor wapse, nor vly ! 
 
 A bittle up thuck tree did clim, 
 And scarnvally did look at him; 
 /ays he, " Zur harnet, who giv thee 
 A right to zet in thuck there tree? 
 
 Yor ael you zengs zo nation vine, 
 
 I tell 'e 'tis a house o' mine. " 
 
 The harnet's conscience velt a twinge, 
 But grawin' bowld wihia long Btinge, 
 /ays he. " Possession's the best laaw ; 
 Zo here th' shaVn't put a elaaw! 
 Be off, and leave the tree to me, 
 The mixen's good enough for thee !"
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 95 
 
 Just then a yuckel, passin' by, 
 Was axed by them the cause to try : 
 *' Ha ! ha ! I zee how 'tis !" zays he, 
 " They'll make a vamous nuneh for me !" 
 
 His bill was shearp, his stomach lear, 
 
 Zo up a snapped the caddlin pair ! 
 
 MORAL. 
 
 Ael you as be to laaw inclined, 
 
 This leetle stwory bear in mind ; 
 
 Vor if to laaw you aims to gwo, 
 
 You'll vind they'll alius zar'e zo : 
 
 You'll meet the vate o these here two, 
 They'll take your cwoat and carcass too ! 
 
 The Genuine Remains of William Little, a Wilt- 
 shire man. 
 
 I've alius bin as vlush o' money as a twoad is o' 
 veathers ; but if ever I gets rich, I'll put it ael in Zis- 
 zeter bank, and not do as owld Smith, the miller, did, 
 comin' whoam vrom market one nite. Martal avraid o' 
 thieves a was. zo a puts his pound-bills and ael th' 
 money a'd got about un in a hole in the wall, and the 
 next marnin' a' couldn't remember whereabouts 'twas, 
 and had to pull purty nigh a mile o' wall down before 
 a' could vind it. Stoopid owld wosbird ! 
 
 Owld Jan Wilkins used to zay he alius cut's stakes, 
 when a went a hedgin', too lang, bekaze a' cou'd easily 
 cut 'em sharter if a' wanted, but a' cou'dnt make um 
 langer if 'em was too shart. Zo says I : zo I alius axes 
 vor more than I wants. Iv I gets that, well and good ; 
 but if I axes vor little, and gets less, it's martal akkerd 
 to ax a zccond time, d'ye kneow ! 
 
 Piple zay as how they gied th' neam o' moonrakers 
 to us Wiltshire vauk bekase a passel o' stupid bodies one 
 night tried to rake the shadow o' th' moon out o' th'
 
 9G PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 bruk, and tuk't vor a thin cheese. But that's th' wrong 
 ind o' th' stwory. The chaps az was doin' o' this was 
 smugglers, and they was a vishin' up some kegs oj 
 sperrits, and only purtended to rake out a cheese ! Zo 
 the exciseman az axed 'em the question had his grin at 
 'em ; but they had a good laugh at he when 'em got 
 whoame the stuff. 
 
 Owld Molly Sannell axed Molly Dafter to gie her a 
 drap o' barm one day. " I ha'n't a got nam !" says 
 she ; " bezides, I do want un mezelf' to bake wi'." 
 
 Measter Groddin used to zay as how childeru costed a 
 sight o' money to breng um up, and 'twas all very well 
 whilst um was leetle, and zucked th' mother, but when 
 um began to zuck the vather, 'twas nation akkerd. 
 
 Measter Cuss and his zun Etherd went to Lonnun a 
 lectio time zence, and when um got to their journey's 
 ind, Measter Cuss missed a girt passel a carr'd wi' un 
 to th' cwoach. " Lard, vather !" zays Etherd, " I zeed 
 un drap out at Yize!" (Devizes.) 
 
 North Wiltshire eloquence. 
 
 "Now, do'e plaze to walk in a bit, zur, and rest'e, and 
 dwont'e mind my measter up ag'in th' chimley earner. 
 Poor zowl on hiu, he've a bin despcrt ill ever zence 
 t'other night, when a wur tuk ter'ble bad wi' th' rkeu- 
 matiz in's legs and stummick. He've a bin and tuk 
 dree bottles o' doctor's stuff, but I'll be whipped if a 
 do simbly a bit th' better var't. Lawk, zur, but I be 
 main sc*row to be ael in zich a caddel, ael alang o'they 
 childem. They've a bin a leasin', and when um COOmed 
 whoame, they ael tuk and drowed the earn ael amang 
 th' vire stuff, and zo here wo be, ael in a muggle like. 
 And yon he lookin' middlinish, zur, and ad as if e was 
 shrammed. I'll take and bleow up th' vire a mossel ; 
 but whai he them bellises at? here they be slat a-two ! 
 and here's my yeppurn they've a' bin and searched, and 
 I've agot oarra 'nother 'gin Zunday besepts thisum !"
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 97 
 
 This elegant sample of North Wiltshire eloquence 
 was uttered nearly in a breath, by Mistress Varges, the 
 wife of a labourer with a large family, as the poor man's 
 master entered the cottage to inquire after his health, 
 and whether he would soon be able to return to his 
 work. 
 
 WORCESTERSHIRE. 
 
 In Worcestershire, the peculiarities of speech most 
 striking to a stranger is perhaps the interchange of her 
 and she, e. g. " her's going for a walk with she." This 
 perversion is even used in the genitive, " she's bonnet." 
 As in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire, the pronoun 
 which is constantly used to connect sentences, and to 
 act as a species of conjunction. At a recent trial at 
 Worcester, a butcher, who was on his trial for sheep- 
 stealing, said in defence, " I bought the sheep of a man 
 at Broomsgrove fair, which he is a friend of the prose- 
 cutor's, and won't appear ; which I could have trans- 
 ported the prosecutor ever so long agoo if I liked." As 
 in many other counties, the neuter is frequently invest- 
 ed with the masculine gender. A more striking feature 
 is the continual dropping of the i in such words as stair, 
 fair, pronounced star, far, &c. ; and the letter r is 
 sometimes sounded between a final vowel, or vowel- 
 sound, and an initial one. No works on the dialect of 
 this county have yet appeared, and the majority of the 
 words here quoted as peculiar to it have been collected 
 by myself. I have, however, received short communi- 
 cations from J. Noake, Esq., Jabez Allies, Esq., Miss
 
 98 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 Bedford, Mrs. John Walcot, Thomas Boulton, Esq., Mr. 
 R. Bright, and Mr. William .Johnson. The following 
 extract is taken from a manuscript in my possession. 
 
 Extract from a MS. of Medical Receipts written 
 by Syr Tomas .Jamys, Vicar off Badseye, about 
 
 THE YEAR 1450. 
 
 For the skawle a gode medcyn. Take pedylyon to 
 handfnlle ever that he he flowryd. and than he ys ten- 
 dur, and than take and sethe hym welle in a potelle of 
 stronge lye tille the to halfe be soddyn awey, and than 
 wesehe the skallyd hede in stronge pysse that ys hoote, 
 and than schave awey the schawle clene, and let not for 
 bledyng ; and than make a plasture of pedylyon, and 
 ley it on the hede gode and warme, and so let it ly a 
 day and a nyth, and than take it awey, and so than take 
 thy mele and ronnying watur of a broke, and thereof 
 make theke papelettes, and than sprede them on a clothe 
 that wolle cover al the soore, and so ley it on the sore 
 hede. and let it ly iij. dayys and iij. nythtes ever it be 
 remeveyd, and than take it of, and wesehe the hede 
 welle in strong pysse ayenne, and than take and schave 
 it clene to the flesche, and than take rede oynownce as 
 mony ase wolle suffyce for to make a plasture over the 
 sore, and boyle them welle in wature, and than stampe 
 them, and temper them with the softe of calamynte, and 
 old barow grese that ys maltyne clene, and so use this 
 tylle the seke be hole. 
 
