Original Tales and Ballads in The Yorkshire Dialect.
ORIGINAL TALES AND BALLADS
IN THE YORKSHIRE DIALECT
ORIGINAL TALES
AND BALLADS
IN THE YORKSHIRE DIALECT
KNOWN ALSO AS INGLIS, THE
LANGUAGE OF THE ANGLES,
AND THE NORTHUMBRIAN DIALECT:
SPOKEN TO-DAY IN YORKSHIRE,
AND IN EARLY TIMES FROM
SOUTH YORKSHIRE TO ABERDEEN
BY
JOHN MALHAM-DEMBLEBY
AUTHOR OF "THE KEY TO THE BRONTE WORKS," ETC.
Condon and f elting-on-ym :
THE WALTER SCOTT PUBLISHING CO., LTD.
NEW YORK AND MELBOURNE.
1912.
All Rights Reserved.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
PREFACE 7
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION - 13
PRONUNCIATION OF THE YORKSHIRE DIALECT 21
BALLAD: KIRKSTALL ABBAY - 31
NOBBUD AN ACKREN - 45
TALE: 'E'o SAID IT! 47
BALLAD: COVERLA 53
TUL A GREEAN-WOOD FLAH 64
TALE: T' FAIRY RING o ESHING - 66
HUNTIN SONG 73
TALE: IN T' BLEGGIN DAYS - 74
WER TIDE - 81
BALLAD: IN T' BURNIN o T' GREEAN - 83
A Kuss - 95
BALLAD: ROBIN HOOD AN HIS MERRIE MEN AT COME
FRO T' RIDINS THREI - 97
TALE: T' WOOIN o ELLA - 121
WER YORKSHER WHISSON-MONDA - 129
BALLAD: BATTLE o BOROUGHBRIG - 132
20638G3
VI CONTENTS
PAGB
NOTES. KIRKSTALL ABBAY - - 141
NOBBUD AN ACKREN - 143
'E'D SAID IT! - 143
COVERLA - 144
TUL A GREEAN-WOOD FLAH - 146
T FAIRY RING o ESHING - 146
IN T' BLEGGIN DAYS - 146
WER TIDE - 146
IN T' BURNIN o T' GREEEAN - 146
ROBIN HOOD AN HIS MERRIE MEN AT COME
FRO T' RIDINS THREI - 147
T 1 WOOIN o ELLA - 153
WER YORKSHER WHISSON-MONDA - 154
BATTLE o BOROUGHBRIG - - 154
GLOSSARY OF WORDS - 155
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS TO THE FIRST EDITION - 169
PREFACE.
THE ancient element of this volume makes necessary the
statement of the fact that these "Tales and Ballads" are all
throughout entirely my own original work. My Historical
Introduction will show the dialect I have written herein, the
which is known also as Inglis, the language of the Angles,
and the Northumbrian dialect, spoken to-day in Yorkshire,
and in early times from South Yorkshire to Aberdeen, is a
rare and signal inheritance the language of a race pre-
eminently the English of the English.
A modern national language is a survival of one or more
of the several ancient dialects. Neither the language of the
Saxons of Wessex nor the older language of the early
English the Angles, whose speech was spoken from
Aberdeen even down to the Midlands, came to be the
nationally surviving dialect. The East Midland variety it
was that survived. Tendency towards the adoption of the
English now common was manifest in writers as early as
Chaucer; and literary men being invariably scholars writing
for those who might understand words of Greek, Latin, and
French association, their English, even at a time when it
yet preserved archaic early English forms, gave us a Latinized
English neither purely Anglian nor Saxon.
The Yorkshire dialect, which is a survival of Inglis, as
its Scots writers called the language of the Angles or early
English, and of what is also known as the Northern dialect,
owes absolutely nothing of its present oral preservation to
literary transcriptions. My chapter on the pronunciation
makes ascertainable the distance Modern English, and the
Yorkshire dialect as spoken to-day, are from each other, and,
vii
YH1 PREFACE
to quote the words I use elsewhere, we truly perceive that
"the Yorkshire dialect in which I have written these Tales
and Ballads is Inglis, the purest of pure English."
It is therefore from no mere parochial standpoint we
must view the contents of this volume; hence I am glad
that even before its publication the book has found welcom-
ing friends in the leading universities, and in the representa-
tive libraries of the English-speaking world.
Yorkshire has several varieties of dialect. I find, however,
that fundamentally all the Yorkshire dialects are one (indeed,
the same might be said of all varieties of the Northumbrian),
and excepting something of accidence, sundry idioms, and
odd words peculiar to each. A chief distinction is that in
the North and East Ridings the West Riding vowel sound
" ooan," as in " stooan," is "eean," as in "steean," etc.
The ballad I have written entitled "Robin Hood an His
Merrie Men at come fro t' Ridins Threi," contains five
distinct Yorkshire dialects. But I must point out that in
writing each dialect I very often when possible avoided
accidence, idioms, and words, used identically in all five
dialects; thus the differentiation of the dialects appears more
marked than it really is. In this connection I may add in
the words of Robin Hood in the above-mentioned ballad:
"I'm Yorksher, goid Sir King !
An noan a drop o better blooid
E'er weet a grey gois wing !"
I have in my veins the blood of the North West Riding
folk, of the East Riding seafarers, and of the South West
Riding folk, as I state particularly in a note on the ballad,
" Robin Hood an His Merrie Men at come fro t' Ridins
Threi." I trust therefore that in my selection for my "Tales
and Ballads in the Yorkshire Dialect," of what scholars call
the Windhill dialect of Yorkshire, as spoken about Keighley,
Bradford, and Leeds, I shall not be accused of local senti-
ment. Very many reasons, the entering into of which is
PREFACE IX
here unnecessary, though some may be obvious to the
reader, make this dialect the most suitable for the presenta-
tion of the Yorkshire dialect in these "Tales and Ballads."
The dialect is fast and surely dying- out, and it is well
thus to endeavour to perpetuate the memory of our ancient
speech. A happy coincidence is the fact that I have lived
from my early teens on the top of Windhill itself on Wrose
Hill, that volcanic-looking bleak hill one sees in Airedale,
towering above Shipley, north of Bradford; and there I
learned of the old dialect-speaking folk the purest Windhill
dialect, of which dialect Professor Joseph Wright wrote an
excellent work Grammar of the Dialect of Windhill, Hence
all that can be required in the way of exact knowledge of
the accidence, etc., and scientific pronunciation of the dialect
of my "Tales and Ballads," may be discovered in Professor
Wright's valuable grammar.
In my chapter on the pronunciation, however, I have not
at all had in mind the writing of Dr. Wright. Scholars
therefore will find much interest in the two independent
testimonies on this beautiful old speech of the North
Countrei. Where they may differ perhaps neither must be
blamed as in error. For instance, I think Dr. Wright in
his Grammar gives " lois " for the present of "lose." 1
nearly always write " loss," which is often heard here, as
in the North Riding. In Stannington, a scattered moorland
parish five miles north of Sheffield, where I lived as a boy,
I only heard " loise " and never " loss," for the present. But
I myself seldom hear "loise" used about Bradford and
Windhill for present "lose"; mostly it is "loss." See my
note on " Nobbud an Ackren."
Professor of Comparative Philology in the University of
Oxford, and Editor of the English Dialect Dictionary, Dr.
Joseph Wright is a native of Windhill, near Bradford, and
can himself speak the dialect. It may be well, therefore, to
state herewith that on his reading my story, " 'E'd said it ! "
which I print in this volume, the Professor wrote me:
X PREFACE
"Please accept my best thanks for kindly sending me
a copy of your most excellent specimen of the dialect, which
will be very useful indeed."
I should betray a responsibility scholarship and fact
compel me to respect for the sake of the genuine dialect,
if I did not repeat the words of that other authority on the
Yorkshire dialect and the English language, the learned
Dr. Henry Bradley, M.A., Ph.D., co-editor of the Oxford
English Dictionary ', who, having read my writing, subscribed
for a copy of this work, saying in the course of a most
encouraging letter:
"... There is no doubt about the genuineness of your
dialect. There is in existence a wofully large amount of
dialect writing that is not worth the paper it is printed on,
and I think one ought to take every precaution against
encouraging any additions to that rubbish heap, even when
the authors are obviously well-meaning. ... I am pro-
mising myself a good deal of pleasure from reading your
book. . . ."
Professor W. W. Skeat, of Cambridge, Professor G. C.
Moore Smith, of the University of Sheffield, and other
authorities, have written me in similar terms regarding
much of the printed dialect, some of which Professor Moore
Smith declares to be "often modern English in a dialect
disguise," though but for the responsibility implied above
I would not myself have made this reference.
I thank Professor Joseph Wright, Litt.D., of Oxford
University, for his warm encouragement; and the Rev.
Professor W. W. Skeat, M.A., Litt.D., of Cambridge
University, who gave me valuable advice when I was an
unknown writer in my teens, I thank for his continued
interest. To Dr. Henry Bradley, M.A., Ph.D., of Oxford,
I also owe my gratitude for kind and hearty encouragement.
My subscribers to the first edition of these "Tales and
Ballads" I thank you. Glad I am your names appear in
PREFACE XI
a list that will be preserved as being of those who loved
and wished to perpetuate the memory of our ancient mother
tongue. Some of you will feel the medium I herewith
employ brings us closer. Always when I write do I think
of my friends those readers the present and future have,
whom I may dare to call my very intimate friends. The
other world, that may not know you and me, and care for
us, is then away. I will not assume it hears me say the
bard is bard whatever language he employ, and his in unity,
the sweet aria and the syllabic line, the glad anthem and
the joyful dance.
JOHN MALHAM-DEMBLEBY.
SCARR HILL,
ECCLESHILL, BRADFORD,
YORKSHIRE.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
YORKSHIRE is very England. It was Deira, the home of the
Angles. Who is not familiar with the story of those early
Yorkshire children of English history who are said to have
brought Gregory to make us Christians ?
"Gregory had once seen some English slaves in the
Roman market, where their blue eyes, yellow hair, and fair
complexions contrasted strongly with the dark looks and
swarthy cheeks of Southern captives. On inquiring who and
whence they were, his fancy was struck by the Scripture
significance of the answers he received. 'Angles!' he ex-
claimed; 'not Angles, but angels! From Deira? Then
they shall be de ira eruti snatched from wrath. Name of
their king, ^Ella ? That is Alleluiah ! ' "
Says Professor W. W. Skeat, Professor of Anglo-Saxon
at Cambridge University: "The Anglo-Saxons were not
Angles, and English in the extreme literal sense was the
language of the Angles."
Scholars now speak of the Wessex dialect as Saxon, and
of the Northumbrian and Mercian as Anglian the Mercian
dialect being spoken so far down as the Midlands. The
language of the Angles was called " Inglis," the which is
known also as the Northumbrian or Northern dialect and the
Yorkshire dialect. Again to quote Prof. Skeat's excellent
handbook, English Dialects, 1911:
" Down to 1400 or a little later the men of the Scottish
Lowlands and the men of the northern part of England spoke
not only the same language, but the same dialect of that
language. In Scotland the Northumbrian dialect was spoken
by all but the Celts, without much variety; the minor differ-
ences need not be considered. And this dialect, called Inglis,
as we have seen by the Lowlanders themselves, had no rival,
as the difference between it and the Erse, or Gaelic, was
obvious and immutable. . . . The study of the Northern
dialect from early times to 1400 . . . leads to a result but
xiii
XIV HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
little known, and that is in direct contradiction to general,
uninstructed opinion namely, that the written documents in
the Northumbrian are practically all in one and the same
dialect, or nearly so, from the Humber as far north as
Aberdeen. . . . The chief literary dialect in the earliest
period was Northumbrian, or ' Anglian,' down to the middle
of the ninth century. After that time our literature was
mostly in the Southern or Wessex dialect, commonly called
Anglo-Saxon. . . . The Durham dialect of the 'Cursor Mundi '
and the Aberdeen Scotch of Barbour . . . both bear a re-
markable resemblance to the Yorkshire dialect as found in
Hampole. . . . We should particularly note Dr. Murray's
statement in his essay on ' The Dialect of the Southern
Counties of Scotland,' at page 29, that: ' Barbour, at Aber-
deen, and Richard Rolle de Hampole, near Doncaster, wrote
for their several countrymen in the same identical dialect . . .
it would be very difficult even now to convince a native of the
Scottish Lowlands unless he is a philologist that he is
likely to be of Anglian descent, 1 and to have a better title to
be called an "Englishman" than a native of Hampshire or
Devon, who, after all, may be only a Saxon.' To quote Dr.
Murray once more, p. 41 :
' . . . the facts are still from being generally known, and
I have repeatedly been amused, on reading passages from
" Cursor Mundi" and Hampole, to men of education, both
English and Scotch, to hear them all pronounce the dialect
" Old Scotch." Great has been the surprise of the latter . . .
on being told that Richard the Hermit i.e., of Hampole
wrote in the extreme south of Yorkshire. . . .'"
In this light, therefore, I have pleasure in making an
interesting comparison between the Yorkshire dialect as
written by me in this volume, the which I have learned only
as a Yorkshireman living among Yorkshiremen, and not
from books, and the early Northumbrian or Yorkshire dialect,
otherwise Inglis, as it was called by its Scots writers.
I will choose first the early English Psalter in the North-
1 Says John Hill Burton, and the fact should be widely known : " If the
Highlands [and the Gaelic-speaking Scot] had never existed, the history of
Scotland would not have been materially different from what it now is. It
was ever the Lowland Scandinavian [Anglian] population which formed the
Scottish people who really counted." See also Sir Henry Craik's Century of
Scottish History.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
XV
umbrian dialect of about A.D. 1250, which, in the Rev. R.
Morris's and Professor Skeat's Specimens of Early English,
is stated to have represented the Yorkshire speech from
about 1 250 to 1300. My transcriptions are made from that
work. In my own Yorkshire dialect of to-day, which I print
to the right in parallel with that spoken in 1250, I have not
tried to construe with a care to nicety of expression, metre,
and rhyme, but have followed somewhat closely the ancient
Northumbrian writer to allow an interesting comparison,
which more than substantiates the foregoing observations on
the oneness of the Northumbrian dialect, or Inglis, from
South Yorkshire to Aberdeen. Nor have I striven to affect
the archaic. Hence such words as "ware," to spend or
spread out; " stegh," to climb, related to Yorkshire " stee,"
a ladder, a stile; " fang," to find, to touch, whence Yorkshire
fire-fanged; "mickle," much, etc., I do not repeat in the
context, though they are in some senses in the Yorkshire
dialect and used by me in my " Tales and Ballads."
PSALM XVIII.
Representing the speech of
Yorkshire and the North-
umbrian dialect, or Inglis,
about A.D. 1250.
13. And Lauerd thonered fra
heven, and heghest sire
Gaf his steven; haile, coles
of fire.
And he sent his arwes, and
skatered tha ;
Felefalded levening, and
dreved tham swa.
PSALM XVIII.
The Yorkshire dialect as spoken
to-day about Keighley, Brad-
ford, and Leeds, and known
to scholars as the Windhill
dialect Windhill, near
Shipley, is in the parish
of Calverley, northward of
Bradford this being the
dialect in which I have
written these Tales and
Ballads.
An Looard thunner'd fro
(freY) heven, an heighest
God
Gav his word: hael, live coils.
An he sent his arrers, an
scattered em.
Wi leetnin, an drived em
sooa.
XVI
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
And schewed welles of watres An shoad wells o watter
ware, wide
Andgroundesof ertheliwerlde An t' under-grahnds o t'
unhiled are, warld are unboiled,
For thi snibbing, Lauerd For thi snubbin, Looard mine;
myne;
For one sprute of gast of Wi one snort o thi breeath i
wreth thine. wrath.
He sent fra hegh, and uptoke He sent fro heigh an uptook
me. ma.
Fra many watres me nam he, Fro monny watters he clicked
ma,
He outtoke me there amang He took ma aht theer thro
amang
Fra mi faas that war sa Fro mi fooas at war sooa
strang, strang
And fra tha me that hated ai. An fro sichlike at allus haeted
me.
25. And Lauerd to me for-
yhelde he sal
After mi rightwisnes al,
And after clennes of mi hend
swa
In sight of eghen his twa.
With hali halgh bes of the ;
With man underand, under-
and be.
With chosen, and be chosen
thou sal ;
With il-torned, and il-tornest
al..
For thou meke folk sauf make
sal nou ;
And eghen of proude meke
sal-tou.
For thou lightes mi lantern
bright,
Mi God, mi mirkenes light.
For in the be I outtane fra
fanding al,
And in mi God sal I owerfare
the wall.
An the Looard he sal yeild
tul ma
Efter all mi reight ways,
An efter t' cleeanness o mi
hands, sooa an all,
An i sect o his twoa een.
Wi t' hali hali tha sal be ;
Wi man baht harm, baht
harm be.
Wi t' chossen, be chossen
tha sal.
Wi t' wrang wrang an-all.
For tha meik fowk sal mak
reight,
An t' een o t' heigh sal ta
lower.
For tha leets mi canle breet,
Mi God leet t' mirk.
For i thee om taen aht fro
all fondness,
An i mi God sal I lowp ower
t' wall.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
XVI 1
PSALM XXIV.
3. Wha sal stegh in hille of
Lauerd winli
Or wha sal stand in his stede
hali?
He sal fangf of Lauerd
blissing-,
This es the strend of him
sekand
The face of God Jacob laitand.
Oppenes your yates wide,
Yhe that princes ere in pride
PSALM XXIV.
Whoa sal goa intul wer
Looard hill
Or whoa sal stand i his hali
hooam-steead ?
He sal finnd wer Looard
blessin,
Theas is t' straen on em at
seik him
An at God Jacob face are
laitin. 1
Oppen yar yates 1 wide,
Yei at t' gert are i yar pride
And king of blisse income An heven king he sal come in.
sal he.
Wha es he king of blisse ?
Lauerd strang,
And mightland in fight,
Lauerd mightland lang.
Oppenes your yates wide.
Whoa is he, heven king ?
Looard strang,
An mighty i feyts, Looard
mighty lang.
Oppen yar yates wide.
Laurence Minot, who wrote in the Northumbrian dialect,
A.D. 1346, presents further interesting comparisons. Take
a fragment from his " Landing of Edward at La Hogue":
" Franche men put tham to pine
At Cressy, when thai brak the brig,
That saw Edward with both his ine,
Than likid him no langer to lig;
Ilk Inglis man on others rig,
Ower that water er thai went ;
To batail er thai baldly big,
With brade ax and with bowes bent."
1 We say in the Windhill dialect "gaet," pronounced "gaaert"; and
"yate" for "gate" is heard just over the other side of Otley Chevin, in the
next valley to the Aire. " Lait," for "seek," is much commoner in the other
Yorkshire dialects than the Windhill.
XV111
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
To-day we say in Yorkshire, and in the dialect of my
"Tales and Ballads": Brak t' brig; boath his een; noa
langer to lig; on other rig; ower ; bowldly big, etc. ; for broke
the bridge; both his eyes; no longer to remain or tarry; on
each other's back; over; boldly build. 1 will conclude this
chapter with a comparison between our Yorkshire Windhill
dialect and "Homilies in Verse" in the Northumbrian
dialect, A.D. 1330, and between the Aberdeen Scots dialect,
or Inglis, of A.D. 1375.
Homilies in Verse in the
Northumbrian Dialect.
About A.D. 1330.
The first dai, sal al the se
Boln and ris and heyer be
Than ani fel of al the land,
And als a felle up sal it stand.
The Yorkshire dialect as spoken
to-day, and "written by me
in these Tales and Ballads.
T' first day sal all t' sei
Boil an rise an heyer bei
Nor onny fell of all t' land,
A fell an-all up sal it stand.
And als mikel, the tother An mich mooar an all the
day, tother day,
Sal it sattel and wit away, Sal it sattel an witter away,
Thefift day, sal greses and tres
Swet blodi deu, that grisli
bes.
T' fift day sal gers an trei
Sweeat blooidie diew, at grisli
sal bei.
An al the erthe, the achtande An all t' erthe, t' eight day
day
Sal stir and quac and al folc Sal stir an quaerk an all fowk
flay. flay.
" Robert Bruce, King of
Scots," by John Barbour, in
the Aberdeen Scots dialect,
or Inglis, A.D. 1375.
BOOK VII.
444. "Sail no man say we "Sal noa man say we dred
drede the swa, thi sooa,
That we with arrowis sail the
sla,"
At we wi arrers sal thi
slay,"
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION XIX
With that thair bowis away Wi theas ther bows away the
thai kest kest
And com on fast but langar An come on fast baht langer
frest. reast.
He lap till ane and can hym He loup'd til one an did
ta him ta
Richt be the nek full felonly Reight bi t' neck full fahl
Till top ower taill he gert Till top ower tael he made
him ly. him \'\g.
" Perfay," quod thai, "we may " Bi goi," the said, " we ma
weill se weel see
That it is hard till undirtak At it is hard to undertak
Sich mellyng with yow for to Sich mellin wi ye for to
mak." mak."
" For richt wicht men all thre " For reight wick men the all
war thai." three war."
Archdeacon Barbour said he wrote " Inglis," the language
of the Angles, and the foregoing comparisons declare that the
Yorkshire dialect in which I have written these "Tales and
Ballads" is Inglis or English, and that they are in the purest
of pure English extant. Even the literary Northumbrian
dialect, as written between A.D. 1250-1375, shows the in-
fluence of the Latinity of scholars, and a shaping towards
the modern forms of English which our genuine Yorkshire
dialect to-day yet ignores. Speakers of the true Yorkshire
dialect never use many words of Latin or French origin save
those the Normans brought, and these retain the Norman
form, as, grant, grand; seur or sewer, sure; varry (verroie),
very, etc. They would far rather say " mother sister," than
" aunt," etc.
Seeing, therefore, as examination proves, that the York-
shire dialect in which I have written this volume of " Tales
and Ballads " the dialect of the Windhill district is virtually
at one with the purest Inglis or Northumbrian, as spoken
from 1 200 to 1350 A.D., and it will be remembered that a
XX HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
language must have a prior oral existence of nothing less
than two hundred and fifty years indeed, perhaps, very much
more to obtain wide literary practice, we have evidence that
dialect distinctions which make for dissimilarity with the
Yorkshire dialect of this volume merely enhance the historic
importance of our dialect, and prove it a remarkable survival
of the Northern or Anglian dialect, while some other dialects
have suffered the changes that Northumbrian literature shows
commenced after A.D. 1370.
Says Professor Earle in his manual on Anglo-Saxon
Literature :
" Evidence makes it natural to regard the whole brilliant
period from the later seventh to the early ninth century as
the Anglian period. . . . Anglia became for a century the
light spot of European history; and we here recognize the
first great stage in the revival of learning, and the first great
stage towards the establishment of public order in things
temporal and spiritual. . . "
And the religious works I have quoted were the result of
that authority and responsibility which this period created
in Anglian or Northumbrian writers. A further interesting
and informing insight into the history, antiquity, and import-
ance of the Yorkshire or Northumbrian dialect of these
"Tales and Ballads" is given in my chapter on the
pronunciation.
THE PRONUNCIATION OF THESE TALES AND
BALLADS IN THE LIGHT OF THAT OF
EARLY ENGLISH AND CHAUCER.
A COMPREHENSION of the antiquity of the Yorkshire dialect
is obtained when we see it has preserved to this day such
ancient words as heigh (hey), yit, yis, iren, brast, spak, afore
(afoor), whilk, wood, wud, artow (are ta), rowt, brig, busk,
slack, triew, bliew, delve, dole, dostow (does ta), een, saig,
buish, brak, egre, aigre, fer, feigh, fonde, fro, gam, lat,
neigh, pike, schipne (shippon), seur, or sewer, shoon, shryke,
tan (t* ane), etc., spoken in and before the fourteenth century,
and found in the writings of John Barbour of Aberdeen,
Richard Rolle de Hampole (1340), Geoffrey Chaucer, and
earlier. We may say even that the Yorkshire dialect will
give us something of the pronunciation of the speech of the
Angles and other early races that remotely lived in our isle
north of the Humber, seeing that our Yorkshire cowd, owd,
smook, greean, sark, thunner, gers, agean, ackren, skare,
seur, dael, murn, i or e, and iv (in), fur (for), fro, fra, frav,
raun (roe), at-efter, at (that), an (than), lig, flig, lang, amang,
baht, neet, etc., are virtually at one with Dutch, koud, oud,
smook; Old Norse, graenn; Danish, saerk; Anglo-Saxon,
thuner, gers, ongean, murnan, dael, fleogan, lang, onmang,
butan, neaht; Norman, seur; Gothic, ligan, akran; Old
Norse, skara, i, fyr, fra, at (that), an (than); Norse, atefter;
Icelandic, hrogn; and Danish, rogn, roe, or fish spawn.
For the survival of a word in the Yorkshire dialect means
the survival of a sound, since the words in the dialect do
not in any wise soever owe their preservation to the com-
xxi
XX11 PRONUNCIATION OF THESE TALES AND BALLADS
promises of literary transcription. From the standpoint of
primal purity, as I have already said, we herewith find a
richer store of elemental discovery, and we are closer to the
speech of a people who lived a thousand years ago than it
once seemed likely we could hope to be. Recognizing- all
this and the sure voice of our historic testimony, I was not
surprised to discover on examination how radically the pro-
nunciation of the Yorkshire dialect differed from that of
Modern English. My native oral testimony afforded an
excellent criterion for inquiry into the relation of the pro-
nunciation of the Yorkshire dialect to that of Early English,
in the light of the conclusions arrived at by Alexander J.
Ellis on that subject, the which has been applied to Chaucer's
pronunciation. 1
I may note:
" The modern sound, z, in wait, was not established
till the seventeenth century."
Certainly in the Yorkshire dialect, wait, thwaite, gate, wail,
rain, lape, day, tale, dale, wave, made, cake, lake, and all
words spelt as with long a in Modern English, are pro-
nounced waaert, thwaaert, gaaert, waaerl, raaern, laaerp,
daaer, taaerl, daaerl, waaerv, maaerd, caaerk, laaerk, etc. And
let me say that ae in the Yorkshire dialect, and in my "Tales
and Ballads," is always aa-er^ as in the foregoing words.
Ah-ee is given as Chaucer's pronunciation in this class
of words, which if correct was not that of the Yorkshire or
Northumbrian dialect. When words which in English have
this long a do not take the " aer" sound, a becomes short,
as in tak, mak, brak, lat, which has also laert, etc. Long
a, as in English father, I will deal with after these com-
parisons.
"The present-day sound of ee in eel dates only from the
beginning of the eighteenth century."
1 The Poetical Works of Chaucer, edited by Richard Morris, LL.D.
PRONUNCIATION OF THESE TALES AND BALLADS XX111
I note that the more "modern" the pronunciation of York-
shire folk, the less we hear of the eea or eer distinction,
which is a real characteristic of the dialect. Hence for tea
we have not the sound tee, but teer. Green, mean, clean,
lean, bean, are greern "greean"; the a which I use in
this class of word is pronounced, as I show later, er meern,
cleern, leern, beern, but the above statement as to the ee
sound in eel does not prevent my recalling" that we say weet,
weel, neet, leet. If the axiom is correct, then the ee is a
modernizing of the dialect, and we have at once Anglo-Saxon
woet, neaht, leoht. Often words that in Modern English
take this long ee sound have in the Yorkshire dialect the
sound of "ey," as feyld, field; meyl, meal; threi, three; mei,
me; sey, sea, which also has seer, seea (cf. Icelandic seor);
trei, tree, which also has treea (cf. Old Saxon treo); bei, be,
which has more commonly bi, short, as in bit, be it having- the
sound of bi't, by it; ye, save for emphasis, is short yi, and
it is also yer; mei, me, which has also short mi and mer or
ma, as "shoo teld mer," or "mi"; pey, pea; thei, thee,
which has also short thi, and ther, or tha. He, of which the
h is not aspirate, has short t, and js i or hi (cf. Fris, hi),
-hence immer is the sound of "he may"; we, has wi short
(cf. Old Fris, wi).
EA is pronounced eer, which is slightly different to Early
English ee, if that sound was as stated. Thus we have
breead or breerd for in these examples I use short er instead
of a, which, like short 0, in Yorkshire has this sound leead
or leerd ; reead or reerd, read ; cleean or cleern compare
Anglo-Saxon breod, Icedan, rcedan, clcen.
El is pronounced ey, as in feyld, field; meyl, meal; heigh,
high; neigh, nigh; reight, right, etc. ; with many words that
in Modern English take long ee or i.
EW equals eu and ew in Chaucer, the sound being that
of the French or the German ii. Seur or sewer, sure ; sieu,
sow, preterite; trew or triew; snew, snow, pret. ; blew or
blieu, have the sound as in sieur. Lewk, look, and do pro-
XXIV PRONUNCIATION OF THESE TALES AND BALLADS
nounced dew, have the same sound. This is not exactly the
ew of English ew in new, but thinner and longer. Thus
blew and trew do not rhyme with Modern English new, but
have the thin long sound, bliew, trieu, like the Scots ui in
puir. Seur or sewer has the sound of cieu-r.
Jf, as in Chaucer, is generally omitted. I use it as I
do other spellings, for the sake of the familiar association.
Hence I spell bread, breead, when it could be breod, like the
Anglo-Saxons spelt it, seeing short o in the Yorkshire dialect
has the sound of er, short, as I have said.
/long, we are told, was not at all the modern sound of i.
It is said to have had in Chaucer's time the sound of ea in
steal. That, however, is not the value of long / in the
Yorkshire dialect. Recent writers have used two forms,
oi and ah. Hence tahm, toime ; sahd, soid. These tran-
scriptions are uncertain, and they are unnecessary when the
reader remembers that Modern English words with the long
/, in the Yorkshire dialect should have the sound of the
exclamation ah followed by short /. Thus side is sah-id,
elided quickly, abide, abah-id, etc. The personal pronoun
I is short Or; I'm is Omm, and may be also Orm, which
has emphasis. I s', and I s'l I shall sound like Oss, and
Ossl. I'd, is short Odd. I'll, is short Ol. I've, is short Ov.
/short is like z'in bit. I t', in the, is like modern English
it; and i, in, like i in bit. To save confounding this with
the personal pronoun I, when a capital i is required at the
beginning of a new line I use e. See " Kirkstall Abbay."
Bi (by and be), he, she, thee, ye, mi (my), thi (thy), and see,
which has also seea or seer, all have this short sound.
O short, which is clearly "odd" short, in hod, wod, God,
is often er short, and this explains why I use preost and
leost as well as preeast and leeast, all the same sound. See
" Kirkstall Abbay." Therefore to, preposition, is ter, short;
compare Old Saxon te. Nor him, is " nerrim " ; what e'er o
ill, is "what eerer ill." Short o before a vowel takes n.
Hence thowt o it, is " thowt on it " (thought of it), and
PRONUNCIATION OF THESE TALES AND BALLADS XXV
"thowt 'nnit." In the main "on," the preposition of, sounds
like the preposition on.
Wor, was and were, sounds like war, bellum. It is
also often like wer or worr, short. War has strength and
emphasis.
Oo. The modern sound of long 1 o, as in school, which is
said to date from no earlier than the middle of the sixteenth
century, is not common in the Yorkshire dialect. Words in
modern English that now take this sound have in the dialect
ooi, the i having the short z'as in bit. Hence, schooil, fooil,
shooin (shoes), nooin, mooin, shooit. Long o also is ooa,
or ooer, as go, goa or gooer, which has likewise short u, gu ;
so, sooer or soa; no, nooer or nooa. Aboon, above, is like
oo in modern English "soon." We have not the long o
or " aw," accredited to Chaucer.
U long is like long o or oo, but shorter. Hence bluid or
blooid both one sound; gooid, fooit, shuin, shooin, etc.,
could be spelt with ooi or ui. It has also the sound of
Yorkshire iew or ew, which see, do, as I have said thereon,
sounding like "dieu." Thus we perceive the weakness of
our ordinary alphabet in phonetics, since this would make
" sew " rightly pronounce the Yorkshire preterite, " sieu."
U short is like oo in hood and good, but deeper, somewhat.
Hence sud, mud should, and must or might. The modern
sound of u in but was not established till the seventeenth
century.
So far we have had a glimpse of light on the antiquity
of the pronunciation of the Yorkshire dialect of this book.
The facility with which the dialect makes ea, oa, and oi
into dissyllabic eea, ooa, ooi, or pronounces them as the ea
in hear, uttered rapidly, the oa in soa, to rhyme with sure, the
ooi, as in the words "boo it," spoken rapidly, which give
the dialect for boot booit, is a characteristic that must most
certainly be well noted by the reader of these Tales and
Ballads. We use both long and short forms; which these
are the quantity and foot tell, for I may not use always eea,
XXVI PRONUNCIATION OF THESE TALES AND BALLADS
ooa, and ooi, for the monosyllabic or dissyllabic forms, but
sometimes ea, oa, and oi ; ea and oa must never be ee and o.
It is instructive to hear a cricketer easily making runs
laconically urged by a stentorian Yorkshireman to run
"a-gee-an!" pronounced er-gee-ern, and then when likely
to chance a risky run, urged sharply, " a-geean !" (er-geern),
to rhyme with the words " see an," uttered quickly as
possible.