 YORKSHIRE. 
 
 There are numerous early manuscripts still preserved 
 which were written in various parts of Yorkshire, most 
 of them containing marks of the dialect of the county.
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 99 
 
 The Toicnrfey Mysteries, which have heen printed hy 
 the Surtees Society, were written in the neighbourhood 
 of Wakefield. An English commentary on the Psalms, 
 translated from the Latin work by Hampole a manuscript 
 in Eton College Library, was also written in this county, 
 the writer observing, " in this werke I seke no strange 
 Inglyshe bot the lightest and the commonest, and swilke 
 that es maste like til the Latyn, so that thas that 
 knawes noght the Latyn wordes." A metrical transla- 
 tion of Grrosthead's Chasteau d' Amour, in MS. Egerton 
 927, was made by a " munke of Sallay," who calls it 
 The Myrow of lewed Men. To these may be added MS. 
 Earl 1022, MS. Harl 5396, MS. Coll. Sim. xviii. 6, 
 and the Thornton MS. so often quoted in the following 
 pages. 
 
 Higden, writing about 1350, says "the whole speech 
 of the Northumbrians, especially in Yorkshire, is so 
 harsh and rude that we Southern men can hardly un- 
 derstand it;" and Wallingford, who wrote long before, 
 observes that " there is, and long has been, a great ad- 
 mixture of people of Danish race in that province, and 
 a great similarity of language." See the Quarterly 
 Review, Feb. 1836, p. 365. There seem to be few 
 traces of Danish in the modern Yorkshire dialect. 
 
 So numerous are modern pieces in the Yorkshire dia- 
 lect, that it would be difficult to give a complete list. 
 The rustic of this county has even had a newspaper in 
 his native dialect, the Yorkshire Comet, the first num- 
 ber of which appeared in March, 1844 ; but in conse- 
 quence of certain personal allusions giving offence, the
 
 100 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 publisher was threatened with a prosecution, and lie 
 relinquished the work after the publication of the 
 seventh number, and refused to sell the objectionable 
 parts. The most complete Glossary of Yorkshire, Words 
 was compiled by Mr. Carr, 2 vols. 8vo. 1*28, but it is 
 confined to Craven, the dialect said to be used by Chau- 
 cer's North country scholars. See Mr. Wright's edi- 
 tion, vol. i, p. 160. Dr. Willan's list of words used in 
 the mountainous district of the West-Riding, in the 
 Archseologia, vol. xvii. pp. 138-167, should also be 
 noticed j and long previously a Yorkshire glossary ap- 
 peared at the end of the Praise of Yorkshire Ale, 12mo. 
 1697. Thoresby's list of West-Riding words, 1703, 
 was published in Ray's Philosophical Letters; and 
 Watson gives a Vocabulary of Uncommon Words ns,,l 
 in Halifax Parish in his History of Halifax, 1775. 
 These latter have been reprinted in the Hallamshire 
 Glossary, 8vo. 1829, a small collection of words used 
 in the neighbourhood of Sheffield. The Sheffield dia- 
 lect has been very carefully investigated in an Essay 
 by the Rev. 11. II. Piper, 12mo. 1825. In addition to 
 the printed 'glossaries, I have had the advantage of 
 using manuscript lists of Yorkshire words communicated 
 by Wm. Turner, Esq., William Henry Leatham, Esq., 
 Henry Jack, on. Esq., Dr. Charles Kooke. the Uev. P. 
 Wright, Mr. M. A. Denham, Mr. Thomas Sanderson, 
 John Richard Walbran, Esq., Mr. Ranks, and N. 
 Scatcherd, Esq.
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 101 
 
 A Charm for the Tooth-ache, 
 
 From the Thornton Manuscript, f. 176. 
 
 A Gharme for the Teihe-werhe. — Say the charme thris, 
 to it be sayd ix. tymes, and ay thrys at a chareuiyuge. 
 I conjoure thee, laythely beste, with that ilke spere, 
 That Longyous in his hande gane here, 
 And also with ane hatte of thorne, 
 That one my Lordis hede was borne, 
 With alle the wordis mare and lesse, 
 With the Office of the .Messe, 
 With my Lorde and his xii. postilles, 
 With oure Lady and her x. maydcnys, 
 Saynt Margrete, the haly quene, 
 Saynt Kateriu, the haly virgyne, 
 ix. tymes G-oddis forbott, thou wikkyde worme, 
 Thet ever thou make any rystynge, 
 Bot awaye mote thou wende, 
 To the erde and the stane ! 
 
 Dicky Dickeson's Address to't Knawn World, 
 
 From the First Number of the Yorkshire Comet, published in 1844. 
 
 Dear Iwerybody: — -Ah sudn't wonder bud, when 
 some foaks hear o' me startin' on a Paper, they'll say, 
 what in't world hez maade Dicky Dickeson bethink 
 hizsen o' cummin' sich a caaper as that ? Wah, if ye'll 
 nobbut hev hauf o't paatience o' Joab, Ah'll try ta tell 
 ya. Ye raun knaw, 'at aboot six year sin', Ah wur i' a 
 public-boose, wheare ther wur a feller as wur braggin' 
 on his larnin', an' so Ah axed him what he knawed 
 aboot onny kuawledgement, an' he said he thowt he'd a 
 rare lump moare information i' his heead, ner Ah hed i' 
 mine. Noo, ye knaw, Ah sudn't ha' been a quarter as 
 ill mad, if ther hedn't been a lot o' chaps in't plaace 'at 
 reckoned ta hev noa small share o' gumption. Soa, as 
 sooin as Ah gat hoame that neet, Ah sware ta oor Bet, 
 'at as suare as shoo was a match-hawker, Ah wud leearn 
 14
 
 102 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 all' t polishnicnts 'at Schooilmaister (Jill could teich ma. 
 Varry weel, slap at it Ah went, makkin' pothukes, an' 
 stroakcs, an' Ah hardly knaws what; an' then Ah 
 leearnt Bpclderin', readin', i' fact, all 'at long-heeaded 
 Schoolmaister (Jill knew hizsen ; so 'at. when Ah'd 
 done wi' him, Ah wur coonted as clever a chap as me 
 feyther afore ma, 'an ye mun consider 'at Ah wur noa 
 small beer when Ah'd come ta that pass, for he could 
 tell, hoot lukin', hoo mich paaper it wud tak' ta lap up 
 an ounce o' 'hacca. Weel, as sooin as Ah'd gotten ta 
 be sa wonderful wise, d'ye see * Ah thowt-an' it wur a 
 bitter thowt, tew ! — what a pity it wor 'at ivveryhody 
 couldn't dew as mich as Ah could. More Ah studied 
 about it. an' war it pottered ma, Ah'll assuare ya. 
 Wun neet, hooivver, as oor Bet an' me wur set be't fire- 
 side, shoo turned hersen suddenly round, an' said, 
 "Thoo's a fooil, Dicky!" "What! Bet, does thoo 
 really meean ta say Ah'z a fooil?" "Ah dew," shoo 
 said : " thoo's a real fooil !" " Hoo does ta mak' that 
 oot, Bet?" said Ah, for Ah wur noane hauf suited 
 aboot it. •• Ah'll say it ageean an' ageean," says shoo; 
 " thoo's a fooil, an' if ta's onny way parti kelar to knaw, 
 Ah'll tell tha hoo Ah maks it oot. In't first plaace, 
 hike what braans thoo hcz; as starlin' as onny 'at ivver 
 thease gurt men bed ; an' yet, like a fooil as Ah say 
 thoo is, thoo taks it as eeasy ;;s a pig in't muck." 
 "Weel, weel," Ah continid, "what wod ta ha' ma ta dew, 
 lass? Tell us, an' Ah'll dew't." "Then," says Mo, 
 '■ start a paaper i' thee awn naative tongue, an' call it 
 t'Yorshar Comet. Ah'll be bun for't it'll pay as weel 
 as ivver gooid coin did." Noo, then, as sooin as Ah 
 heeard oor Bet's noations, Ah wur ommusi stark mad 
 ta carry 'em ootj for Ah thowt. as shoo did 'at it wud 
 pay capital, an' beside. Ah sud maybe be improovin't 
 Btaatc o' saciaty, an't murals u't vicious. Ye doan'1 need 
 ta think 'al Ah'z now! bud an ignarant mushruni. for, 
 though Ah say't mysen, Ah can tell ya 'at Dicky Dicke-
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 103 
 