I will now say a word on a, which I have reserved on
account of its special importance. In the Yorkshire dialect
we seldom say "a" to rhyme with hay, save in ma, make,
and ta, take, which incline to maaer and taaer. See my
remarks on ai, and on a short, therewith. Sal, shall, is like
the sal of " salad." A short has the sound of a in any, er in
ter, short, and ir in sir, short. Hence ta (thou), is ter, short.
Thus "is ta"? (art thou?) is like ister. Sometimes, how-
ever, ta (thou), has the sound of the ordinary exclamation
ah! as in the affectionate " Ta is mah lass" ("Thou art
my lass"). And this sound ta (thou), always has at the
beginning of a sentence. Hence: "Tar is. . ./'pageyi.
A long. The long a of the Yorkshire dialect, as in fahl,
war (worse), wark, cart, yard, yar, yars, clart, bahn, ahrs,
ahr (ours, our), nar or nah (now), some writers indicate by
ah. But the long a has not the sound of the exclamation ah !
and hence I may not always use the ah form. While writers
have familiarized "ah" for this sound, they have yet used
-it at the same time for the pronoun I, Ah, and for ahr, the
affirmative, which are wholly distinct in sound from each
other. Whenever I use ah, save in mah (my) " mar," it is
for Yorkshire long a ; but I could not always have ah for
long a, as in wark, yars, yar, etc., though I use ah in the
affirmative, yah, which in sound is nearly like yar, your. Aw,
as in awther and nawther, is like oh, not like southern "owe."
I can at once tell a dialect-speaking Yorkshireman by
asking him to say the affirmative ahr, which is the Yorkshire
long a emphasized. Modern English has no equivalent sound,
PRONUNCIATION OF THESE TALES AND BALLADS XXV11
but a Yorkshireman would be glad to give any reader a
lesson how to obtain it For an adventure say "ah" with
the mouth wide open until its tone is altered and the sound
is emitted from the back of the throat with a strong breathing.
Much help may be had from the scientific notation employed
by Professor Joseph Wright in his Grammar of tlie Windhill
Dialect, which is founded on the Roman sounds, like palaso-
type, and can be read, as Professor Skeat assures me, by any
student of any country in Europe. It will be useful if the
reader knows that all the fore-mentioned words have not
the ordinary English a that yard, hah, how, clart, a blow,
do not rhyme at all with modern English barred, bar, and
chart.
OW. A like difficulty is the Yorkshire ow, as in fowt,
mouldy-smelling, nowt, owt, browt, sowt, gowd, bowl,
bowld, cowd, owd, fowd, and the emphatically used York-
shire negative now no. These and other words in ovv do
not rhyme with " doubt " or any other Modern English word.
Thus, in these Tales and Ballads I have never written
"now" for the negative, which is most common as an
emphasized or casual "no." I have generally used "noa,"
nooer, which is also much heard. The Yorkshire ow perhaps
may be acquired by saying foe and wit, and making there-
with fow't, giving the stress on fow. Soul gives something
of the sound if the ou is audible and the pronunciation is not
modern "sole." Some words with ou and ow, however,
have the sound of Modern English ou in sour, such as clout,
another form of clart, a blow, how, to chop or hew, towse,
to pull about or ill use, etc.
7", the. Readers should make as little of the article
the, t', as possible. For instance: T' lot, the lot, is pro-
nounced clot; t' leeast, the least, cleeast; i t' middle, in the
middle, as if spelt " it middle." Often t', "the," is joined to
a preceding vowel, as: " bi t' walk," by the walk, pro-
nounced, bit walk. T' should never be given individual value.
In such a sentence as " An nah I wor t' squire t' new parson
XXV111 PRONUNCIATION OF THESE TALES AND BALLADS
teld me" the pronunciation would be "An nah I wart squire."
But t' before " new" would not be caught; instead a delicate
nasal sound would precede the "n." If the non- Yorkshire
reader feels compelled to give an individual quantity to the
article t', let him omit it altogether, for to say " ter new
parson " in the run of such a sentence as the above would be
wrong. It is really 'er new parson, the " er " particle of the
article being elided into the " n " of the " new." Sometimes
the article t' is merely expressed by a pause, stress, or accent
on the syllable immediately before the word it distinguishes,
as, ern' childer, "an t' childer," emphasis being also given to
the first syllable of the word the syncopated t' distinguishes.
I will conclude by giving examples of the pronunciation
first from my ballad " Kirkstall Abbay," and then from my
lines " Nobbud an Ackren." Note that er is like "er" in
" winter."
" What stoories odd wer Yarksher daaerls
Erv tah-imes ern fowk all lang sinn gooern,
Twodd brek yarr art tertellyit taaerls
Erteener boolder stooernez nooern.
Once eer wah-it bull ern stiff wah-ild booer,
E erd er looern er maaerted rooerm'd
Blak wald ern leergs erv alt ern mooer,
Nooern flayd er sleerted dogs bifooerm'd."
Rhymes: These are never false. Hence in agreement with
my remarks on the pronunciation they are in this ballad:
Booer skooer, weern greern, saaer maaer, seern greern,
gooer mooer, daaerl haaerl, gooer fooer, asst fasst, yeer
leer, dreerm gleerm, leer seer, thwaaert maaert, nah flah (the
Yorkshire long a, as in baht, bahn, etc.), hooerst mooerst,
seern geern, snaht claht (the Yorkshire long a again), taaerl
gaaerl, cowd owd (the Yorkshire ow, as in owt, gowd, etc.),
nooers gooers, mey drey or meer dreer, and me and dree (see
my remarks on ee), blasst gaast, breet weet or breert weert
(again see what I have said on long ee), nooerd rooerd,
PRONUNCIATION OF THESE TALES AND BALLADS XXIX
steerd seerd, Leerds neerds, thwaaert gaaert, sah-id bah-id
(see my remarks on long z).
" Ern akren ed tummld frutt opponer treer
Ern fan itsen swimmin reyt dahn intert seer.
4 Omm nobbud ernakren,' it waaerld bak tult tarn,
4 Ern gooer Or salatter wheer eert bek is bahn,
Omm nobbud ernakren nowt else sal Or bei
Fott waiter is weshing mer dahn intert sei.
Ern ooerks ern ooerk Omm reyt chuff ter knooer,
Ter bi one missen ev Or langdivver sooer :
Yit nobbud ernakren will ivver Or bei
Fott watter is weshing mer dahn intert sei.
Odd leerver er sprotten e dank bosky deern,
Ern ev rasselld wi breers brash ern wi eern
Twik seervs erclumpin aneytht moss summer-goss,
Nerrev fun Orm swimmin missen fotter loss
It claaer raddled bekwatter makkin fott sei,
E which bud ernakren Or salivver bei'." Etc.
The foregoing observations apply to the language of all my
Tales and Ballads with the exception of the North, East, and
Craven dialects of Yorkshire I use in the ballad "Robin
Hood an His Merrie Men at come fro t' Ridins Threi." It
is important that the reader sees my notes on that ballad,
and also my introduction to the Glossary.
TALES AND BALLADS IN THE
YORKSHIRE DIALECT.
BALLAD :
KIRKSTALL ABBAY.
WHAT stories hod wer Yorksher daels
Of times an fowk all lang sin gooan !
'T wod brek yar heart to tell ye t' taels
At e'en a boolder-stooan hes knooan !
Once here white bull an stiff wild booar
E herd, or looan or maeted, rooam'd
Black wold an leagues of holt an moor,
Noan flayd o sleeated dogs befooam'd.
Bud days the corned when deer nor booar
Could langer rooam wi reckless will;
Wer huntsman thrust an hahnds bi t' scoor
Wod then i blooidy slaughter kill.
An sich it war i t' dael, I weean,
Of Headingleia wheer wer Ayre
Wi t' wind-flahs cal'd, an t' seeaves greean,
At lov'd her holmes like t' blosms fair.
An sich it war when corned, the say,
One Seleth at hed dreeams seean
At telt him he sud triewly ma
A hally shrine i t' woodland greean. 20
31
32 TALES AND BALLADS
A munk of owd hes setten dahn,
At lat one neet whol Seleth slep,
Alooan, far fro Yorksher tahn,
He bidden war, an noan ma threp:
MARY.
" Up, Seleth, rise, tul Yorksher goa,
An triewly seyk bi sweeat Ayredael,
A bosky dean 'mid wold an moor,
For theer sal men say, ' Mary, hael ' ! "
SELETH.
" An whoa bi yei to mell wi mei?
why sud I tul Yorksher goa?
E Ayredael Seleth nowt sal sei
At others hevn't taen afoor !
Tul t' sahthards o ther swirlin Ayre
Belangs tiv Wyllm Rameville;
Tul t' north, de Poitou hes his share :
Twoa Wyllms at wod do ma ill.
" Bud triewly I sud noan a ast ;
1 mun forseur be bid wi ye
At Son full forty days did fast,
An whisht a storm off Galilee !
E like ways Caedmon hed his dreeam
In t'days agooan, as the tell :
I s'oss missen soin as a gleeam
O leet will leead ma fro t' hostel."
An soa it war at Seleth gat
E Ayredael an bi Headingleea,
An theer alooan on a plat
He liv'd as all med fairly seea. 48
KIRKSTALL ABBAY 33
De Rameville an de Poitou
Med then a grommel'd, bud the said,
A gooid man baht spear an bow
Sud willin mak a brecken bed.
It war a bonnie plat i t' thwaet,
An greean as t' moss inside a well,
Wi butter-blobs an flahs to maet,
An blosms moor nor I can tell ;
Wi t' blieu-bell drukken sweeatness nah,
Afoor t' cuckow hes sing'd him hooast,
An t' honey-suckles gie a flah
Tul t' breears at the fond on mooast.
Wer Lady mantel then wor seean,
An t' foxgluv chimin his gert bells,
Whol t' hare-bell peyl reng back ageean,
A reight goa-to ameng thersels.
A shreea-mahse oft shrugg'd his snaht,
An t' moudi-warps wor flayd an scun,
As freeten'd puss, wi thwack an claht,
Away thro Seleth loup'd an run.
Big hummel bees wod lollop aht
O t' gers-hid hoil o t' hive i t' bank,
An buzzin, whirr reight wild abaht,
As thoa ther haet on him wor rank.
Bud Seleth minded nooan at all,
His thowts wor allus God-ards bent ;
He liv'd o blegs an nuts i t' fall,
E other days on what wor sent.
One back-end teld a bitter tael,
War neer afoor seed t' forest king :
Whol snooas drave wi t' freeasin gael
It snirp'd up ommost ivvry thing. 80
34 TALES AND BALLADS
An yit all croodled up i t' cowd
This nobbud kneyld him dahn an said,
" O, what is winter wind tul t' owd
At all ther brakky tears hev shed !
Wer Jesu went afoor an knooas
What e'er o ill ther be for me ;
For t' Lady sake, what ivver gooas,
I sal \\g here, bi't wild or dree."
Then suddin, loa ! drop t' stangin blast,
An spreng eych tree fro t' forrard bend ;
A red-breeast hopp'd aht fause an ghast
As med be Seleth war it friend ;
An t' ollins shak'd ther wessel bobs,
Soa greean an sprent wi berries red,
At girn at t' mistletoa wan blobs,
Sin Jesu blooid hes bin shed.
" It's Kersmas Morn !" said Seleth then,
" O hael this day of tidins breet !
For all mankind God's son wor gen,
He gladness brings whol tears be weet !"
Soa t' name o Seleth wide gat knooad
To mean bud rest an gooid life ;
An sooin tuv him ivvry rooad
WorJDringin fowk at haeted strife.
One nooin corned on milk-white steed
A man be-cahld, wi other threi,
An stood i t' glaed until he seed
At bonnie war this counterei.
He lewk'd tards wheer wor little Ledes,
An owre tul Bramla bit o hill ;
He sigh'd at thowt o Bradeford needs,
Bud cross'd an said, " Tis Mary will !" 112
KIRKSTALL ABBAY 35
T' crow-fooit shoits wor knoppin greean,
An blooims white wor strown i t' thwaet ;
Whol midges swarmin t' streeam wor seean,
At kep a glestrin trout agaet.
He sees it all, an moor beside,
As in a simmin-glass, a kirk,
A reight gert abbay wheer abide
A brotherhood of men at shirk
Noa lowliness, bud trewly skimp
Thersens i ivvry seemly way,
An shew tul pride fahl boggard imp !
At Jesu's thowt on neet an day.
Bud nah he white hes turn'd as chalk :
A blacken'd, brokken, biggin stands,
Wi nother rig nor scantlin balk,
An waste an fowt are t' abbay lands !
Then t' hossman slow draw'd back his cowl,
An let t' wind fresh on tuv him blow ;
He strooak'd wi steady hand his jowl
An said at "f sowin's kaled bi t' mow :
For all mun dee at life wor gen,
An t' end mun come tul ivvry thing,
Bi t' hay-seed sprut or e'en yarsen,
Bi t' strangist ooak or t' greeanist ling.
" What sowls mud here be made for t' sky
An breeten'd ere all t' tael be teld !
What wrangs be smooth'd at bitter sigh
Wod reighten neer, chois hah the beld !
Wer Christ hissen, Mary an all,
The corned thersens tul t' sorry day;
An sooa we moant lig and dole
If happen we sarn't hev wer way. 144
36 TALES AND BALLADS
" O, ho !" he shahts, this hossman bowld ;
His esquires threi i t' saddles start,
An forrard spur tho all are jowl'd,
To do his biddin like a dart.
" O, hei yarsens mi trusty threi,
An tul this Seleth goid word gie :
Om assin him hissen to sey,
An t* Prior o Fountaynes sends !" spak he.
E haest the went the corned i haest ;
An tidins browt fro t' woodland greean,
O t' gooid men livin loan i t' waest
Like booars at eyt bud mast an beean :
" We fan a thack an theer we seed
One owd, a-bended low wi years ;
'Twor Seleth, for he teld his bead
For Mary, an wor on his kneeas.
" We telt as hah ye bid us all
To fetch him back to ye, an moor,
We telt at ye'd us sorely call
Unless he corned thro aht his door.
Bud come he wodn't, noa nit he ;
We s'hev to mak him if we mud,
An soa to ass ye here we be,
Less do owt hard or wrang we sud."
Yit t' Prior laugh'd an forrard rade ;
An sooin wi Seleth war he fun
Aneyth a rowan spell an shade,
A shelter boath fro craft an sun.
Soa lang the talk, soa lang the cal,
Soa lang the hobnob, mummel, mince,
At one o t' squires he says, "I sal
Hod sooin at Seleth war a prince !" 176
KIRKSTALL ABBAY 37
"Is" leeaver hod t' esh hes bewitch'd
Wer Abbot, an hes boath em cuss'd,"
Spak other then at gert hand itch'd
To finnd his pummil for a thrust.
Bud Seleth went aneyth his thack
An browt aht milk, an browt aht vens,
On which i triewth ther war noa lack,
An telt em come an help thersens.
SELETH.
" This day is mine, I sal be t' hoast,
For bi God's will here sal arise
An abbay sich as France med booast,
Bud Yorksher fowk sal loss noa wise."
An soa it war, for t' Abbot browt
Tul Seleth word at he wor gen,
A choice o lands wheer e'er he thowt
Med likely lewk untuv hissen.
An soa it wor, for de Lacy
Hissen hed bun tul t' Abbot when,
A-liggin on his bed badly,
He said he'd build for hally men,
An build a reight gert monastrie,
Nobbud for t' white Munks o t' Cisteaux ;
An this did Henry de Lacy
Full trewly do, as ye mun knooa.
His gransire Ilbert hed bin gen,
Bi Willyum Duke o Normandie,
To hod an keeap all for hissen,
A hunderd manors an fifty
In t' West Ridin alooan, bud,
As't happ'd wheer Seleth war, all t' land,
Fro streeam to benk, fro benk to wood,
Wor held bi other Norman hand. 208
38 TALES AND BALLADS
Bud whoa sud t' Earl de Lincoln nay,
An Baron Pontefract granson !
Forseur he nobbud hed to say
Soa t' abbay buildin bei begun.
For thirty year an t' delvers delv'd,
An t' scrappier iren reng an reng,
Whol t' masons limed an wall'd an shelv'd,
An t' delf-hoil howers how'd i t' threng.
What hooaps oft i t' lime are set
I t' nicks o t' stooan wark i a wall !
What svveeatness at all wod forget,
A trowil mark ma yit up-call !
Bud lags mi tael, I mun bestir
Or neer I s' come tul t' varry end ;
I s' leeave mich, or happen slur
An ower-lewk what sud be penn'd.
Tul wer Blest Mary 'twar all gen,
As Seleth dreeam med ye a telt,
An Seleth nah wi t' Lacy men
Ligs theer at rest as God hes dealt.