 son's as full o' knawledge as a lien's full o' ineeat. Nut 
 'at Ah wants ta crack o' mysen, nowt o't soart ; it isn't 
 what Ah says an' thinks o' mysen, bud what other 
 foaks says an' thinks o' ma; an' if ye ha' no objections, 
 ye's just read a letter 'at Ah gat fro' Naathan Vickus 
 aboot a year an' a hauf sin,' when all that talk wur 
 agate relatin' ta Otley gerrin' franchised. It ran as 
 follers : 
 
 "Pig-Colt Farm, Octoaber, 1842. 
 " Dear Dicky, 
 
 " Ah mun confess at Ah've heeard some talk aboot 
 oor toon sennin' two Members ta Parlement, an' if ivver 
 it sud come ta pass, thoo ma be suare 'at Naathan Vickus 
 '11 stick to tha up hill an' doon daale. Ah'z noane sa 
 thick, Dicky, bud what Ah knaws pretty near what a 
 chap is be't cut on his jib, thoo unnerstans; an', de- 
 pend on't, lad, that's what Ah judges thee by. Thoo's 
 a man 'at '11 dew honour to't toon wheareivver ta goes 
 goes, an' if there's onny feathers for onnybody's cap, 
 it's Dicky Dickesou 'at's boon ta get 'em, or else All's 
 a fooil of a judge o' human flesh, that's all. Ah hev 
 varry gurt pleasure i' offerin' tha my voate, an' oor 
 Toby's in't bargain ; an' Ah dew promise tha, 'at if 
 ivvery pig, mule an' cauf aboot my farm wur receava- 
 ble as common sense creaturs, thoo sud fin' a supporter 
 i' ivvery one on 'em "YVT a bucket o' compliments ta 
 the sister Bet an't rest o't breed, 
 
 " Ah is, dear Dicky, 
 
 " Moast respectful thine, 
 
 "Naathan Vickus." 
 
 Ta Mr. Dickeson, Esq. 
 
 Noo, then, Ah ax ageean, is ther onny o' ya, dear 
 readers, as wod hev't leeast bit o' doot o' yer minds 
 noo ? Is ther, Ah say ? Noa : Ah fancies Ah can 
 hear some o' ya chucklin', an' sayin', " Hurra for Dicky 
 Dickeson ! he flogs all 'at's goane afore him !" An' 
 let ma tell ya, 'at so Ah meeans ta dew ; an' if onny of
 
 104 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 ya is trubbled m' sects o' ghoasts or dull thowts, Ali'll 
 guarantee ta frcctcn 'em oot «>' ya, an' that's what noa 
 soul afore ma's done vet. liml Ah mini gi' ower 
 writin tul ya at present, for <><>r Bet tells ma 'at me 
 porridge hez been waitin' this hauf boor, an', as a mat- 
 ter in coarse, they're stiff wi' B tannin'. Ah can nobbut 
 beg on ya ta read t'Yorshar Comet ivvery week, an', be 
 dewin' soa, tak' my word i'or't. ye'll saave monny a poond 
 i't yeear i' pills, boalusses, an' all sich belly-muck as 
 tha arc 
 
 Bet joins wi' ma i' luv ta ya all, (shoo's a deacent 
 lass, is Bet!) an' wi' a tboosand hoapes 'at ye'll in- 
 couragc ma. 
 
 Ah is, dear Ivverybody, 
 
 Yer varry humble sarvant, 
 
 Dicky Dickeson. 
 
 T'Editor's Study. 
 
 A Leeds Advertisement. 
 
 Mistress Biddy Bucklebewit, 
 
 Laate Haup'ny Cheeseeaake-Makker tul Her Majesty, 
 
 Begs ta inform t'public 'at shoo hcz just 
 
 Setten up for hersen i' that line, 
 
 26, Paastry Square, Leeds, 
 
 AVheare sha carries on 
 
 All them extensive businesses 
 
 0' tart-makker, honest brandy-snap baaker, treeacle- 
 
 stick boiler, humbug importer, spice-pig traader, an' 
 
 univarsal deeaf-nut, breead. cheese, bunnack, an' giner- 
 
 beer decaler ; an' fro't experience 'at shoo's hed i' them 
 
 lines o' genius wal wi' her Majesty, shoo legs ta assuare 
 
 t'inhabitants 'at shoo's t'impedence ta think here's noa- 
 
 body '11 gi' more for t'brass, or sich inconceeavalile 
 
 qualaty as shoo will. 
 
 Biddy liueklebewit alsoa desires ta noatice, 'at as for 
 punctualaty, ooabody ran ]>v, more soa ner hersen; for 
 shoo awlus hez t'oven boat, an' what's better, keeps a
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 105 
 
 wheelbarrow for t'express purpose o' despatcliin' arti- 
 cles ta all t'paarts o't gloabe. 
 
 P. S. — F consequence o't immense saale an' superi- 
 oraty o' B. B.'s goods, lots o' unprincapled foaks hez 
 been induced ta adopt her receapts like, an' ta defraud 
 her; ta prevent which t'Honarable Commissioners o' 
 Stamps hez ordered 'at all B. B.'s stuff be figured wi' a 
 billy-gooat's heead, (them animals bein' tremendous 
 fond o' lollipop) soa 'at noane i' futur '11 be ge-nu-ine 
 but what is ornamented as afore particalarized. Be 
 suare ta think on 
 
 No. 26, Paastry Square, Leeds. 
 
 Scraps from Newspapers. 
 