Soa Fountaynes Alexander, he
Wor Abbot first i Headingleeia ;
An t' name o Kirkstall ye ma see
Wor getten efter t' Kirk wor theer.
Ralph Hageth other war to be
As Abbot here, bud what a tael
O kingly wrath ther is to gie :
Hah t' Abbot went fro sweeat Ayredael
Wi t' gowden chalice an sich like
As hali wark hev oft to dew,
An owt at t' Abbot ee could pike,
At happen wod mak Henry rew. 240
KIRKSTALL ABBAY 39
He sent an-all ta t' mardy king
God's hali Word writ aht wi t' quill,
An t' choicist gift at man could bring,
Tul him at made em Beckett kill !
think o t' lang an stallin wark
To scrawk wi splay-nooas'd scratty pen
God's gospels, whol ye wear a sark
O hemp, baht cinglit, next yarsen !
An soa Ralph he went an deed
At Fountaynes Abbay, wheer he ligs.
An then at Kirkstall to be seed
Wor t' Abbot Lambert, as time fligs.
Sir Richard Eland, knight, an he
Thro t' Grange Clivacher feytin gan :
De Eland threpp'd aht it sud be
His can, as 'twar afoor, baht ban.
Bud Lambert fleng aht t' fowk baht rewth,
An made ther hooam a monastrie.
This riled, an seur 'tis a trewth
The burn'd dahn t' grange an murther'd three.
To murther preeasts is flaysome wark !
An threi lay brothers is as bad ;
1 cannot thoil to ass ye hark
Untul a tael at is soa sad.
I nobbud hooap at theas red glear,
At breeten'd rahnd when the it let,
Made Richard Eland wrang forsweer,
An Abbot Lambert gin to fret.
I will uphod Turgesius,
T' next Abbot as a likely preost.
He nooan forgat at God's wi us
When think we at wersens are t' leost : 272
40 TALES AND BALLADS
We s'e ta hev less pride an gab,
An mind at best on us is nowt ;
We sud forseur drop wi t' grab,
An hev for all a kindly thowt.
Turgesius thro morn to neet,
Thro neet to morn, an year to year,
E sack cloth lapp'd up war a sect
At freeten'd t' imps fro comin near.
His rooarin sowl'd his cheeks i t' sile.
An sodden'd t' haly vestments threw ;
He wared one cahl an tunic while
Hot summer brunn'd or winter snew.
For nine year lang he tarried here,
An then tul Fountaynes Abbay flit,
An sooin deed, as ye ma seea
Bi what a munk o t' Abbay writ.
Bud then corned Abbot Helia turn,
At gumpshun hed i brass an t' like ;
An next i kale ther war to murn
As leeaves swimmin dahn ta t' dike,
Eight Abbots first, Ralph Newcastle,
Walter, Maurice, Adam an all,
Till Hugh Mikela corned i t' wrassle,
An t' next wor t' one the Simon call,
William de Leedes, an t' last o t' eight
Wor Gilbert de Cartles at gav up :
Soa Henry Carr gat t' Abbot meyt,
An gat his wark an t' Abbot sup.
When Hugh call'd Grimstone corned he oss'd
To loisen t' Abbay, an wer king,
Wer Edward t' First, this Abbot bloss'd,
An brass an help did t' Abbay bring : 304
KIRKSTALL ABBAY 4!
Ye moant ass hah it war he thrave
An bet a king an loisen'd t' looans ;
Ther's moor nor ranseck'd oppen'd grave
Will tell agean, or rummag'd booans !
At-efter Hugh corned like teld beads,
John de Bridesal, Abbot Walker,
Then William, then Roger de Leedes,
John Thomberg an John de Bardsa ;
William Grayson corned then an all,
An Abbot Thomas Wymbersleea,
Wi Robert Kelynbeck foor t' fall
An Kirkstall hed bud Abbots threea.
Will Stockdael i fifteen hunderd,
An one to boit, to reckon reight,
As Abbot corned ere t' bells thunner'd
I t' gert heigh tahr for mass an meyt.
For William Marshall lower'd t' rig,
At "W.M"ye'llyitfinnd
Abaht on t' walls at he did big,
When t' bells o t' tahr reng aht on t' wind.
An nah is woe an woe indeed !
It's t' end we nah hev corned up tul,
An t' end at Alexander seed
When t' Abbot sowt aht Seleth hull.
For till John Ripla hev we come,
At t' last o t' Kirkstall Abbots war,
When Henry t' Eight as king soa glum
All t' lives o t' preosts did sadly mar :
O weel med wer Heigh Precast o York,
Owd Wolsa, lig him dahn an dee,
Wi t' words at 't ed bin gooid wark
To set God foor King Henerie ! 336
42 TALES AND BALLADS
Ten thahsand pund i sterlin trieu
Wor year in year aht t' Abbay bit,
Wi sheeap an beeasts nooan a few,
An corn an plate at e'er come wi 't.
Bud brass will allus mak a heeap,
An sin I hev mi say to say :
I'd sooiner gooid men wod reeap
Nor sich at dar gu onny way.
O lewk yi on this Kersmas Day,
Fifteen hunderd an thirty nine,
An t' Abbay last fair Kersmas Day
Afoor t' winds rahnd her altars whine.
Ther's Tempest, Vavasour sich names,
Ther likes a scoor I could ye gie,
Wi barons, kneyts, an Yorksher dames,
Corned ivvry one o heigh degree.
T' owd almonder an t' sacristan
Tul Prior an Abbot gie em heed,
Whol preeast, deacon, under-man,
Are bi t' Heigh Mass sedilia seed.
Wi stooans a bishop mitre gleeams ;
An white like t' spotless snooa on t' fells
Are alb an rochet, as reight seeams
For t' fair bahn Christ, t' owd munk book tells.
Then nave an aisle an transept throng,
An bends low t' heead o kneyt an 'squire,
As matins soft like angel song
On incense wings flooat ower t' quire.
Fro loft an balk hing t' clarted flags,
At trossell'd war, as t' blooid ren
An starken'd hard on t' mail an t' rags
O t' chain-clad kneyts an t' feytin men. 368
KIRKSTALL ABBAY 43
O bonnie lads sing- heigh an sweet
On yar Convent last Kersmas Morn !
incense smoor an clahd fro sect
Yon rig at sooin will be goan !
Noa frahn be seen, noa dratin heeard,
An all yar both'rin, left a-be !
God's munks at reight an trew lives leead,
Sud nooan be flayd o Henery.
1 knooa ye wor soin swep aht,
An huddled war like dith'rin sheeap ;
I've seen t' owd hahse wheer baht a claht
Ye hiddid, tum'lin i a heeap.
Soa hey, for t' gladsome Kersmas Day !
A brust-up comes tul t' varry best ;
An fallin stars flare for to say
At breet is t' way tuv Heven rest !
Bud ere hed Kersmas corned ageean
All scether'd war theas Godly throng,
An ranseck'd war all t' kirk an leean,
An hush'd for aye wor t' belfry clong.
Last Kersmas Morn I stood missen
In t' rigless Abbay an t' kirk queer :
Noa preost wor theer I bow'd, an then,
Bethowt me on mi song an leear.
" Ageean," said I, " sal t' gladness rise !
I am bud one missen I knooa ;
Yit hoaps wor gen to reik tul t' skies,
An if God will, tul Heven door :
Noa might of hand, noa fowt or sun,
Sal blast a blithesome song at's sung,
Or mull a tael at's fair begun
An monny hearts made glad or wrung !" 400
44 TALES AND BALLADS
I s'ass ye barken bud a while,
To hear at Leedes fowk once bed gen
Sixpence a day to men beguile,
An Kirkstall rive to build thersen.
One word I'll say an nooan forget,
'Tis theas, at Leedes hes turn'd ageean,
An watchers nah hes trewly set
To ower-lewk t' kirk garth an greean.
Tho Esseheld lois'd her Nunnery
At war bi t' fooit o Eckershill,
This tahn o Leeds will allus gie
A thowt for Kirkstall Abbay still !
Tho t' Peers de Ardyngton Priory
It Peers nah maes bud little knooan,
Wer Seleth hes a pile to see
To-day, an 't will be seen to-moorn.
An soa t' owd Abbay walls yit say:
" We s' tell it aht tul one an all,
At what builds t' lowly in his day,
Sal nivver altogether fall !" 420
NOBBUD AN ACKREN.
AN ackren bed tummel'd fro t' top on a treea,
An fan itsen swimmin reight dahn into t' seea.
" I'm nobbud an ackren," it wael'd back tul t' tarn,
" An goa I sal a to wheer e'er t' beck is bahn ;
I'm nobbud an ackren, nowt else sal I bei
For t' watter is weshin ma dahn into t' sei !
" An ooak's an ooak, I'm reight chuff to knooa ;
To be one missen hev I lang'd ivver soa:
Yit nobbud an ackren will ivver I bei
For t' watter is weshin ma dahn into t' sei !
"I'd leeaver a sprotten i dank bosky dean,
An hev wrassl'd wi breears, brash, an wi e'en,
T' wick seeaves a-clumpin aneyth t' moss summer-goss,
Nor hev fun I'm swimmin missen for to loss
I t' clay-raddl'd beck-watter makkin for t' sei,
E which bud an ackren I sal ivver bei !
" I'd leeaver a grown intul t' balk i a rig,
Or intul a thyble or eldin, nor lig,
As gormless as ivin on stooan i a thwait,
An sackless as wanklin owd stoops wi a yate,
E watter at's sich a ghast goit for t' sei,
For theer bud an ackren I sal ivver bei ! "
Then t' ackren went swirlin bi rush, wort an fern,
Throa feilds white wi wheeat, an gert tahns i turn,
Throa moors ling-bedizen'd, an spraggy wi stooan,
45
46 TALES AND BALLADS
Bi hurst-land an royd, an bi hoam-steeads looan,
Till cahrd wor all t' sallows away fro t' brak sei
An scraney wing'd g-ulls the oss'd inland to bei.
"Brak seea," wael'd wer ackren, "tul thee I am browt;
To swim aht like a ship I nivver hed thowt !
Yit hed I a-grow'd tul an ooak gert an stiff",
Noa wind wod a blow'd ma i t' beck wi a whiff.
Bark-skeller'd an fahl, an as is wi owd fowk,
Storm-flash wod a snirp'd ma bud harder at t' cowk.
" I'm bud a grean ackren, yit wind an wide sei
An t' fause, sea-fond tarn beck, ma hoin all threi.
I'm bud a grean ackren, yit yei at are strang
Hev taen mi an lois'd mi at nowt wod do wrang!
I'm noan a gert ship like agean mi flooats t' wave,
An nobbud an ackren ye've browt tuv it grave ! "
Then spak theas big ship, thooa for far lands set sael,
Gooid heed it hed gen tul wer grean ackren tael:
" Yi fond little ackren," it said, " lewk at me,
I corned missen mooastly fro ackrens like thee.
Tul strang ooaks the grow'd i days lang sin gooan,
An how'd wor bi t' woodman i t' forrist sooa looan,
Yit meeat yi together at last i t' gert sei ;
What on't one is ackren, an t' other wor trei!
" Some ackrens ma fowl nor ma sprut when at hooam,
The nobbud are sooiner merl'd up i t' looam;
An gert, black owd ooaks, be ther innards o stooan,
Ma be liggin one day, deead clogs all alooan !
To be awther ackren, an ooak or fair ship,
Is nowt, sael we t' blieu sea or spraht i a grip:
Wer lot is wer wide warld's, for of it we bei;
Trei, ackorn, or ship, we're an all land an sei ! "
'E'D SAID IT!
T' SUN bed dropped beheend t' Ilkla moors, an bed left a
lang blaze o red stretchin reight ower bi Keethla. An soa,
as 't wor neet comin on, t' delvers i Nathan Garth delf-hoil
wor makkin hooamards all on em bud Miles Rodam.
Nab Miles wor a likely young chap, wi black een, an
oppen, sunny face, an limbs at onny scrappier at ivver reng
steel on stooan med ha been prahd on ; an it wor said ameng
t' delvers at 'e wor sweet on Garth dowter. At sundahn
Miles lad bed been teld nit to goa till t' delf-maister bed seen
'im ; an soa 'e wor waiting in t' delf when owd Garth, wi
a scahl, come up tul 'im an reight ats 'im ower t' lass, for
sha'd teld 'im at sa wor i love wi Miles, an wod hev 'im
come what wod.
" I'm 'ere to ler thi knooa at tha'rt nit bahn to wed mah
Ada," 'e snarled. " Tha's done what tha could to mak 'er
fond, bud I'll see 'er deead afoor I'll hev 'er wed a scrappier
o mine. An when I hev said it, I hev said it ! "
An that neet when 'e gor hooam, t' owd maister teld
t' tale tuv 'is dowter Ada an all :
" Wer fam'ly wants liffin up, nit teein dahn, as it wod be
wi Miles Rodam. I've work'd i t' delf missen, an I knooa
what it is. Bud ther's bahn to be nowt betwix ye twoa
becos on that; an I hev said, Ada, at I'll sithee dead afoor
tha s'l be Rodam wife ! "
T' lass wor nobbud young, an sha war noan soa strang,
for sha'd been browt up on a bleeak owd hill, an though sha
wor Nathan Garth dowter sha'd noan taen after 'im soa mich
as after t' mother, at, when shoo lived, wor thowt one o t'
heigher bred fowk.
47
48 TALES AND BALLADS
" Father," sha waeled, 'er face white, an tears i 'er gray
een, "it sarn't be as I sal lower t' fam'ly I'll noan lower
t'fam'ly!" An aht sha swep.
It war at after bleggin time, an a cowd wutherin wind at
cut like a sharp saig wor jenderin t' winders, an wor lairkin
rahnd bi t' reight o Rum'll's Moor to reckon winter wor
abaht. Bud a north wind i October wor noan eniff to flay
Ada. Sha ren aht an ne'er stopped till 'er legs gav under
'er, an sha tummel'd i t' heath-leng, rooarin as if sha'd
brust 'er heart, for sha knooad all wor ower.
T' year whiled on ; Kersmas hed supped t' owd yale an
hed etten t' cairk ; t' red ollin berries hed bedizened t' hahse
walls; an t' white crudded snooa hed screnched neyth t' foit
o monny a merry waistrel, bud nowt wor ivver seed o Miles
Rodam bi Garth dowter. Sha hed gen Miles to understand
at sha'd noan hev 'im i t' teeth on 'er father, an somehah t'
lad hed taen 'er to hev made an end o t' courtin. If 'e'd
nobbud a knooan at sha wor pinin away thro botherin ower
'im, hah soin wod 'e hev come tul 'er ! Bud he knooad
nowt.
It warn't lang afoor Ada father could see t' lass wor
lewkin noan as sha med, an soin it gan to be t' talk at sha
wor ta'in t' bahnist road to 'evm. Still, nowt wod mak t'
father change 'is mind when once 'e'd said it.
Bud bi t' 'arvist agean sha gat war an war, an t' tale went
rahnd at sha wor deein, soa 'evnly-lewkin wor sha.
Of a neet i t' Backend it seemed to Garth 'issen at Ada
breathin wor comin tul a stop, an sha wor nobbud liggin on
t' owd langsettle, wheer sha'd tippled asleep waitin up on 'im.
T' owd delf-maister rave at 'is silvry 'air an spreng aht'n 'is
chair.
" Bi goi ! es t' badly, lass?" 'e shahted.
Ther wor n' answer, an blutherin like a bahn 'e senk dahn
on 'is knees at t' side on 'er. Bud sha nobbud smiled at 'im
an waived 'er white 'ands; an then sha wor dead dead as
sa mod bi.
'E'D SAID IT! 49
It strack Garth dahn like as if it med a bin a sythe-
strooak, an 'e tummel'd as gooid as goan 'issen, 'is legs
sprottlin wide aht on t' hearth, gormless; an all t' while t'
limbs o t' fairest lass at ivver tred greean gerse wor starkenin.
When 'e come rahnd 'e wor ameng a lot o wimmin at wor
doin t' last for Ada.
" Sha's goan, t' angel 'er ! Shame on thi, Nathan ! shame
on thi ! Ta said it at tha'd see 'er dead afoor sha sud wed
Miles Rodam, an nah sha'll wed cowd clay i t' buryin-hoil
asteead. Shame on thi for hevin said it !"
An sooa t' wimmin deng at 'im, callin 'im thro hill to
burn.
T' blooid wor i 'is head, bud 'e raised 'issen an steggered
to t' door-stooan. T' neet wor dark, an t' stars aboon wor
bliew. 'E shrenk back ower t' thressel an scrammel'd up tul
'is rahm, wheer 'e fleng 'issen on t' bed. For monny a lang
hah 'e wrassled an writhed an tew'd, blamin 'issen for Ada
deein.
When it war dayleet 'e felt 'e mun fotch Miles Rodam, an
tak tul 'im for t' lass sake. An baht a word to t' wimmin at
wor fussin abaht t' hahse 'e went, makkin to t' delf wheer
Miles wod be. It wor soin: t' white aim wor glesterin i t'
red sunshine, t' miln whews wor wailin aht near an far, an t'
ring o t' delvers agate wor heeard i t' delves abaht.
Ommost done up Nathan reiked t' quarry-hoil 'e wanted,
an stopped to wind. Bud at t' same time corned up a lahd
shaht thro t' throits o t' delvers, an t' next heeard wor a deep
blooid-cruddlin sahnd as hunderds o tuns o stooan hurled
thersens dahn an dahn to t' delf bottom. Then ther wor a
still minute. Bud sooin snap shahts come thro t' delvers
at wor scettered wide.
"It's Miles Rodam! Miles Rodam! . . . 'e's reight
under . . . bud 'e'll be deead eniff nah, an aht'n it all !"
" Lord forgi' me, bud I'd said it," bluthered Nathan.
'E oppened 'is een, an 'e wor i 'is oan armchair agean,
wheer 'e'd dreamed it all. T' first lewk 'e gav wor tul t'
4
5O TALES AND BALLADS
langsettle, wheer, sewer eniff, wor Ada, set up, 'er gray een
on 'is face.
"Ye hev been speykin queerly, father," sha said.
"Hev I, lass?" wi a huskiness; " what's wakken'd ma?"
"It's Ann; sha says at at "
"At what, lass?"
"At Miles is at t' door."
" Bi gow, lass, if 'e is 'e sal ha thi bud noa noa: I hev
said I hev said "
Then Miles wor stood afoor em.
"What do ye want, Miles Rodam, at this lat har o t'
neet?" ast Nathan, 'is hard sen agean.
" I've come intul a a fortune thro a cousinn at's goan
hooam," blurted Miles, reddenin an keepin 'is een on t' floor.
Drawin 'isseln back t' owd delf-maister once more ast
Miles what it wor 'e'd come for.
" I've come for mi mi mother necklet at war gen bi me
to yar Ada," said Miles, lamely. " I'm bahn away to-morn,
an "
" Want to tak it wi ye, I reckon," put in Nathan Garth,
i a tahrin rage. " Pike aht, an I'll bring y' it."
Garth words wor threatenin, an Ada face wor white.
Baht a word Miles piked aht an waited i t' cowd.
" Finnd that necklet, Ada!" thunner'd t' father. An
trem'lin, sha gav 'im it thro rahnd 'er bonnie neck.
E a bit at after Nathan Garth hed gen it to Miles, an wor
sittin bi t' fire as if nowt hed happened an Rodam lad hed
noan been near. Bud when t' owd man turned to bid Ada
gooid neet 'e said :
" I s'think, nah Miles Rodam thinks 'issen too gooid for
thi, nah 'e's weel off, at tha'll pine noa langer abaht 'im, bud
reckon 'im aht o t' gait, an keep thi een oppen for another !
'E's goin t' rig an reight !"
T' lass cheek wor tinglin wi hummel'd pride, an sha said
nowt. Sha thowt sha wod swelt.
Nit monny weeks at efter Ada Garth wor to be fun walkin
'E'D SAID IT! 51
aht o doors, an varry sooin sha wor 'er owd sen, for nah
sha'd been soa slighted bi 'er father an t' man sha'd thowt
soa mich abaht sha buckled up. Blooim o health lewks weel
wheere'er it be, bud it wor at best on sweet Ada fjace,
sewerly.
One crisp January morn a huntsman horn wound on t'
sunny frosty air near Nathan's. Ada happened to be aht on
t' moor, an sha waited till t' pack o mahthin beagles wor i
seet. Hah grant they come on, pantin an whimperin ! Then
the passed 'er like a flock o low-fleein watter birds off o t'
heigh moor swamps; an sha wor stood shiverin wi a strange
chill when up rade at top speed a young man on a sorrel
mare, shahtin wi purple cheeks:
"Yo ho! yo ho!" 'is een strainin hard aforrards to t'
meltin pack on t' brow. Bud a flutterin skirt an a girl face
hed spun 'is brain, an 'e wished 'issen at t' side o sweet Ada
Garth; yit withers an holloa, bayin pack an fleein quarry,
swep 'im away like t' wind.
It wor neet comin on, an Ada Garth wor sittin bi hersen
i t' big kitchin, hevin a cup o' teah bi t' leet o t' lamp, when
t' waitin woman, Ann, step in an said ther wor a hare sent
thro t' young squire o Staines.
" Who's browt it?" ast Ada wi a blush, an shamin, for it
wor 'im at hed ridden past 'er i t' forenoin.
" T' young squire 'issen !"
Ada wor reight taen back, bud sha said at t' squire wor
to come in. An forrards 'e come wi a huntsman ready hand
an oppen face.
"I've browt puss to ye, Ada Garth," said 'e. " Sha's
duffed us sin t' forenoin when sha mun a passed wheer ye
wor on t' moor. . . . Ye mak a varry leean welcome for ma.
Bud hark, lass: I've heeard ther's better nor Garth blooid i
yar veins. Nah I've corned to say as I weant live if I am'it
bahn to mak thi Mistress o Staines Hall."
An t' young squire lived on, soa it's plain 'e wed 'er.
Bud t' early days on Ada bein t' squire o Staines wife
52 TALES AND BALLADS
wor marked bi t' pair on em forgettin t' father, an when 'e
come to dee nobb'dy wor wi 'im bud triew lad Miles at hed
corned back thro abroad. An Miles Rodam wor t' ony one
to follow t' owd man coffin tul t' moorside buryin grahnd, for
t' dowter wor gooidness knooas wheer !
Soin t' coffin wor lowered i t' buryin-hoil; an t' Vicar wor
readin aht when reight at hand ther wor t' sahnd on a worryin
.pack o hahnds. Other minute ther lowped ower t' wall a
gert hare ; an flayd o nowt bud t' dog red fangs it made fo' t'
grave an spreng dahn bi t' side o t' coffin, cahrin ditherin
theer. An 'ead ower 'eels t' beagles o t' squire o Staines
wor after it.
Rodam lad blooid wor up ; 'e clicked hod on a shovel an
sleshed reight an left ameng t' blooidy-tongued pack. An
all through t' rakkit a horseman on a sorrel mare wor ridin
tards em, cursin an shahtin. Then, madman he war, 'e set
t' mare at t' sixfoit wall, bud sha decked, an t' rider wor flung
ower, slap ageean a grave-stooan. When 'e wor picked up
'e wor deead, 'is back brokken; an it wor t' young squire o
Staines !
Years at after, Miles Rodam happ'd to meet t' squire
widder, aht wi 'er little son, t' new squire o Staines.
"Ada, "said 'e, t' words trem'lin, "I'd like to tell yi at
when I come for mi mother necklet I'd nobbud made it aht
as summat at wod get ma neyth t' owd rig wi ye, bud yar
father wor 'ard as ivver, an I thowt-
" What yi thowt, Miles Rodam, is nowt to me, nah," sha
brak in sharp, an turnin away; "mi father said 'e wod see
mi deead afoor I sud bi wife o yars. An thoa 'e's gooan
'issen, an 's nawther taen mi love nor likin wi 'im, fowk sal
knooa at when Garth lass father hed said it, 'e'd said it."
BALLAD :
COVERLA.
O GLAD wor Cove'la woods an greean
Thro Aire to Eckleshill,
An birds gav Lenten song ageean
Thro glade to clovven gill.
An ridin ower bent an meead,
An under t' grean-wood trei,
His brow begemm'd wi t' sweeat bead
Come Walter Coverley.
" O woe is me an woe is mine !"
Wi heart wark sore he wailed,
" I've lov'd mi sup, I neer wod pine,
An fahl wi fair I've kaled.
" An nah I'm shut bi all mi fowk,
An nah I'm baht a friend,
An t' wife's nit fond o me at t' cowk:
O wheer then mun I wend ?
" Mi heart wi kinnel'd eldin burns;
Bi Satan brimm'd it war !
He maes me rail an tew i turns
O Lady send him far ! 20
53
54 TALES AND BALLADS
" Bud curses on mi owdest bahn !
On him mi land is teed;
O curses on mi ivvry bahn:
I wod the all hed deed !
" An Philippa is nowt, I'm telt,
Mi bahns are nowt an all:
I want to slay ! the want to swelt !
I s' hee me back to t' hall.
" Mi head it reels; a gird's agate
A-whirlin ma i t' gam ;
Mi life is nowt o Heaven ta 't,
For hoamin it E am !"
He sees his hooam squat on t' lea
At liffs tul grean Wodehall,
He sees an all bi t' stooan steea,
His laithes an t' chapel wall.
" O why," he cries, " is t' hill a dael ?
An why is t' grean ing grey ?
An why is Ivvry sahnd a wael
At thrills me through, I pray?
14 O why, O Blessed Lady, tell,
Is t' grean ing wither'd soa?
An say, iff hill's abahn to hell,
O sal I wi it goa ?
" It's dark, an neet is all arahnd,
An t' stars aboon are een,
A-stariq hard as t' guytrash hahnd,
Wi t' barghest greany sheen ! 48
COVERLEY 55
" Soa Death is like to breathe his blast
On one o mine or me !
O wod he'd leeave mi bahns to t' last,
An nah tak maddled me !"
Bud bliew wor t' sky, an t' ing wor greean,
Noa neet ther war, nor een ;
An t' hill wor lower nowt to meean
Nor heretofoor 't ed been.
Enah, at last, it comes abaht
At Coverla can see,
His hall an ivvrything wi aht
A wrang i t' heead un ee.
He rides wi haste up t' hill an maes
A clockin hen i freet,
Forger all thowt o sittin days,
Soa swift his steed an fleet !
He rides i haste becoss he strives
His bahns and wife to see,
Afoor in tul his heart ther slives
A wish at the ma dee.
O hah he loves his bahns an t' wife !
O hah he langs to say,
At be ther hate or be ther strife
He loves em neet an day !
O Walter Coverla, thi sire
War grandson tul that knight,
At Shireeve war o wer Yorkshyre
An war Sir Wyll'm hight. 76
56 TALES AND BALLADS
Soa Walter Coverla mak haste,
Thi heart is beatin trew !
Yit bee ma t' last o honey taste,
An knop sip ne'er o dew !
An heart ma loss it love afoor
A kuss hes teld it tael ;
An sooin hoaps at heighest sooar,
On t' gfrahnd ma trosslin trael !
He reins in t' steed, an wi a bahnd,
He lowps him dahn an stands
In front o t' hall, an stroaks a hahnd,
At dithrin, slakes his hands.
His rein he gies him tul a lad,
An maks his way i t' hall ;
He sees at t' hahse is looan an sad,
An cowd an dark an all.
" Ho, stack on eldin !" lahd he cries,
" An let's ha breeter cheer;
Let glare o blaze wer rahms bedize,
We'll hev noa shadders here !"
His words are heard i t' rahm aboon
Bi Coverla slim wife,
An quick sha dons her gahn an shoon
Aflayd mischief is rife.
Her een the glester nah wi tears,
Her hands the shak wi freet;
An when her husband foit sa hears
Sha prays for to-morn leet. 104
COVERLA 57
" O ill's this Avril day," sha wails,
" O dark it seems to me,
E'en t' clahdless sky aboon t' rig fails
To breeten owt I see !
" O sal we safely tide o'er t' neet !
O sal yit other day
It finnd mi cheek wi rooarin weet,
An Walter goan away !"
Bud Walter Coverla's aneyth
T' flat-flewted roof below,
A-watchin t' reek it elf-ring's wreyth,
An t' blazin eldin glow.
He feels a naigerin at heart,
He feels a burnin brain,
Wi ivvry nah an then a dart
O sharp an stangin pain.
" O Philippa," he gasps enah,
" Thi lips wod freshen me,
If cool upon mi heated brah
Tha'd press em tenderly.
" An if an all, o bahns o mine,
Ye'd snootch up nah to ma,
I'd ne'er forger at t' head o t' line
E am o Coverla.
" I'd tak ye reight intul mi arms,
At wacker queer to see ;
I'd hug ye both abaht wer rahms,
For kusses ye sud gie. 132
58 TALES AND BALLADS
"An is't, o Walter Coverley,
Thi pulin sen tha hears ?
An is ta then abahn to bei
Soft fond as clickin breears ?
" Oh, why's mi Wyll'm soa beheeand !
An why his welcome lat !
Mi childer sud bi nah be weeaned,
All bud that Henry brat !
" An what are t' bahns an t' wife to me
At I sud bother soa ?
Mi bahns will nivver scrawm mi knee,
An t' wife will nobbud rooar.
" O hah I hate mi mardy lot !
Ma curses on em fall
An blast mi ivvry bahn I wot,
An t' bluth'rin wife an all !
" Bud hah red breet this eldin burns !
O why noan burns it bliew,
Wi grean or yolla i ther turns
Asteead this blooid hiew !"
He puts a hand afoor his een
An steggers him tul t' stair ;
He heaves a sigh, an then, I ween,
His lips the move i prayer.
An nah agean he is that same
At rade to kuss his bahns ;
An nah agean he gan to frame
To loss his crewil frahns. 160
COVERLA 59
An i t' gert keepin rahm aboon
Is Coverla slim wife,
An shoo hes donn'd her gahn an shoon
E readiness for strife.
" O Carver," says sa tul her man
At come i t' rahm an all,
"I'm flayd at nah an evil ban
On t' hahse is bahn to fall !"
At last is Walter Coverley
His dith'rin wife afoor,
An sad he asses why sud bei
Her face as white as snooa.
' ' O say an is ta flayd on owt !
O say an tell to mei
Why t' blooid flees thi face for nowt,
Becoss at E am neigh !"
As swift as aigle spreads her wings
Her fledglin heigh to bear,
As swift an wide his arms he flings
An clasps his lady fair.
O sad at sich sud ivver be !
Sa wrassles wild an flayd
Thro Coverla hersen to free,
An lahdly calls her maid.
Bud noan nor t' man at war abaht
Wor theer to answer t' cry,
An quick he tul em come wi aht
As mich as tellin why. 188
60 TALES AND BALLADS
" Bid Carver fotch mi youngist bahn
At's wi his wife at nurse !"
Said Coverla wi scahlin frahn,
An black an ugly curse.
" O Carver fotch mi Henery,"
Sha tremlin tells her man ;
Bud tear an sigh the say at he
Mun think o t' evil ban.
An soa he nivver went away
To fotch her bahn back hooam,
Bud stay'd i t' court to while on t' day :
Noa farther wod he rooam.
"An seur t' maister's drukken mad,
I seed his ee wi greean !
An seur I'll noan fotch his lad,
Bud goa i t' hall ageean."
An this did Carver trewly do,
As tells sad history :
He went i t' hall tul t' fratchin two,
An reyt riled Coverlee.
" O think ye I mi bahn wod hurt?
think ye I'd him harm ?
I'd raether feyt wi t' strang an t' gert
Nor bahn o mine alarm ! "
An soa i rage did Coverla
Ageean em lahdly rail
" A bahn o mine at t' seet o ma
1 knooa wod nivver pale ! " 216
COVERLEY 6l
An list'nin tul him ramp an reeave
His owdist bahn bed been,
An nah wor watchin t' mother greeave
Wi wide an starin een.
He war bud fewer, t' little'n, then,
An noan could understand,
Soa quick he tul his father ren
To tig his father hand.
An reyt an prahd is Coverley,
Becoss he nah can show
At t' bahn noan flayd on him wod bei,
An thoa he lig him low.
Bud nah a weapon finnds his hand
An liffs his arm up hee,
An heavy falls to sear t' red brand
O shame on Coverlee.
An stabb'd an deein wor his bahn
On t' floor, an wheer ther fell
His blooid red at spurted dahn,
Wer history can tell.
O deed o blooid an red shame !
O deed o thirsty blade !
Why dyed ye dark a knightly name,
An honour thro it taed !
Bud t'seet o Wyll'm blooid made
His father madness flee ;
An yit he raced wi t' drippin blade
His Walter bahn to see. 244
TALES AND BALLADS
Al be his wife an Carver strave
His reekin hand to stay,
Wi steady arm his blade he drave
An Walter bahn did slay.
Then woundin t' wife at click'd his knei,
He dahn wi Carver fell,
An thoa he worn't a Coverley,
This wrassl'd reight, the tell.
Bud fair away gat Coverlee,
An on his hoss he rade,
At toppist speed fro t' hall to gie
A deeath brod wi t' blade.
He rides to kill his Henery,
At's aht away at nurse,
As slew he Walter, soa to free
Him thro t' black murther curse.
Bud t' hoss it shutter'd dahn an roll'd
Wi Walter Coverley,
As ridin up wi hearts full bowld,
Come hossmen two or threi.