 Frond. — Felix Flibberton hed a sad roond wi' his 
 wife this week, caused, as we're teld, be Mistress Flib- 
 berton bein' guilty on a piece o' roguery, t'like o' which 
 we seldom hear tell on. It's said, when F,elix taasted 
 on his teea, tiast Thursday mornin', he fan it oot 'at it 
 worn't ower strong, but on't contraary, wur considera- 
 bly weaker ner common. 0' this fact comin' ta leet, 
 he called his wife tut scratch, an' axed as lovinly as ha 
 wur aable, hoo it happened 'at his teea wur i' that 
 pickle. Noo, Felix an' his wife's coffee an' sich like, 
 wur aullus prepaared i' separate pots, — Ah nieean tea- 
 pots ; an', that mornin', Mister Flibberton hevin' ligged 
 rayther long i' bed, his wife hed thowt proper ta gulp 
 her brekfast afore he landed doon. T'question wor, 
 hed t'mistress ta'en t'biggest shaare o't teea, as theare 
 wur noane in t'cannister then ? T'poor woman said, ther 
 wur precious little ta mak' t'brekfast on ; but what ther 
 wor, shoo divided fairly, leeavin' her husband be far t'big- 
 ger hauf. Nut chusin' ta believe all 'at his wife splutter- 
 ed oot, Felix shooted o't sarvant, whoa depoased 'at 
 when shoo gat up, shoo wur suare 'at theare wur then 
 plenty i't canister ta mak' six rare strong cups. El'ter 
 a deeal o' cross-examinaation between t'mistress an't
 
 106 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 sarvant, t'formcr began o' roarin', an' confessed 'at shoo 
 hed defrauded lier lawful partner, devoatin' tul her awn 
 use three, wal tul her husband shoo nobbut left one an' 
 a haul' spooinful o' teea. Felix wodn't grant una par- 
 don then, bud bun her owcr ta keep t'peeace for three 
 months; an', suppoasin' 'at shoo brak it ageean, he 
 threeatened sendin' a brief o't whoale caase ta Maistcr 
 Wilkins, barrister, an' ta tak' sich steps as he mud ad- 
 vise. 
 
 A Munificent Gift. — Dr Swabbs, Physician extra- 
 ordinary ta ivverybody 'at wants poisonin', hez once 
 more come oot ov his shell, an' letten t'world knaw 'at 
 he's t'saame Dr. Swabbs still 'at ivver ha wor. 0' 
 Tuesday neet, wal t'doctor wur smookin' his pipe, an' 
 swillin' his tummler o' brandy an' watter, a depitation 
 o'maad-sarvants, consistin' o't cooks an' seven or eight 
 hoose an' chaamer-maads, waated on him wi' a lloond 
 llobin, petitionin' for a small donaatiou i' order ta buy 
 a mixtur ta poison t'mice wi', as they wur gerrin varry 
 impedent i' ther walks intut kitchen an' cupboard; i' 
 fact as't trustwarthy cook said, one on 'em hed t'bare- 
 faacedness ta come an' wag his tail i' her chocolate, and 
 then as bare faaccdly maade his escaape, wi'oot stoppiri' 
 ta be walloped for't. T'doctor wur soa moved be thease 
 argements, 'at he threw doon his pipe, brekkin' on't. as 
 t'hoose-maaid teld ma, thrusted his hand intul his 
 pocket, an' drew sixpence. What a blessin' wod it be 
 if men generally wod nobbut foller Dr. Swabbs's ex- 
 ample ! 
 
 A TAtarary Saciaty. — A Litarary Saciaty hez been 
 formed i' Otley be some perseverin' an' common-sense 
 young men 'at's ov apinion 'at it's nowt bud reight 'at 
 they sud hcv as mich larnin' as tha can afford ta pay 
 for. A committee's been maade, consistin' o' seven o't 
 wisest o' thease conspirators tut owerthraw o' ignarance, 
 an' rules drawn up an' {dinted i' a hcxcellcnt style, 
 vanv creditable boath tut author an' tut printer thereon,
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 107 
 
 Ah's suare. we've just seen a catalogue o't books they've 
 already gotten, an' as it could'nt miss but speik volums 
 i' ther faavour, we beg ta subjoin t'naames on a to-tbree 
 o't principal warks : — Jack t'Griant-Killer, Tom Thumb, 
 Cock Robin, Mother Hubbard, Jumpin' Joan, Puss i' 
 Booits, Tom t'Piper's Sou, an' a splendid haup'ny edi- 
 tion o' Whittin'ton an' his Cat. This is a grand op- 
 portunaty for lovers o' soond mathamatical, an' other 
 litarary pursuits, ta come forrard, an' suppoart an' sus- 
 taan a novelty fro' which tha ma gether all t'informa- 
 tion ther minds is on t'luke oot for. 
 
 Deborah Duckiton's Advice Corner. 
 
 If ya tuke noatice, ye would see, 'at flatter end o' 
 March i't first quarter, t'mooin wur laad ov her back, a 
 suare sign o' stormy weather. Ye'll all knaw, 'at 
 theare's been part frost an' snawsin'; an', if my judg- 
 ment isn't awfully wrong, we's ha some more. Weel, 
 noo, i' frosty weather, ye're aware, it's rayther daanger- 
 ous walkin', becos o't varry gurt slapeness o't i*ooads 
 an't flegs; Ah'z quite posative on't, for even i' my time 
 Ah've seen more ner one long-legged coavey browt ov 
 a level wi't grund, an' Ah've seen monny a stootan' re- 
 spectable woman, tew. Let me prescribe a remady, 
 then, for all sich misfortuns. Shaadrach Scheddul, — a 
 celebraated horse-shooer i' oor toon, propoased ta sharpen 
 barns for three-haupence a heead ; lads an' lasses, fro' 
 ten ta sixteen year o' aage, thruppance ; an' all aboon 
 that owdness, wbether tha've big feet, little feet, or noa 
 feet at all, fowerpence. 
 
 N.B. Ivvery allooance '11 be maade for wooden legs; 
 an' o' them 'at honestly doesn't wish tabe blessed wi't 
 last-naamed articles o' weear, it's moast respectfully re- 
 quested 'at they'll avaal thersens o't sharpenin' inven- 
 tion. Shaadrach Scheddul alloos five per cent, off for 
 ready brass, or six months' credit ; — auther '11 dew.
 
 108 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 Ah advise all laadics 'at doesn't wish ta hev ther 
 husbands' stockins ootraageously mucky on a weshin'- 
 day. nut ta alloo 'cm t'privilege o' spoartin' knee- 
 breeches, them hcvin' been proved, be varry clever 
 philosophers ta be t'leeadin' cause theareof, an't princi- 
 pal reeason why t'leg o't stockin' doesn't last as long as 
 t'fooit. 
 
 Visits ta Dicky Dickeson-. 
 
 0' Friday Picky Dickeson wur visited i' his study 
 be't Marquis o' Crabbum, an', eftcr a deal o' enquiries 
 aboot t' weather, an' monny remarks eonsarnin' this 
 thing, an' that, t'lattcr praceeded ta explaan what ha'd 
 come for, soapin' an' smilin' tut lamed editor, as it's 
 generally knawn all thease topmarkers dew — when 
 tba've owt ta ger oot on him. It appears 'at t'aim o't 
 Marquis wur ta induce Mr. Dickeson, as a capitalist o' 
 sumo noate, ta join wi' him i' buyin' in all t'paaper 
 shaavins 'at tha can lig ther bans on, soa as ta hev all 
 t'traade ta thersens. Mr. Dickeson agreed, an' t'fire- 
 lectin' an' shaavin'-decalin' world is lukin' wi' mich 
 terror an' int'rest tut result. 
 
 Immediately ef'ter t'Marquis o' Crabbum bed maade 
 bis exit, a uentle rap wur heeard at t' door o't study, an' 
 when Mr. Dickeson bad 'em walk forrard, in popped a 
 bonny, blue-e'ed, Grecian-noazed, white-tooithed lass o' 
 eighteen, an' be't way i' which t'editor smacked her 
 roasy checks wi' his lips, here's na doot bud it wur 
 Nanny Tract. Shoo'd browt two ooatcaakes, 'at shoo'd 
 newly baaked, ye knaw. Mr. Dickeson set tul ta eit 
 'em, an' Nanny set tul ta watch him ; an' when t'first 
 bed finished bis performance on't ooat-caakes, here's na 
 need ta say 'at he began o' squeazin't latter; ay, an' ye 
 ma say what ya've a mind aboot t'modesty o't laadies, 
 bud Nanny squeazed him as weal, an' wor ther owt 
 wrong in't. think ya ? Shallywally! Bud, hooivver, 
 t'editor hedn't been long at this gam', afore ha beerd
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 109 
 
 another noise, — a shufflin', slinkin' nosie, Ah meean, 
 an' nut areg'lar rap, — ootside o't door; soa, takkin' his 
 shoe s off, he crept nicely tut spot, an', be gow ! if ha 
 didn't fin't printer's divil lissenin' theare, here's he 
 nowt for tellin' ya ou't. Mr. Dickeson, ommust choaked 
 wi' madness at this turn-up, (for wheare's ther onny- 
 body 'at likes ta hev ther love-dewins heeard an' seen ?) 
 shoved him intut middle on his study; an' commandin' 
 Nanny ta hod him a minute, (which saame shoo did ta 
 perfection,) he went tut other end o't plaace, an' puttin' 
 on a middlin'-sized clog, tuke a run pause at t'posteri- 
 ors o't impedent printer's divil, an' thearehy makkin' 
 him sing " God saave t'Queen " i' sich prime style, 'at 
 delicate Nanny wur ta'en wi' a fit o' faantin'. T' music 
 hevin' ceeased as sooin as t'performer wur turned oot, 
 Nanny bethowt hersen ta come roond ; bud, shaameful 
 ta say, her an' Dicky didn't paart wal fower i't efter- 
 nooin, at which time t'lass wur wanted up at hoame ta 
 darn stockins an' crimp frills. 
 
 Miscellanies. 
 
 Men an' women is like soa monny cards, played wi' 
 be two oppoancnts, Time an' Eternity : Time get's a 
 gam noo an' then, an' hez t'pleasure o' keepin' his 
 caards for a bit, bud Eternity's be far t'better hand, an' 
 proves, day be day, an' hoor be hoor, 'at he's winnin' 
 incalcalably fast. 
 
 Whenivver ya see one o' thease heng-doon, black 
 craape thingums 'at comes hauf doon a woman's bonnet 
 an' faace, be suare 'at shoo's widowed, an' " Ta Let!" 
 
 It's confidently rumoured in t'palitical world 'at t'tax 
 is goin' ta be ta'en off leather-breeches, an putten on 
 white hats. 
 
 Why does a young laady i' a ridin'-habit resemmle 
 Shakspeare ? Cos shoo's (offen) miss-cooated (inis- 
 quoted). 
 
 A lad i' Otley, knawn t'inhabitants for his odd 
 15
 
 110 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 dewins like, an' for his modesty, tew. wun day went a 
 errand for an owd woman 'at ilia called Betty Cruttice: 
 an' he wur sa sharp ower it. an' did it sa pleasantly be- 
 side, 'at Betty axed him ta hev a bit o' apple-pie for 
 his trouble. "Noa, thenk ya," said t'lad. i; Thoo'd 
 better. Willy," said Betty. '-Noa, thenk ya." repeeat- 
 ed t'lad ; an' off he ran hoaine, an' as sooin as ha gat 
 intut hoose, hurst out a-roarin' an' sohbin' as if his 
 heart wod brck. " Billy, me lad," says his mother, 
 '•what's t 'matter wi' tha ?" a Wah," blubbered poor 
 Billy, " Betty Cruttice axed ma ta hev a bit o' apple- 
 pie' an' Ah said, Xoa, thenk ya !" 
 
 Poakers is like brawlin' tongues — just t'things ta stir 
 up lires wi'. 
 
 Why does a inland sea resemmle a linen-draaper's 
 shop? Cos it contaans surges an' bays (serges an' 
 baizi i. 
 
 " What's said for thease remarkable articles ?" shoot- 
 ed an auctioneer at a saale to three week sin'. " Here's 
 a likeness o' Queen Victoria, ta'en in t'year seventeen 
 ninety-two, a couple o'pini pots, 'at's been drunk oot on 
 bc't celabraated Bobby Burns, an' a pair o' tongs 'at 
 General Fairfax faaght wi' at t'battle o' Marston Moor, 
 all i' wun lot : ay, ay, an' here's another thing ta goa 
 wi' 'em, a hay -fork 'at Noah used ta bed doon his beeasts 
 wi' when ha wur in t'ark, sometime i' fowerteen hun- 
 dred. Bud, hooivver, it maks na odds tut year. Fower 
 articles here, all antiquaties ; what's said for 'cm? Six- 
 pence is said for 'em. laadies an' gcnnlemen — eight- 
 pence is said for 'em — ninepence, tenpence. a shillin's 
 said lor 'em, laadies an' gennlenien, an' thenk ya for 
 yer magnanimaty. Are ya all done at ashillin'? Varry 
 weel, then. Ah sahn't dwell; soo thease three articles 
 is goin'." •■ Vc'rt! reight, maaster." shooted a cobbler 
 fro't crood, "they aregoin', tew; for if my e'es tell ma 
 reight. theare'e na hannlcs on't pots, na noase on't pictur, 
 an' na legs on't tongs."
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. Ill 
 
 " Hoo sweet — hoo varry sweet — is life !" as t'flee said 
 when ha wur stuck i' treeacle. 
 
 Why does a lad, detected i' robbin' a bee-hive ger a 
 a double booty be't ? Cos he gets boath honey an' 
 whacks (wax). 
 
 A striplin' runnin' uptul apaaver, 'at wur hammerin' 
 an' brayin' soa at his wark, 'at t'sweeat fair ran doon 
 his cheeks, began o' scraapin't sweeat off his faace intul 
 a pot wi' a piece o' tin. " Hollow I" shoot's t'man, 
 rubbin' his sniartin' featurs wi' his reight hand, " what 
 meeans tha ta be comin' ta scraape t'skin off a man's 
 coontenance ?" "Nay, nay," said t'lacl, "Ah worn't 
 scraapin't skin off, noo, but nobbut t'sweeat, which wur 
 o' noa use ta ye, maaster, wal it wor ta me, as Ah've 
 been all ower, an' couldn't get na <yroo/se-greease onny- 
 wheare till E saw ye." 
 
 A Fable. 
 
 I't' Fable book, we read at school. 
 On an owd Frosk, an arrand Fooyl ; 
 
 Pride crack'd her little bit o'Brain : 
 (T book o' me Neyve, Mun) we a pox, 
 Shoo'd needs meytch Bellies Ave an Ox ; 
 
 Troath, shoo wor meeghtily mistayne. 
 
 Two on bur young: ons, they pretend 
 Just goane a gaterds we a Friend, 
 
 Stapisht an' starin', brought her word — 
 " Mother, we've seen for suer, To-neeght. 
 " A hairy Boggard ! sich a seeght ! 
 
 "As big ! as big ! eeh Loord ! eeh Loord !" 
 
 Shoo puffs, and thrusts, and girns. and swells, 
 [Th' Bairns thowt sho' or dooin' summot else] 
 
 To ratch her Coyt o' speckl'd Leather ; — 
 "Wor it as big, my Lads, as me ?" 
 " Bless us," said Toan, "as big as ye 
 
 " Yoar but a Beean anent a Blether !"
 