The click strang hod o Coveriee,
An tak him tul a jail,
An noan a wit the knooa at he
Is nobbud reight i kale.
An fewer months at after he
Wor squeez'd to death becoss
He wodn't plead, lest Henery
Sud t' father chattels loss. 272
COVERLA 63
O still wor t' woods o Coverley
Thro stream to lordin scarr;
Noa bird gav grean-wood song" i trei,
Thro glade tul greeavin carr.
O grean hill shield Sa'nt Wyllfred Kirk !
O grean wode cluther rahnd !
Esh, ollin, aigh an crookl'd birk,
Pen in her hally grahnd ! 280
TUL A GREEAN-WOOD FLAH.
IN t' days o early childhood
I nivver thowt o tahn,
Bud lairk'd abaht i t' greean-wood,
A reight wick Yorksher bahn.
Ther war a steep wi bliew bells,
A bonnie copse wi nests,
An ivvry flah t' honey tells
Hes bumble-bees for guests.
Ther war gert trees o ollin,
A brambly bracken glade,
Ther war a woodman trollin,
Ther war a dyke I made.
A dyke I made i t' dingle
Bi stuffin t' goit-hoil full,
Wi sods o t' bent, an shingle,
Or owt at I could pull.
I knooa at theer askards war,
An moudiwarps hev moiled;
Ackrens, blegs an aighs ther are,
An t' wasp nests I've unhoiled.
64
TUL A GREEAN-WOOD FLAH 65
Bud reight tul this varry day,
I cannot finnd ageean,
A flah at I loved to ta
Mi mother when a weean !
O white it war an elfish,
As t' frailest flah or spray,
An Spring, at's nivver selfish,
Sa browt it ere come May.
O little flah o Spring-tide,
Tha nameless art to me,
Bud ne'er will wer Yorksher wide
Finnd love like mine for thee !
T' FAIRY RING O ESHING.
BETWIX t' Otley Chevin an Pennigant Hill ther war ne'er a
blither-hearted couple nor Amos Skaife an Lily Hollindael,
till t' lady o t' manor o Eshing come back fro abroad ; bud
after that t' April itsen wor noan as tearful as sweet Hollindael
lass face, an ther worn't a bliew bell weet wi dawn dew at
glestered more nor t' lass sky-hiewed een.
T' manor lady wor young an handsome. Sha hed come
dahn thro a lang line o rich landed fowk an hed browt t'
lands dahn wi 'er ; an soa, though Hollindael lass wor t'
better lewkin o t' two wimmim, t' reckonin wor for t' manor
lady brass is sich a goid mak-weight an Hollindael lass
went away fro Eshing to dee wi a brokken 'art.
An Amos noan fret 'issen mich abaht that when Frances
Slingsby an t' lands o Eshing wor likely to beleng 'im. 'E
wor nobbud flayd at as t' days slithered by, t' chonce o ther
spurrins bein heard wod slither an all. This did bother 'im,
an 'e ommost nattered 'issen to death ower it, for t' manor
lady wodn't mak up 'er mind to hev 'im. 'E thowt 'er mood
wod tide by ; an 'e bided a bit.
Abaht a year 'e waited, an then 'e wor reight stalled.
Soa of a neet 'e went ower tul an owd hag 'e'd heard on, an
ast what 'e mud do to leearn if 'e wod wed t' lady-love.
" I knooa weel hah ye med leearn, an hah ye med see t'
woman ye mun wed," said t' owd hag. " To-morn is May
day, an at abaht sundahn, when t' fairies are sick o ther
lairkin an ready for other gam, ye mun goa dahn tul t' lang
pasture i t' dale, an at t' nethermost end ye'll finnd a sycamore.
66
T' FAIRY RING O ESHING 67
Noan seven strides thro 't is a ring" o greean gerse, as if it med
a bin wheer a giant sythe bed yance left a gert swathe-balk.
Here ye mun go rahnd sunwithards as oft as ther be days
'twix nah an Whitsunda, an sewerly ye sal see 'er ye mun
wed."
It wor wi a laugh an a fleer at Skaife lad mahnted 'is mare
t' next eventide an rade to t' lang pasture. Tetherin t' mare
tul a pale 'e scrammeled t' gate an waded through t' fause
young gerse at wor ower-chuf becos on that Spring wor abaht ;
an reight timely wor 'e bi t' owd sycamore at t' nethermost
end o t' feyld.
Sewer eniff t' fairy ring wor theer ; an Amos gan to walk
rahnd an rahnd sunwithards times as oft as days wor 'twix
then an Whitsunda. Times rahnd 'e went an times agean ;
'e'd ne'er thowt afore at Whitsunda wor soa far thro t' first
o May. 'E loised 'is reckonin, bud summat held 'im on till
dusk. Then e an ee twinkle 'e'd fun 'issen stood stock-still,
an theer i t' middle o t' ring" wor a hazy mist. 'E gloared
an gloared, till at last 'e made aht ther wor a woman.
"Sewer an it's t' manor lady I s'wed 'er, I sal, I sal !"
'e said to 'issen.
Bud speykin mun a brokken a spell, for t' mist hed melted
away an left noan nor Hollindael lass, 'er blieu een breet wi
tears. An sa reiked aht 'er 'ands beseechin, tards 'im.
"Wed ye!" cried Skaife i scorn, "Wed ye! Nivver ! 1
s' wed noan bud Frances Slingsby." An 'e scutched 'er ower t'
cheek. Bud it seemed as if 'is whip hed nobbud swished
through t' air ; an a chill quailed 'is 'art, for Hollindael lass
hed goan, an 'e wor alooan i t' lang pasture, wi t' owd swayin
sycamore !
T' next day Amos couldn't mind hah 'e gat hooam t' neet
afoor. An as what hed happened worn't ower-nice to crack
on, 'e made believe tuv 'issen at 'e'd bin dreeamin. In t'
forenoin 'e went up tul t' Manor Hall an ast for Frances
Slingsby. Bud 'e wor teld sha wodn't see 'im.
"That caps ma," said 'e, "for yis'da sha telt me to
68 TALES AND BALLADS
come. Nah, it wodn't be owt aht o yar way if ye telt me
why yar mistress weant see ma."
T' man thowt a bit. "I s' ne be doin mich wrang if I
do," said 'e : " Shoo wor sitten at table yester eve when all
at once sha gav a shrike an said at some'dy hed scutched
'er ower t' face wi a whip. Sewer eniff ther wor soin a red
weal to be seen ; an it's becoss it's noan goan off on 'er face
yit at sha weant see ye, Maister Skaife, this forenoin."
This wor aboon Skaife lad ken, an 'e went hooam reight
maddled wi thinkin it ower.
A weal across a fair face is noan nice, an soa thowt
Frances, t' manor lady, as t' weal wodn't goa.
"Oh, what mun I do? what mun I do?" sha waeled.
At last sha went tul t' hag o Eshing.
"Why, lass," said shoo, "if ye will nobbud go dahn to
t' fairy ring bi t' owd sycamore i t' lang pasture to-morn neet
ye sal lois t' weal thro yar face. I'm sewer on't, if ye'll
nobbud goa rahnd sunwithards till reight dusk ! "
Soa early t' next neet t' manor lady wor dahn bi t' fairy
ring.
" I s' goa hooam," sha said to 'ersen as sha stood agean
t' owd sycamore : "This is all a gam ! "
Bud noa soiner hed sha said it nor big drops o rain gan
to fall on t' sycamore leaves an mak a
Pit pat pit,
Pit purty pity pat,
Pit pat pit.
At first sha listened an kep time wi 'er toa on t' sward.
Then sha clapped 'er 'ands an seng wi t'
Pit pat pit,
Pit purty pity pat,
Pit pat pit.
Soin this worn't eniff, sha mun leg it an all. Soa aht on t
ring sha stepped an frisked it like a watter-wraithe. An all
T' FAIRY RING O ESHING 69
t' while t' heavy rain drops wor silin dahn on t' sycamore,
bud noawheer else. Dark wor comin on, an though t' manor
lady wor flayd o neet as wor t' sun at hed skulked off beheend
t' Craven hills, yit sha still foited t' ring 1 tul t' tune o t'
rain.
Bud summat moor wor to betide : Amos wor i t' lang
pasture an all, for 'e 'd come dahn tul t' fairy ring to fend for
'issen, an, as 'e wor e 'is cups, an druffen, 'e sweer'd at if t'
owd love i t' shape o Hollindael lass wor to show 'ersen agean
it sud goa hard wi 'er, flesh or ghooast. When 'is een failed
on t' manor lady dancin rahnd an rahnd t' ring i t' dusk 'is
blooid boiled :
"Curse 'er, it's Lily!" 'e shahted. "Bud sha s' ha
summat for comin ! " 'Is words wor lahd, yit t' manor lady
ne'er heeard 'em ; an Amos rushed forrards an scutched 'er
arm thro behind wi t' riding whip.
This brak t' spell, an t' manor lady turned an brust into
tears at t' smart o t' whip.
" Is't ye, Amos Skaife?" sha cried. "Scamp ye! for
what strack ye at me ? "
" Bi t' Megs, it's t' lady love!" said Amos. "I thowt
it wor Hollindael lass ! " An t' lad wor soa aghast 'e
rubbed 'is een, an rubbed an rubbed agean. Bud when 'e
lewk'd up t' manor lady hed goan.
Ne'er hed Skaife lad raced soa blithely dahn tul t' Manor
Hall as 'e sped on t' eve o t' day after 'e hed seen t' manor
lady 5 t' fairy ring. 'E minded weel at t' hag o Eshing hed
telt 'im 'e wod wed 'er at wod come tul 'im i t' lang pasture ;
an soa 'e wor noan flayd at Frances wod click t' mishap on
'is hevin gen 'er arm a scutch wi 'is whip, an mak that
come between 'em.
An a reight welcome did sha gie 'im :
" I'm glad ye've come," sha said, " I've two cousinns 'ere
at want to see ye."
"An what want the to see me for, Frances? Am'it I
bud a stranger tul em? "
7O TALES AND BALLADS
" Ay, bud ye sarn't be stranger lang, scamp ye ! "
An afoor Skaife lad bed made owt o t' change at bed
come ower t' lady love, 'er two gert cousinns wor i t' rahm an
'e 'd fun 'issen taen bi t' skuft o t' neck :
" We s' teych ye to try whip wer cousinn ! " the shahted,
as the dragged 'im aht o doors.
"Hod, bud ye're wrang wrang," spluttered Amos through
t' fingers at wor ower 'is mahth ; "it wor all a maerlerk o
som'dy's."
" Nowt o t' kind ! It war a faerk o yars. Aht wi ye ;
an if we're telt ye come rahnd 'ere ageean, ye s'ev a gold
poisin for t' Hollindael lass sake an all ! " Then they sleng
'im aht an left 'im.
Eeh, bud this wor ower mich to thoil for Skaife lad !
"Curse Hollindael lass!" 'e yelled. "It's through 'er,
this ; curse 'er an t' fairy ring wi 'er ! Tul t' lang pasture
I'm bahn ; an come Hollindael lass ther sal be an end on 't! "
'E louped ower a drain-grip, an scrawmin up a tree bi
t' hey wall o t' Manor Hall grahnds 'e scrammel'd on to t'
stooan an sluthered dahn t' other side. Neet wor agate wi
black clahds shuttin off t' day beheend t' glum moors, an t'
little puddles under owd brokken fences wor lairkin at bein
silver dykes, whol dark, ghoastlike swifties slithered through
t' twileet sky, athwart ivvry path, like deead men goid wishes,
bud nowt wor seen by Amos Skaife. ' Dahn tul t' lang
pasture wor 'e makkin ; nor stopped 'e till 'e hed reiked it an
'e wor stood aneyth t' owd sycamore.
"Fairies or whoe'er it be at made this ring, curses on
ye!" 'e shahted. "Curses on ye an Hollindael lass an
all !" An sewer 'is hate o t' lass wor ronk !
Bud t' unlikely comes rahnd ower-oft. When Skaife lad
hed done, t' sycamore shuddered thro clutchin root to
ditherin twig, an all t' grean leeaves whispered strangely
ameng thersens. Amos glanced up into t' tree, an then
dahn to t' fairy ring; an theer i t' middle o t' ring wor Lily
Hollindael! Nit far off wor a gert stooan, an wi a yell o
rage Amos rushed forrard an liffin it up 'e hurled it like a
madman at t' lass. Bud asteead on it touchin 'er it went
an brak oppen ageean t' sycamore, an aht on it spreng- a
frog.
This wor seen by Scaife lad, bud t' fairies on a suddin
bed made all t' loveliness o Hollindael lass be read in 'er face,
an t' seet on 'er drave 'im fond-wild for love on 'er:
"Lily, lass," 'e waeled, "I hev been blinnd, an sewer!
Why hev I forgetten thi to nah ? Bud ta is mah lass; I'll
wed thi, an I sal, by goi !"
Then t' listenin sycamore leeaves whispered an laughed
ameng thersens.
"Amos," said Hollindael lass, i words sweet sahndin as
t 1 purlin o runnin watter, "why did ta brek mi heart ?"
"Bye-goans, Hollindael lass, are bye-goans!" An 'e
went tards 'er.
"Ne, bud I am'it bahn wi thi, Amos. Witta goa wi
me?"
"Sewer I will." An 'e followed 'er through t' lang
pasture, rahnd bi a coppice o hep-brears till 'e'd fun the war
i t' dael.
"Wheer's ta leadin, lass? Ta moant forget at t' beck
dike's 'ere abaht !"
" Noan I, Amos; mi een are bliew, an ther's dayleet e em
when it's twileet goan," sa softly answered. An 'e followed
on.
"Lily, lass, ta's ower nimble for ma! Hod whol I
come," 'e gasped ageean, reight aht o breeath, an flayd;
" ther's summat white like a sea o yarrow blooims afoor ma.
What is't, Lily lass? T' mooin's ower-cussen."
Bud sa nobbud gav a laugh ; an nettled at 'er finndin 'e
wor freetened 'e spreng reight ameng what 'e hed thowt
wor yarrow blosm. Lahd ringin war 'is shrikes as a flayd
bird skirl, an hill bandied em tul hill ; Skaife lad hed
tummel'd head-lang i t' white, foam-skummed water o t'
foist beck dike, an 'e wor drahndin !
72 TALES AND BALLADS
An as 'e failed i t' Ower-lang Sleeap 'e thowt at t' frog at
bed jumped aht o t' stooan 'e'd brokken agean t' sycamore
bed been browt to life bi t' fairies soa it med tell a hunderd
frogs or moor to biddy t' dike watter wi t' frog spit. An then
'e seed at ower a year agoan Hollindael lass bed deed thro a
brokken heart.
'E put aht a hand to 'Evn. Bud a scutch thro t' dark sky
fell on it, an t' slow syke whispered thro below :
"Ye sal wed noan bud t' deead, ye sal !"
HUNTIN SONG.
IT'S neet an nah we're here, lads,
We're in for gooid cheer, lads !
Yorkshermen we all on us are,
Yorkshermen for better or war !
We' tykes an we' ghast uns,
We' pade uns an fast uns
Awther for better or awther for war !
ALL T* LOT.
Then shaht till ye've gorr hooast, lads !
Sing: "Yorkshermen, wer tooast, lads !
Wer king, wer heeath, wer hahnds, lads !
Wer hooam, wer hearth, wer bahns, lads !"
The's some at nooan are here, lads !
Forger em we sal ne'er, lads !
Yorkshermen the all on em war !
Yorkshermen yit all on em are !
The's thrang uns an looan uns,
The's wick uns an gooan uns !
The're all reight somewheer an we s' be noa war !
ALL T' LOT.
Then shaht till ye've gorr hooast, lads !
Sing: "Yorkshermen, wer tooast, lads !
Wer king, wer heeath, wer hahnds, lads !
Wer hooam, wer hearth, wer bahns, lads !"
73
IN T BLEGGIN DAYS.
HAH t' midges made for fowk on t' day when we all on us
went tul t' woods of a September afternoin, wi ahr black an
tan Scots collie Lassie, an 'er gert pup Colin, wi us to sleet at
owt ! The mud a knooad we wor comin, an I'm seur the'd
clammed thersens soa the could mak a reyt meyl on us.
The mud a knooad an all at we wor lads, an at we sud be
stark-naked soin as ivver we gor agean t' beck-hoil, else
wer mothers wod neer a hed to wesh us all-ower i milk to
lay t' midge bites at-efter as the hed. 1 Shots ! an worn't t
first lang dive an t' spleshin do we hed wi freetened Jud
Hodgins worth it all ! We fair sossed 'im !
I can tell when wer clooas wor stown, an hah we
scrawmed up t' trees to hiddy fro fowk at corned wer way.