 112 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 No grain o' Marcy on her Guts, 
 At it ageean shoo swells and struts, 
 
 As if the varry hangment bad her. 
 Thinkin' ther Mother nohbut joak'd, 
 Th' young Lobs wi' laughin', wor hawf choak'd; 
 
 A thing which made her ten times madder. 
 
 Another thrust, and thick as Hops, 
 Her Pudding's plaister'd all their Chops, 
 
 'Mess there wor then a bonny sturring; 
 Deead in a minute as a Stoanc 
 All t'Hopes o' t' Family wor gooane 
 
 And not a six-pince left for t'burying. 
 
 We think, do you see, there's no small chonce 
 This little hectoring dog <>' Fronce 
 
 May cut just sitch another Caper; 
 He'll trust, fur sartin, ol a pod 
 Ye. — mortal Tripes can never hod 
 
 Sitch heaps o' wind, an' reek, an' vapor. 
 
 What's bred i' t'Booane, an' runs i' t'Blooyd, 
 If nought, can niver come to gooyd, 
 
 Loa Mayster Melville's crackt his Pitcher, 
 Mooar Fowk are sweeatin', every Lim', 
 A feeard o' being swing'd like him, 
 
 Wi' Sammy Whitbread's twinging switch'r
 
 SPECIMENS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EARLY ENGLISH LANGUAGE, 
 
 CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED. 
 
 From 
 
 Simon de Ghent's Rule op Nuns, 
 
 Of the earlier part of the thirteenth century. 
 
 Holy men -] holi wummen beob of alle vondunges 
 swubest ofte i-tempted, -] han to goddre heale ; vor 
 i}>e vihte ageines han, heo bigiteb ]>e blisfule kempene 
 crune. Lo ! }>auh hwu be meneb bam bi Jeremie : 
 persecutores nostri velociorcs aquilis celi, super monies 
 persecuti sunt nos ; in deserto insidiati sunt nobis. J>et 
 is, ure wifterwines beob swifture ]>en }>e earnes; up 
 obe bulles heo clumben efter us, ^ }>er fuhten mid 
 us, -\ get i?Se wildernesse beo aspieden us to slean. 
 Ure wij>erwines beob J>reo : }>e veond, J>e world, -] ure 
 owune vlesbs, ase ich er seide. Libtlicbe ne mei me 
 nout oJ>erbule i-cnowen hwuc of f>cos }>reo weorreb 
 him ; vor evricbon helped oJ>er, )>auh ]>e veond kun- 
 delicheeggeb us to atternesse, as to prude, tooverbowe, 
 to onde, ^ to wrefcfce, -^ to bore attri kundles, ]>et 
 beofc her efter i-nemmed. J>et flesh put propremen
 
 114 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 touward swetnesse, *] touward eise, -\ toward softnesse, 
 ant te world bit mon giscen wordes weole, -] wunne *] 
 wui'schipe, *] o)>er swuche ginegoven, J>et bidweolieb 
 kang men to luvien one scbeadewe. J>eos wi&erwines, 
 he seift, voluwed us on hulles, -] awaited us i%e wil- 
 dernesse, hu heo us muwen heruien. Hul, \>et is heih 
 lif, J>er }>es deoflcs assauz beob ofte strengest ; wilder- 
 nesse, pet is onlich lif of ancre wuninge, vor also ase 
 ine wildernesse beo$ alle wilde bestes, ^ nulled nout 
 i-J>olen monues neihlechunge, aub fleob hwon heo ham 
 i-herefc oj^er i-seo^, also schulen ancren over alle o}>re 
 wummen beon wilde o fisse wise, -] peonne beob heo 
 over alle of>re leovest to ure Loverde, -\ swetest him 
 ]>unche% ham; vor of alle flesches peonne is wilde 
 deores fleschs leovest "] swetest, I }>isse wildernesse 
 wende ure Loverdes folc, ase Exode tellefc, touward 
 ted eadie londe of Jerusalem, }>et he ham hefde bihoten. 
 And ge, mine leove sustren, wendeb bi ]>en ilke weie 
 toward te heie Jerusalem, to J>e kinedom ]> he haveft 
 bihoten his i-corene. Grob ]>auh ful warliche, vor i 
 }>isse wildernesse beob monie uvele bestes ; Hun of 
 prude, neddre of attri onde, unicorne of wrebfte, beore 
 of dead slouhfce, vox of giscunge, suwe of givernesse, 
 scorpiun mid te teile of stinkinde lecherie, )>et is gol- 
 nesse. Her beob nu a-reawe i-told ]>e seoven heaved 
 sunnen. 
 
 Hymn to the Virgin. 
 
 Time of Henry III. 
 
 Blessed beo thu lavedi, 
 
 ful of hovene blisse, 
 Swete flur of parais, 
 
 moder of milternisse ; 
 Thu praye Jhesu Crist thi sone, 
 
 that he me i-wisse, 
 Thare a londe al swo ihc beo, 
 
 that he me ne i-missc.
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS, 115 
 
 Of the, faire lavedi, ruin oreisun 
 
 ich wile biginnen ! 
 Thi deore swete sunnes love 
 
 thu lere me to winnen. 
 Wei ofte ich sike and sorwe make, 
 
 ne mai ich nevere blinnen, 
 Bote thu, thruh thin milde mod, 
 
 bringe me out of sunne. 
 
 Ofte ihc seke merci, 
 
 thin swete name ich calle : 
 Mi flehs is foul, this world is fals, 
 
 thu loke that ich ne falle. 
 Lavedi freo, thu schild me 
 
 frarn the pine of helle ! 
 And send me into that blisse 
 
 that tunge ne mai tellen. 
 
 Mine werkes, lavedi, 
 
 heo makieth me ful won ; 
 Wei ofte ich clepie and calle. 
 
 thu i-her me for than. 
 Bote ic chabbe the help of the, 
 
 other I ne kan ; 
 Help thu me, ful wel thu mist, 
 
 thu helpest moni a man. 
 
 I-blessed beo thu, lavedi, 
 
 so fair and so briht ; 
 Al min hope is uppon the 
 
 bi dai and bi nicht. 
 Helpe, thruh thin milde mode, 
 
 for wel wel thu mist, 
 That ich nevere for feondes sake 
 
 fur-go thin echc liht. 
 
 Briht and scene quen of hovene, 
 
 ich bidde thin sunnes hore ;
 
 11G PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 The sunne's that ich habbe i-cun, 
 
 hco rewweth me ful sore. 
 
 "Wei ofte ich chabbe the I'ur-saken, 
 
 the wil ich never eft more ; 
 
 Lavedi, for thine sake, 
 
 treuthen feondes lore. 
 
 I-blessed beo thu, lavedi, 
 
 so feir and so hende ; 
 Thu praie Jhesu Crist thi sone, 
 
 that he me i-scude, 
 Whare a loiide al swo ich beo, 
 
 er ich bonne wende, 
 That ich mote in parais 
 
 wonieu withuten ende. 
 
 Bricht and scene quen of storre, 
 
 so me liht and lere, 
 In this false fikele world 
 
 so me led and steore, 
 That ich at min ende dai 
 
 ne habbe non feond to fere ; 
 Jhesu, mit ti swete blod, 
 
 thu bohtest me ful dere. 
 
 * 
 
 Jhesu, seinte Marie sone, 
 
 thu idier thin moder bone ; 
 To the ne d'ar I clepien noht, 
 
 to hire ich make min mene ; 
 Thu do that ich for hire sake 
 
 beo i-maked so clene, 
 That ich noht at dai of dome 
 
 beo flemed of thin exsene. 
 MS. Egerton G13, Reliq. Antiq. i. 102-3.
 