Bud t' day at Hodgin lad wor wi us nob'dy faerked to steyl
a cloa we wor wild an reyt. We couldn't thoil to hod at
Jud wod ger hooam aneyth 'is father rig ageean baht finndin
t' warld hed taistrils in 't.
At-efter we'd hed a bade i t' beck we went a-waspin, an
fan a wasp-nest at foit 'n a esh.
" Nah, Jud," we said tul Hodgin lad, " tha'rt nooan up
to lairkin wi t' waspies. Get thi scrawmed intul t' trei, reyt
aht o t' rooad, afoor we ger agate o mellin wi t' nest. Pike
off. We moant ha thee mankin wi it, mun we, Brookie ? "
" Noa, an we moant."
Soa we gav Jud a leg-up intul t' esh ; an reyt chuf 'e wor,
for 'e wor allus flayd o me an Brookie hevin a maerlerk wi
'im. Then we rived dreed owd twitch gers, an stuffed it
chockful o t' twitch, an Brookie gat t' gers agate.
1 An experience the present writer has enjoyed in the circumstances given.
74
75
"Ye nooan bahn to burn t' esh dahn, are yi?"
" Nor us ; doant thee lois thi peeak. Sithi, it does nowt
bud reeak ; an tha'rt nooan bahn to be flayd on a puther, is
ta?"
"Nor I, I sudn't mind t' puther if war nor gers wor
ma'in it, bud ye twoa are allus up to summat an "
" Gi ower shahtin," we said. " Hah sal we gerr all t'
waspies aht if we dooant smook em ? "
" An will it daze em ? " 'e ast; an 'e war e a way.
"Ahr, it'll daze em," we answered. " Tha wanted to
bring- thi mother cower-rake wi thi."
" Cowl-raerk, yi meean ! "
" Nah then, poyt t' gers aht," said Brookie to me, " t'
hoil's reyt Gagged up wi muck an stooans." Soa I scethered
it aht wi a lang stick like a potter, an then we scuttered
off as if we med a been gert freetened arrands, for we wor
all legs as lads. Whew ! t' waspies puthered aht i a reight
clahd, an I neer stopped till a brammel legged me dahn.
Brookie wor ommost brussen wi laughin, an couldn't speyk.
Bud all t' while ther wor sich lahd shrikes thro t' top o t'
esh, an we knooad t' waspies hed fun t' soft gauvison, an at
'e wor thrang. Eeh, it war a gooid seet to see Jud Hodgins
sluther. Bud once on t' grahnd ageean 'e made dahn tul t'
beck-hoil like a wild an.
"Come on after 'im," shahted Brookie, "f waspies hev
getten i 'is clooas, an 'e'll chuck 'issen i t' beck for to drahnd
em."
By shots, bud it war a race ; an we nobbud clicked hod
on 'im bi t' beck-hoil. Then Brookie gan an gav 'im a
lammasin.
"Nay, what's ta payin 'im for, Brookie?" says I.
" Tha'll brek ivvry booan e 'is hide."
"Oh, stash it! stash it, Brookie! what's ta sluggin
me for!" hockered Jud. "Does ta want to kill ma or
summat ! "
" Ahr, tha knooas what t' lads say Bradfeild an Shevvild
7 6
rooard, ' Cauf wick, cah wick, bull wick, come thi ways
piggy-jack, come to t' scratch ! ' Does ta like saim on
tooast? I can eyt kitchin crusses slaped wi t' drippin, till
t' cahs come up. Nah then soft 'n, off wi thi sark shut
thi punky faerce or I sal slug thi an reyt ! Hah's ta undo
thi galluses ? Why, lewk 'ere at fower wasps i 'is sark at
I've mushed flat ageean 'im. The nobbud kittled. Kick em
i t' watter an ler em hev a swim like wer kitlins, an t'
ratton at we fan. Hey, bid, bid, biddy duck. Dig, dig,
diggie, diggie ! Off nah wi thi sark an thi flannin cinglit."
An yarkin em off wi a jert 'e gav em me to shak.
" Gie ower blutherin Jud, tha'rt like to rooar, bud tha
art a kid ! Sithi, t' waspies hev getten i Lassie coit ! Lewk
hah sha's feighin ! Tha made us flayd o settin fire to t'
touchwood i t' trei, an t' waspies didn't get reight dazed.
We sudn't a browt thee wi us, for tha'rt allus gerrin us
into bother. Thi knop's weeat yit ; bud what's ta done wi
thi lip ? It's as big ageean ! "
"Tha knooas what it is," bluthered Hodgins lad; "a
wasp tenged me theer. It's t' worsist I've ivver hed."
" I'n't it spiffin at killin days!" said I to Brookie, as if
Jud hedn't spokken. " I allus ass to fotch t' ale up for t'
pig-sticker an t' men when the're hoddin t' pig on t' scratch.
Ye dooan't hear t' squeeals soa on t' cellar-heead or i t' cellar,
then. If it worn't wer oan pig it could squeeal t' lairth
dahn an goa on till t' varry stee flegs wor splitten, I sudn't
mind nowt."
"Thee get thi 'is things on ! Tha knooas I've getten a
demmicked thumb," said Brookie to me, nooan heedin.
" I'm bahn tul t' top o yon ollin. Ther's a throssle nest I
wor lewkin at i t' nestin-time, day mi mother brother thro
Reeavy Beeacon, ower bi t' top o Whibsa, browt mi t' pair o
jimmers for mi rabbit-hoil, afoor the'd flitten to Whibsa Slack.
Ther wor nobbud one egg in. I'm bahn to sey if it's gooan."
When Jud wor agean summat a bit like, Brookie corned
back wi a throssle egg.
IN T' BLEGGIN DAYS 77
" It's a forsak, an it'll be addled, bud I s'l ta it hooam an
blow it."
Bud we went moor intul t' woods.
" I ne'er knooad tha'd bed thi jimmers gen thi," said I,
" an I allus thowt tha'd awther fun em or snaked em."
Then we loised Brookie, an when we fan 'im 'e wor packin
'issen wi blegs, as monny as 'e could sam, an eytin em till 'e
wor fair gloppen'd.
" Wag's !" I shahts; " we goa whacks ! "
" Ye're nawther bahn whacks, nor wags, nor shags. Mi
cousinn thro Stannin'ton allus says 'wags an shags!'
Shevvild rooad, it is. Bud ye mun gerr em yarsen seea, I
hev this pockit reyt full on em. Ther's a skep-ful ! I st hug
em hooam missen."
" Eeh, weant it be spiffin ! the'll mak a reight dumplin
on em to-morn !" spak up Jud, wakknin fro 'is mardy sulk,
an 'e gan to cram his pockits wi t' blegs. "The' called
bummelkites i t' daels."
"Dumplin maks ahr Sis gip," said Brookie, "an sha
weant eyt nowt sad nawther. Sha can allus smell if t' breead's
dazin i t' oven. 'Sal I put some mooar coil on, mother?'
sha shahts; 't' looaves are dazin ! The'll be reight dazed !
Ye knooa I sarn't eyt owt at clags!' An sha ommost rooars.
I'n't sha soft? Bud I dooant like owt clarty missen. It
maks me bocken. Soa does owt walsh and worf. I wish we
hed some milk; I'm ommost sleekened !"
" Ahr," said I, " an I could sup a reight panshunful, wi a
chunk o moggy ; or a drop o rabbit broth wi whot meyl
lithenin."
"I could sup a maidnin-pot full!" said Hodgins lad,
puttin on t' man a bit.
Then Brookie telt us we could goa whacks if we wod put
wer blegs i 'is gert handkercher; an when it wor teed up wi
t' throssle egg, a bonnie bruntlin, reight wick, some ackrens,
some rowans, an greean aighs, an breet red poison berries, an
t' cowk 'n a gert greean apple 'e'd scrumped, we all set off
78 TALES AND BALLADS
hooamards. Bud t' blegs neer gor hooam, for Brookie
dropped all t' lot on em off'n 'is stick i t' middle o t' rooad,
an the wor all mushed up wi t' addled throssle egg.
"Tha wants thi mother skummer !" laughed Hodgin lad.
Sin this wor I hev fun missen an owd man, an thoa mi
legs wacker neyth ma, an I'm a bit hard o hearin, an t' best
fowks reckon to say abaht ma is at I'm reyt an canny for mi
years, yit I knooa, somehah, I'm t' same owd sen I wor when
I went scrumpin mi father apples wi t' hill-top gang. Things
hev getten nobbud t' leeast bit aht o gear: When mi father
wor t' squire t' owd parson said it wor a shame hah I gav
mi father apples tuv all t' wild lads abaht ; an nah E am t'
squire, t' new parson tells ma at it is a shame hah mah son
lad steyls mi apples an gi's em tul t' mouchers abaht. God
bless em ! bud weeant I shak mi stick at em when I set een on
t' young rapscallions t' raffle-toppins em !
Bud it's bleggin time ageean, an yis'da I went dahn to t'
kirk to see t' bedizenin the'd been giein it for t' harvis. Ther
worn't a bleg to con ameng it all ! I corned aht slow threw
t' kirk-garth, an mi een dropt on tul a little stiff owd chap
chuckin t' muck aht'n a buryin-hoil bi t' causa walk. For
monny a year I'd bin away fro t' owd hooam, an soa as I
thowt t' chap wodn't knooa ma, I made up tuv 'im, an ast
hah lang 'e med a bin at 'is job.
" Sin ivver I can tell, ommost."
" Then it's a while an reight," said I ; " bud ye'll nooan bi
noa war for hevin hed to graft."
" Happen an I sal, happen an I sarn't. I've awther hed to
addle mi meyt or clam. Neer bite nor sup I've hed sin mi
loisin, bud what I addled missen."
" Then yi hed a loisin ?"
"Ahr, an I hed, an I've hed to goa short shacks ivver
sin," said 'e, leeanin on t' mattock; "an nobbud yis'da, it
seems sin the seng ' Hod yer liquor aboon yer chin !' '
" Ne, an it wor n't yis'da," said I.
" An it warn't, squire."
IN T' BLEGGIN DAYS 79
" Whoa telt yi I wor t' squire ? "
" I reckon I sud want nob'dy to tell mi, bud happen ye'd
a to hev som'dy to tell whoa I wor."
" Why, an whoa med yi be ? "
"Om Jud."
"Jud? I dooan't mind t'name," said I. "Bud hod!
nah I comes to goa back, ther wor a lad o t' name at lairked
abaht wi ma when I wor a lad missen. I knooad 'im when
'e wared a brat. 'Is fowk thoa warn't soa varry weeal off
I think, bud when mi father sent me away thro hooam I
loss sect on 'im. I can tell when we all on us wod goa
chumpin in t' woods for Bunfire Day, when mi mother tharf-
cake wor smellin hot i t' oven, an sha wor makkin t' scotch ;
an hah we wod sing afoor t' hahses
' Oily coily, Bunfire Day,
If ye doant gie us some coil,
Or gie us some sleek,
We'll all on us come an knock off yer door sneck ! '
I've nooan heeard it said of laert. We said an all, tha
knooas
' Remember, remember t' fift o November
An t' Gunpowder Plot !
Gi mi some coil, cowks or sleek,
Or I'll oily coily yar door sneck ! '
It allus riled mi father at I went maets wi a wildish cletch.
Bud I've sin fun sich lads mak reight men o young fowk.
Jud at I knooad wor a bit of a shandy, freetened soort i 'is
way; 'e wor nobbud a jimmy little chap an all."
" An 'e war," said t' owd delver.
" Why, did ye knooa Jud o t' Loin Ends, t' top o t' Delf
Hill, bi t' crookl'd owd red aigh ? "
T' owd man doubled 'is kneive an bared 'is arm aboon
t' shackle, up tul t' elbow:
" Lewk at this arr; it wor done all thro ye an Brookie,
when 'e gav me a kahl ! "
8O TALES AND BALLADS
" Why, tha'rt Jud ! " I wor reight hooarse.
"Yah, an I'm Jud," said 'e wi a bit of a wacker i t'
words. " Dooant lewk at mi clooas; t' mence is taen aht
on 'em. I'm rayther mucky an all, an could dew wi a goid
sowl at t' sink-stooan."
"Way, Jud lad," I said, "I'm reight an flayd at tha's
made bad aht. Hes ta nooa bahns ? "
"Ye see t' owd elder clump bi t' church end yonder?
ther's fower on 'em theer, an t' wife."
I wiped mi een, an summat weeat wor kitlin mi cheek:
"I'm glad I seed thi, Jud," said I; "we booath on us
owd nah, an tha'rt a bit younger nor mei, bud if ivver tha
wants owt send thi for me; an if I dee first I s' nooan forget
thi, nother."
" It's reight gooid o ye, Squire. I've allus hed to leearn
hah to prog aht for missen, an I sal be like to dee i mi
shooin."
"Tha nivver knooas," I put in, slivin a guinea i 'is 'and,
an fetchin 'im a nope. " Siew yis'da, sow to-morn. Thooas
at siew seid once, sal sow ageean. Does ta mind i t'
bleggin days when Brookie teld thi to goa intul t' esh whol
wi reeaked t' wasp nest ? "
" I nobbud reckened a-Sat'da," said 'e, lewkin a bit soft
ower t' brass, an shamin. " Bud ahr ahr, I mind t' wasp
nest weel. It wor i t' bleggin days, worn't it an nah it's
t' bleggin days ageean ! "
'E wor that slockened, an 'is mahth that twitchy I couldn't
thoil it, an felt reight wammy missen. I thowt I sud swelt;
soa I made an ast wheer Brookie wor, an if 'e hed flitten
fro t' hill top, an hah 'e wor gerrin on ameng it all.
" Om delvin nah for Brookie," wor t' answer; " 'e deed
nobbud t' day afoor yis'da, an to-morn the bahn to lig 'im
'ere ! "
WER TIDE.
SUMMER, gooid-bye !
I say soa wi a sigh
Hark, wer tide's corned !
T' wind is cowd at neets
When on t' moor-side are leets,
An wer tide's corned !
Gipsies are at t' door,
Ther caravan's on t' moor :
Ahr, wer tide's corned !
Theer are bud moors nah,
To hem wer hamlet brah,
Wheer wer tide conies !
Time ma show to fowk
A spot all spread wi cowk,
Wheer wer tide comes !
An yit, little tide,
At breetens wer moor side,
I wry year come !
An sud tahn be theer,
Seek aht a place at's clear,
Let wer tide come !
81
82 TALES AND BALLADS
Wer owd, happy tide,
At oft finnds lad a bride
We glad ye've corned !
Summer, gooid-bye !
T* hills purple ling says " hie,"
An wer tide's corned !
BALLAD :
IN T' BURNIN O T' GREEAN.
IN t' North Countree*
Ther liv'd a kneyt
O heigh degree,
Sir Walter height.
Sir Walter hed
Bud dowters twain,
One Winifred,
The tother Jane.
An Jane for love
Sha soin wed;
Bud noan for love
Wed Winifred.
Asteead sha said
Sweetheart sud bide,
Till t' brass he hed
To tak a bride.
An owd sha gat
An fahl to see,
Wi grabbin at
Bud gowd an fee.
At last ther deed
Her sister Jane,
An t' husband he'd
In t' wars bin slain.
83
84 TALES AND BALLADS
Beheend the left
An elfin lass,
At thoa bereft,
Hed lands an brass.
Her een wor blew,
Her hair floss gowd ;
Her years bud few :
Ten harvists mow'd.
Yit lands an brass
T' a'nt fro her taed,
An soin t' lass
Becomed her maid.
A maid to sing,
A maid to sew,
A maid to bring
A cannel low.
At eventide,
One S'omas Day,
T' a'nt, heart-brak, cried,
' ' O weel-a-day !
" O weel-a-day !
It's neigh on Yule,
An Kersmas Day
At maes mi pule !
4
"An nah agean,
We've etten t' cakes,
At bahns the leearn
S'nt Thomas bakes.
IN T' BURNIN O T' GREEAN
"An nah agean,
Wer balks the hing,
Wi ivin grean
An laurel ring."
Sha set alooan
In t' ingle nook,
To wheer sha'd gooaa
Like one forsook.
Her een wor clapp'd
On t' ingle glow,
An as it happ'd,
Ther war noa low.
Her face wor wan
Her grey een breet ;
Enah, sa gan
To mak a leet.
"O lilly low,
Mi heart is cowd ;
O lilly low,
An E am owd !
"Bud lilly low
If nah ta blaze,
To mei 't sal show
For breeter days.
" An sud ther be
Noa low to lairk,
'T sal mean for me
Noa weddin cairk."
86 TALES AND BALLADS
An fond as lass
At love wod leearn,
Sa skared aht t' ass
Till t' grate wor cleean.
Sha t' potter taed
To polsh t' black coil,
For t' daft-dahn made
Bud reeak i t' hoil.