 *J 
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 117 
 
 From 
 
 The Harrowing of Hell, 
 
 MS. Digby 86, time of Edward I. 
 
 Hou Jhesu Crist herowede helle, 
 
 Of harde gates ich wille telle. 
 
 Leve trend, nou beth stille, 
 
 Lesteth that ich tellen wille, 
 
 Ou Jhesu fader him bithoute, 
 
 And Adam hout of helle broute. 
 
 In helle was Adam and Eve, 
 
 That weren -Jhesu Crist wel leve ; 
 
 And Seint Johan the Baptist, 
 
 That was newen Jhesu Crist ; 
 
 Davit the prophete and Abraham, 
 
 For the sunnes of Adetn ; 
 
 And moni other holi mon, 
 
 Mo then ich ou tellen con 
 
 Till Jhesu fader nom fles and blod 
 
 Of the maiden Marie god, 
 
 And suth then was don ful michel some, 
 
 Bonden and beten and maked ful lome, 
 
 Tille that Gode Friday at non, 
 
 Thenne he was on rode i-don, 
 
 His honden from his body wonden, 
 
 Nit here niigte hoe him shenden, 
 
 To helle sone he nom gate 
 
 Adam and Eve hout to take ; 
 
 Tho the he to helle cam, 
 
 Suche wordes he bigan. 
 
 From 
 
 COKAYGNE, 
 
 A poem written very early in the fourteenth century. 
 
 Ther is a wel fair abbei, 
 Of white monkes, and of grei, 
 Ther beth bowris and halles : 
 Al of pasteiis beth the walles, 
 16
 
 118 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 Of fleis, of fisse, and rich met, 
 The likfullist that man mai et. 
 Fluren cakes beth the schingles alle, 
 Of cherche, cloister, boure and halle. 
 The pinnes beth fat podinges, 
 Rich met to princez and kinges. 
 Ther is a cloister fair and lijt, 
 Brod and lang, of sembli sigt. 
 The pilers of that cloister alle 
 Beth i-turned of cristale, 
 With harlas and capitale 
 Of grene iaspe and rede corale. 
 In the praer is a tre 
 Swithe likful for to se, 
 The rote is gingevir and galingale. 
 The siouns beth al sedwale. 
 Trie maces beth the flure, 
 The rind cauel of swet odur ; 
 The frute gilofre of gode smakke, 
 Of cucubes ther nis no lakke. 
 
 MS. Harl. 913, f. 4. 
 
 From 
 
 The Proverbs op Hendyng, 
 
 MS. Harl. 2253, time of Edward II. 
 
 Mon that wol of wysdani heren, 
 At wyse Hendyng he may lernen, 
 That wes Marcolves sone ; 
 
 Gode thonkes ant monie thewes 
 
 For te teche fele shrewes, 
 For that wes ever is wone. 
 Jhesu Crist, al folkes red, 
 That for us alle tholede ded 
 
 Upon the rode tre, 
 Lene us alle to ben wys, 
 Ant to ende in his servys !
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 119 
 
 Amen, par charite" ! 
 ' God biginning maketh god endyng,' 
 Quoth Hendyng. 
 
 Wyt and wysdom lurneth gerne, 
 Ant loke that none other werne 
 
 To be wys ant hende ; 
 For betere were to bue wis, 
 Then for te where feh ant grys, 
 
 Wher so mon shal ende. 
 ' Wyt and wysdom is god warysoun/ 
 Quoth Hendyng. 
 
 Ne may no mon that is in londe, 
 For nothyng that he con fonde, 
 
 Wonen at home ant spede ; 
 So fele thewes for te leorne, 
 Ase he that hath y-sotht jeorne 
 
 In wel fele theode. 
 ' Ase fele thede, ase fele thewes ;' 
 Quoth Hendyng. 
 
 The Creed, 
 
 From a MS. written in the reign of Edward III. 
 
 I byleve in God, fader almyjthi, maker of hevene 
 and of erthe, and in Jhesu Crist, the sone of hym only 
 oure lord, the wusche is consceyved of the holy gost, 
 y-boren of Marie mayden, suffrede passioun under 
 Pounce Pilate, y-crucified, ded, and buried, wente doun 
 in to helle, the thridde day he roos from dethe, he 
 steyet up to hevenes, he sitteth on the right syde of 
 God the fadur almygti, thennes he is to come to deme 
 the queke and the dede. I byleve in the holy gost, 
 holy chirche general, the comunyng of halewes, the 
 forjefenesse of synnes, the rysyng of flech, and the lyf 
 whit-oute ende. Amen.
 
 120 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 From 
 
 A Poem on Blood-letting, 
 
 Written about A. D. 1830. 
 
 Maystris that uthyth blode letyng, 
 
 And therwyth giteth gowr levyng, 
 
 Here ge may lere wysdom ful gode, 
 
 In what place ge schulle let blode 
 
 In man, woman, and in childe, 
 
 For evelys that ben wyk and wilde. 
 
 Weynis ther ben .xxx.'' and two 
 
 That on a man mot ben undo ; 
 
 .xvj. in the heved ful rigt, 
 
 And .xvj. beneth in gow i-pygt. 
 
 In what place thay schal be founde, 
 
 I schal gow telle in a stounde. 
 
 Besydis the ere ther ben two, 
 
 That on a man mot ben undo 
 
 To kepe hys heved fro evyl turnyng, 
 
 And fro the scalle, wythout lesyng. 
 
 Two at the templys thay mot blede 
 
 For stoppynge of kynde, as I rode. 
 
 And on is in the mydde for-hevede, 
 
 For lepre sausfleme mot blede. 
 
 Abo we the nose thare is on, 
 
 For fuethynge mot be undon ; 
 
 And also whan eyhen ben sore, 
 
 And for resyng gout everemore. 
 
 Two they ben at the eyhen ende, 
 
 "VVhan they beth bleryt for to amende, 
 
 And for that cometh of smokynge, 
 
 I wol tel yow no lesynge, 
 
 At the holle of the grot ther ben two, 
 
 That for lepre and streyt breyt mot be undo. 
 
 In the lyppys .iiij. ther ben gode to bledene, 
 
 As I yow telle now bydene ; 
 
 Two by the eyhen abowen also, 
 
 I telle yow tbere ben two
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 121 
 
 For sor of tho mowthe to blede, 
 What hyt is I fynde as I rede. 
 Two under the tongue wythout lese 
 Mot blede for the squynase ; 
 And whan the townge is akynge 
 Throgt eny mauer swollynge. 
 
 From 
 
 An Astrological Manuscript, 
 
 Written about the year 1400. 
 
 Man born wile the sonne is in Cankyr, that is the 
 xiiij. day in Jun tyl the xiij. day in Jul, xxx. day. is 
 whit colorid, femynin herte ; but he be born the owr of 
 Mars or of Sol or of Jupiter, man bold and hardy, and 
 sly inowh to falshede and tresowne, fayr spekere and 
 evil spekere, and suptyl and wily and fals, broken in 
 arm or in fase, desese in cheyl or nere, mekyl wytty 
 and mikyl onwis and onkynde, and fals in fele thingis 
 in word and dede ; shrewe to woordin wyth, hatyd of 
 fele and wol fewe lowyd ; a womman schal make him 
 to sinne ; he schal lovin a woman brown of complexown 
 and of bettur blod than is hymself; he schal lovin no 
 man but for hiis owne profyt. 
 
 A Song, 
 
 Temp. Henry VI. 
 
 What so mene seyne, 
 Love is no peyne 
 To theme serteyne 
 
 Butt varians ; 
 For they constreyne 
 Ther hertes to feyne, 
 Ther mowthis to pleyne 
 
 Ther displesauns. 
 Whych is in dede 
 Butt feynyd drede, 
 So God me spede !
 
 122 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 And dowbilnys. 
 Ther othis to bcde, 
 Ther lyvya to lede, 
 And prot'erith mede 
 
 New-fangellenys. 
 For whcnne they pray, 
 Ye shalle have nay, 
 What so they say, 
 
 Beware, for shame. 
 For every daye 
 They waite ther pray, 
 Wher so they may, 
 
 And make butt game. 
 Thenne semyth me 
 Ye may welle se 
 They be so fre 
 
 In evyry plase : 
 Hitt were pete 
 Butt they shold be 
 Bogelid, perde, 
 
 Withowtyne grase. 
 
 MS. Cantab. Ff. i. 6, f. 45. 
 
 Extract from 
 
 The Romance of Sir Perceval, 
 
 Written about 1440. 
 
 Thofe he were of no pryde, 
 Forthirmore ganne he glyde 
 Tille a chambir ther besyde, 
 
 Moo sellys to see ; 
 Riche clothes fande he sprede, 
 A lady slepande on a bedde, 
 He said, '• Forsothe a tokyne to wedde 
 
 Salle thou lefe with mee." 
 Ther he kyste that swete thynge, 
 Of hir fynger he tuke a rynge, 
 His awenne modir takynnynge
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS, 123 
 
 He lefte with that fre. 
 He went forthe to his mere, 
 Tuke with hym his schorte spere, 
 Lepe one lofte as he was ere, 
 
 His way rydes he. 
 Now on his way rydes he, 
 Moo selles to see ; 
 A knyghte wolde he nedis bee 
 
 Withowttene any bade. 
 He come ther the kyng was 
 Servede of the firste mese, 
 To hym was the maste has 
 
 That the childe hade ; 
 And thare made he no lett 
 At gate, dore ne wykett, 
 Bot in graythely he gett, 
 
 Syche maistres he made ! 
 At his first in comynge, 
 His mere withowttene faylynge 
 Kyste the forhevede of the kynge, 
 
 So nerehande he rade ! 
 The kyng had ferly thaa, 
 And up his hande ganne he taa, 
 And putt it forthir hym fraa 
 
 The mouthe of the mere. 
 He saide, " Faire childe and free, 
 Stonde stille besyde mee, 
 And telle me wythene that thou bee, 
 
 And what thou wille here." 
 Thanne saide the fole of the filde, 
 " I ame myne awnne modirs childe 
 Comene fro the woddez wylde 
 
 Tille Arthure the dere ; 
 gisterday saw I knyghtis three, 
 Sich one salle thou make mee 
 On this mere by-for the, 
 
 Thi mete or thou schere !"
 
 124 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 From 
 
 Manuscript Porkington 10, 
 
 Written in the reign of Edward IV. 
 
 God that dyed for us alle, 
 
 And dranke bothe eysell and galle, 
 
 He bryng us alle oute off bale ; 
 And gyve hym good lyve and long, 
 That woll attend to my son-. 
 
 And herkyne on to my talle. 
 Ther dwelyd a man in my contr6, 
 The wyche hade wyvys thre 
 
 Yn proses of certyn tyme ; 
 Be hys fyrst wyffe a chyld he had, 
 The wyche was a propyr lad 
 
 And ryght an happy hynd ; 
 And his fader lovyd hym ryght welle, 
 Hys steppe-dame lovyd hyme never a delle, 
 
 I telle gowe as y thynke; 
 She thoght hyt lost be the rode 
 Alle that ever dyd hyme good, 
 
 Off mette other of drynke ; 
 Not halfe ynowe thereof he had, 
 And gyt in fay the hit was fulle bad, 
 
 And alle hyr thoght yt lost. 
 
 Y pray God evyll mot sche fare, 
 For oft sche dyde hym moche care, 
 
 As far forthe as sche durst ! 
 She good wyffe to hyr husbond yone say, 
 For to put away thys boy 
 
 Y hold yt for the beste ; 
 In fayth he hys a lether lade, 
 
 Y wold som other man hym had, 
 That beter niygt hym chaste. 
 
 Than anone spake the good man, 
 And to hys wyff sayd he than, 
 He ys but gong of age,
 
 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 125 
 
 He schall be with us lenger, 
 Tyll that he be strenger, 
 
 To wyn beter wage. 
 We have a mane a strong freke, 
 The wyche one fyld kypythe owr nette, 
 
 And slepyth half the day ; 
 He schall come home be Mary myld. 
 And to the fylde schalle go the chyld, 
 
 And kepe hem gyfe he may. 
 
 A Letter, 
 
 Temp. Henry Till. 
 
 Kyghte honorable and my syngular goode lorde and 
 mayster, all circumstauncys and thankes sett aside, 
 pleasithe yt youre good lordeshipe to be advertisid, 
 that where I was constitute and made by youre honora- 
 ble desire and commaundmente commissarie generall 
 of the dyosese of Saynte Assaph, I have done my dyly- 
 gens and dutie for the expulsinge and takynge awaye 
 of certen abusions, supersticions, and ipocryses usid 
 within the saide diosece of Saynte Assaph, accordynge 
 to the kynges honorable actes and injunctions therin 
 made. That notwithstondinge, ther ys an image of 
 Darvellgadarn within the saide diosese, in whome the 
 people have so greate confidence, hope and truste, that 
 they cumme daylye a pillgramage unto hym, somme 
 withe kyne, other with oxen or horsis, and the reste 
 withe money, insomuche that there was fyve or syxe 
 hundrethe pilgrames, to a mans estimacion, that offered 
 to the said image the fifte daie of this presente monethe 
 of Aprill. The innocente people hathe ben sore aluryd 
 and entisid to worshipe the saide image, insomuche 
 that there is a commyn sayinge as yet amongist them 
 that whosoever will offer anie thinge to the saide image 
 of Davellgadarn, he hathe power to fatche hym or them 
 that so offers oute of hell when they be dampned. 
 Therfore, for the reformacion and amendmente of the 
 17
 
 126 PROVINCIAL DIALECTS. 
 
 premisses, I wolde gladlie knowe by this berer youre 
 honorable pleasure and will, as knowithe God, who ever 
 preserve your lordeshipe longe in welthe and honor. 
 Writen in Northe Wales, the vj. daye of this presentc 
 Aprill. 
 
 Youre bedman and dayelye orator by dutie, 
 
 Elis Price. 
 
 THE END.
 
 This book is DUB on the last date stamped below 
 
 A*6» 1949 
 JAN 8 6 1950 
 
 AUG 13 1957 
 
 APR 2 9 i960 
 
 TfECO IP-' 
 
 APR 1 1 i383 
 
 
 4MFEBH 
 
 RECE.1V 
 
 ., 
 
 LD-Uf!L 
 
 JUL 7 
 
 AM 
 7.4 
 
 ED 
 
 1965 
 
 AW 
 7-4 
 
 4-S> 
 
 : 
 OEC 20 19^ pni 
 
 pM 
 9-10 
 
 A-9 
 
 FormL-9-10m-2,'31
 
 v?v' 
 
 i **» 
 
 ► r" 
 
 "V\ ..-•■ 
 
 
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