A crozz'l'd log
On t' ingle spit,
An peat thro t' bog
A-smoulther'd wi 't.
Yit noan a low
Fro awther flick'd,
Till ollin bough
On t' wall sha click'd.
Till ollin bough
Wi berries sprent,
To mak a low
On t' ingle went.
O berries breet !
O ollin grean !
Yar Yule to-neet
Wor mull'd bi t' meean !
Bud ollin greean,
An berries red !
It corned ageean
On Winifred.
IN T* BURNIN O T' GREEAN 87
For taain greean
To mak a leeat,
It corned ageean
On t' makky cheeat !
" O lilly low,"
Agean sa gan,
" Wi' t' flicker, low,
If t' fire I fan ?
" Wi' t' flicker, low,
An end mi freet,
Bi burnin t' bough
Wi blazes breet?"
An sayin soa,
Sha clew'd her gahn,
An wi a rooar,
Sha kneyl'd her dahn.
Bud tears wor staved,
For waffin hand
Gav t' leet sha craved
As wi a wand !
O breet wor t''leeat
Thro t' ingle then ;
An t' log an t' peeat
The blazed agen !
An noan sa greeaves
At berries breet,
An ollin leeaves,
Sud mak a leet !
88 TALES AND BALLADS
It meeans a wife
Sha'll triewly be,
It meeans a life
Wi go wd an
For shoo'd noan wed,
Sin bride sha'd be,
Bud man at bed
Fat lands to see.
O sprutter leeaves !
O berries sing- !
As t' dreedist seeaves
An t' wickist ling !
Nit t' ony greean
An wick are ye,
At freshness t' meean
Hev browt to dee !
Bud nah t' a'nt stands,
An turns fro t' sect,
To clap her hands
For cannel leet.
In corned her maid ;
'Twor Hilda lass
At t' a'nt noan flayd,
Hed bilk'd o t' brass.
Wi gowden hair,
An skyey een,
Sa war as fair
As elfin queen.
IN T' BURNIN O T' GREEAN
Yit tears the well,
Sha softly waels,
Her cheeks the tell
Two scarlet taels.
For t' ollin bough
Wi berries sprent,
Tul t' lass wi show
O love wor sent,
HILDA.
" O wheer's mi bough
O ollin grean ?
T' red-berried bough
Fro t' wall I meean !"
WINIFRED.
" On t' fire it's gooan
To mak a leet,
It blaze wor noan
An ugly sect."
HILDA.
" O shameful deed,
To mak a leet
Of e'en a weed,
On S'omas neet !"
T' a'nt cried anoan,
"What lip at me !
Ho, get ye gooan,
An goa an hee !"
9O TALES AND BALLADS
Bud shahts are heeard,
Wi welts on mail,
An reight afeard
T' a'nt gies a wail.
WINIFRED.
"O Hilda bide
Nor leeave mi nah,
O let us hide,
An let us cah !"
HILDA.
" Sin soa I'm telt,
E sooth I bide;
Bud I wod swelt
Afoor I'd hide."
An nah on t' door
Ring" swankin blows,
An t' men the gooa
Wi staves an lows.
" O oppen t' door
An shelter mei,
At's wounded sore
Bi robbers threi.
" O heigh degree
I am, mi name
Is Sir John Lee,
O Flodden fame."
The oppen t' door
An say wi pride,
" O rich or poor,
Wer door-stun stride !"
IN T' BURNIN O T' GREEAN
When t' tidins wan
Tul Winifred,
Sha said 't wor t' man
At shoo wod wed.
For weel sa knooad
At Sir John Lee
Hed accres brooad,
An gowd an fee.
Bud noan sha thowt
At Hilda bough,
Fro t' woods wor browt
John love to show.
For monny days
Did Sir John lig,
As i a maze,
Aneyth this rig.
Yit foor he left
He said he'd wed,
Nit t' young an t' deft,
Bud Winifred !
Hah breet to wed
This weddin day,
When t' Avril med
A been a May !
Aboon t' lavrocks
Wor cheeatin aht ;
An t' lady clocks
The fligg'd abaht.
Q2 TALES AND BALLADS
An t' daisies skenn'd,
Wi yolla ee,
To see who'd wend
Wi Sir John Lee.
When t' bishop spak
In t' kirk he said,
"Two-twooas, alack,
To-day I s' wed !
"Ther fower names
Hev thrice bin ast,
An, kneyts an dames,
I'll wed em fast !
"O Sir John Lee
An Hilda Weir,
Tho twain are ye,
As one sal fare."
" Bud noa an noa !"
Said Winifred ;
" It noan is soa,
Sir John E wed!"
Spak t' bishop: "Bride
Sud knooa her name,
Soa prithi bide
If thine's nit t' same."
Bi nah Hilda
Hed forrard gooan ;
Nor lang wor sha
To stand alooan.
IN T' BURNIN O T' GREEAN 93
Tul Hilda side
Come Sir John Lee,
An kuss'd his bride,
For all to see.
For all to see,
'T wor Hilda Weir,
Wi t' skyey ee
An t' gowden hair.
Bud nah beside
T' a'nt Winifred,
To call her bride,
Stood Wat Aired !
Stood Wat Aired,
At lang, for owt,
Sha vvodn't wed,
For bein nowt.
WAT ALRED.
" Wer spurrins ast
Full thrice hev been,
An t' bishop fast
Can wed I ween.
" We nah are owd,"
Wat further said,
" Bud noan a dowd
Hev I to wed."
WINIFRED.
" Mi Walter lad,"
Wep Winifred,
" Bud E am glad
At thee I s'wed.
94 TALES AND BALLADS
" 'T wor wrang o mei
To waste wer tears ;
'T wor wrang o mei
To waste wer years.
' ' To waste wer life
Wor burnin t' greean,
For I a wife
Med lang a beean ! "
Soa fowk all leearn,
'Tis wrang to waste
Owt wick an greean,
An t' days at haste.
A KUSS.
YE ma bring- me gowd bi t' bowlful,
Gi me lands bi t' mile,
Fling me dewy roses,
Stoor set on mi smile ;
Ye ma cahr ye dahn afoor me,
Castles for me build,
Twine me laurel garlands,
Let sweet song be trill'd ;
Ye ma let mi meyt be honey,
Let mi sup be wine,
Gi me hahnds an bosses,
Gi me sheep an kine.
Yit one flayd kuss fro her wod gie
Sweeter bliss to mei,
Nor owt at ye could finnd to name,
Lait ye thro sei tul sei.
I've seen her hair gleeam gowden
In t' Kersmas yolla sun,
An ivvry inch o grahnd sha treeads,
Belang her seur it mun.
Her smile is sweet as roses,
An sweeter far to me ;
An prahd sha hods her heead up
As lass o heigh degree.
Bonnie are greean laurel leaves
I'd sooiner mi brah feel
T' laughin lips o t' lass I love,
Thoa bays be varry weel.
95
96 TALES AND BALLADS
I'm varry fond o singin :
What bonnier could be
Nor mah fair lass hersen agate
A-singing love to me !
It's reight to live on spice an sich,
An sup a warmin glass ;
Bud sweet-stufPs walsh, an wine is cowd,
Aside mi lovely lass.
Tak ye yar hahnds an bosses,
Tak ye yar sheep an kine ;
To finnd mi lass ower t' hills I'll ride,
Sha sal be ivver mine !
BALLAD.
ROBIN HOOD AN HIS MERRIE MEN
AT COME FRO T RIDINS THREI.
TO-TOOT ! TO-O-O-T !
Come Yorkshermen an gie ye heed,
Come listen for to hear
Hah Robin Hood wor like yarsens,
An noan could thoil a sleer.
For Yorksher bred wor Robyn Hood
An born i Loxley Chase,
A counterie I knooa, or sud,
I laik'd theer days an days.
To tell yi I wor Sheffield born
Is nobbud reight an meet ;
Soa I can say at Loxley Chase
Wod hide fro t' dogs the sleet
Wi gert heigh crags an dingles dim,
Wi trees grean-weft aboon,
An ollins felther'd fast wi breers,
Ye couldn't finnd a loon.
To toot a blast i Loxley Chase
I've taen mi horn at oft,
E Haddon Hall, a kinsman says,
Hes wakken'd bats i t' loft.
97 7
98 TALES AND BALLADS
Thro rahm an rahm i Haddon Hall
Mi mellow horn the reng ;
Thro hill tul hill i Loxley Chase
It toot-toot oft I fleng.
Mi horn is i mi other hand
As nah I for ye wreet ;
One toot I gie, bud swop mi hand
To let a lang toot cheet.
I see a nest o t' feather-poke
One toot-toot o t' horn fan,
An years roll back as thoa a spole
Mi early days unspan.
merrie 'twar to hunt wi t' hahnds
All thro this counterie,
An wheer wer ollin, fir an larch
Wor allus grean to see.
1 mind a kek wi hezels dim,
Wi brammel wires thrang,
An brear-buish clumps soa heigh,
Esh leeaves the wor amang.
'Twor here I fan a moudiwarp
At skin I lang hev kep,
'Twor here for blegs an nuts I corned,
Or ligg'd ma dahn an slep.
I've seen a throssle here on t' nest,
At foit o t' brears, cahr
Wi oppen ee, an flayd, lig low
Whol pull'd I sprig or flab.
ROBIN HODE AN HIS MERRIE MEN 99
It war mah kek, mi varry ooan,
An finnd it ye wod ne'er ;
Bud if I shut mi een a bit,
I think at E am theer.
Till sooin fill wer glaeds wi men
All donn'd i Lincoln greean,
Wi Robin Hood an Little John,
As triewly ye sal leearn.
" O hoa !" shahts Robin, "come arahnd,
We'll hev a merry day;
Bi fahl owd wench I hev bin teld
What fowk o me will say.
" An say when neyth wer woodland gers
I gloar at ackren spruts,
An when missen I've goan aboon
Ah heeard yar goid-shuts."
LITTLE JOHN.
" We ne'er sal say goid-shut to ye,
Wer Robyn Hode," said John,
" A leeader, like a quiver keeps
Shafts keen till fey tin's done."
ROBIN HOOD.
" Ne I sal nivver ass for shaft
Nor keener nor mi John,
Nor onny man at grey gois wing
Wer woodland hoam hes won.
IOO TALES AND BALLADS
" Theas fahl owd deam sha nobbud telt
At some day fowk vvod say
Ther nivver war a Robin Hode,
Yit talk on me alway ! "
LITTLE JOHN.
"A merry jest !" laft Little John,
" To-day we've tael as breet ;
It is at t' king he wants a hoss
To marrer an be fleet."
ROBIN HOOD.
" As like it is to mate a wench
For sweet lips, wit an leearnin,
For triewness at ye e'er med try,
An lewks to keep ye yeearnin.
" Bud tell me then, tell Robin Hood,
What kind o hoss it be,
An trieu as ther is Robin Hood
I'll finnd this hoss for ye.
" Come tell 't to me, or I sal think
Ta's sad flayd I s' finnd it ;
I s' match this hoss wi one soa strang
Noa Yorksher hill sal wind it."
Then spak Joa Whittel, t' Shevvild chap,
At wheel i Rivlin war,
Till t' Loxla set a bensillin
Hed gen him, an sent far.
ROBIN HOOD AN HIS MERRIE MEN 101
JOA WHITTEL FRO HALLAMSHER.
" Yo want to tee a grindle-cowk
Abaht mi neck I see ;
Bur I shall ha to tell it aht
What e'er yo do at me.
"As sure as wheel-swarf barkles t' hands
t' grinder i his hull ;
As sure as Rivlin hardens reight,
A tale I nivver mull.
" I'm Shevvild made, boath heft an blade,
1 waint be threpp'd aht'n it ;
An when I have a wellin heeat,
Yo kno ther is noa daht'n it.
" Yo m' all on yer stash t' jabber,
An yo st be at Den bank
E Rivlin, wheer mi wheel wer,
Afore t' dam-watter stank.
" All swath'd wi sweeat an reight forlorn,
I seed a kneyt last neet,
A deckin mare tak dahn to sup
A varry welcome seet.
"I'd had aboon mi whack o cake,
A tharf-cake brunn'd reight black,
An wengy as a stale owd cheese
Yo'd wi a hatchet hack.
" ' Good lad,' I said, ' ger aht o t' gate,
Thi hoss I want reight bad ;
Wi Robin Hode I mun be soon,
An t' cake I've etten's sad ! '
102 TALES AND BALLADS
" Soa scar'd he wer when Robin Hode,
Bi name aloan wor clois,
I geed missen a brod reight chuff
An said, ' Tha ma'es noa noise !
" ' I weel kno hah to stride a hoss,
Becoss I used to could ;
Belike an I shall bilk yo on't :
I love a mare at's blood !'
" When soa I spak it blended t' kneyt :
He said ' yo moant mell on't ;
To arle a penny yo st ha t' chonce
If theivin i'n't yore wont.
" ' Thro Lunnon tahn I've corned,' he said;
I should a rooard wi laffin,
Soa hetterly his words he spak
I ommost wanted waffin.
" He teld me hah, as nah yo kno,
At t' king a mount is wantin,
To marrer wi a hoss he has,
An for it owt is grantin.
" An then he ax'd me spare his mare
Becoss he hard wor ridin,
To gie a bastin to an erle
At had a maid i hidin.
KNEYT.
" ' O, han yo heart at sect o t' lock
At mah lass once geed mi,
To leeave mi dous'd wi sweeat baht hoss,
Afoor yore Robyn seed mi !
ROBIN HOOD AN HIS MERRIE MEN 103
44 4 Have thowt on me i such a plight,
An we shall be sworn-brothers !
Jf Robin Hood yo war I'm sure
Yo'd think o lass at bluthers.'
JOA WHITTEL.
44 ' Way, t' hoss is yourn,' I said to him ;
4 I'm wimin up missen
Fro wheer I've been done reyt aht on,
Bi some o t' Loxla men.
44 4 Tha goes thi ways, bur nor afoor
I've had a chonce to lar
What kind o hoss it be t' king wants,
An if to tilt or plah.
44 * For nawther busk nor hag nor wall,
Shall hiddy fro me such an.'
Soa reight he geed me t' build o t' hoss
At me should mak a rich an.
4< As breet as coit-mail smither-slek'd
His eye wor when he went,
An rade away reyt o'er Den Bank,
Bi Bell Hag's stooan an bent.
44 Soa birle me aht a sup o ale ;
Gi me mi scran thro t' bass,
Then string me up to t' wiggen bough
For what I did for t' lass.
44 I've teld yo all on a fullock,
Bud if mi tale mut cree,
A fledglin fro ahr Rivlin cletch
Al ne'er hing thro ash tree."
104 TALES AND BALLADS
ROBIN HODE.
" Thi edge is reight," said Robin then,
" Bud t' fasch noan tul mi mind ;
Tha brades o Shevvild tho tha hings,
An esh-key of a kind."
JOA WHITTEL.
"A boss yo howd bi t' strunt waint kick,
An yo are mi hoss-maister ;
Or else I'm like an egg i t' cratch
To brek, if good or waster."
ROBIN HODE
Soa Joa spak up to Robin Hode,
An made him fairly goster :
"An eye-sore, Joa, an esh wod be
At snickl'd sich a roster !
" We s' mak o this a cakin-day ;
Soa say baht fleribokes,
An t' tael o t' sloamin lass tha's heeard,
What's this o t' hoss tha talks.
" We bahn to hev a lekkin soin,
It lewks like thunner nah ;
Come ler us hev thi tael reight sharp
Afoor ther's bigger rah."
JOA WHITTEL.
" It's nobbut, way, a drip-white hoss,
O fifteen hands, an mettle,
Wi raitch at's brun between it eyes,
An lang tail reight i fettle.
ROBYN HOOD AN HIS MERRIE MEN 105
" An t' raitch mun have a starry blaze
Wheer five spike-ends abide,
An three shall show aboon, while two
Shall be at t' bottom side.
" It mun be fast an brokken in,
An nivver stall or recast,
Nor mun a single hair bur white
Be fun, baht t' blaze at leeast."
ROBIN HODE.
" Then we will send tul t' king straight ways,"
Said Robin Hood wi glee,
" Goid tidins for to say I knooa
Wheer his hoss marrer be !
"Tul goid Joa gie t' hine-berry pie
Marian made for me :
Shevvild lad at thowt on a lass,
Sal baht his meyt ne'er be."
PART II.
All. reight eniff an Robin Hode
Fan aht a hoss, an sent it,
Tul t' king i Lunnon tahn bi Hugh
A lang way, bud he went it.
Hugh Cleveland war a Yorksher lad,
An fairly up i hosses,
Bud t' hoss he couldn't match for owt
Al be his life he losses.
106 TALES AND BALLADS
An soa wi thowt o t' wiggin tree
At Rivlin Joa did freeten,
He corned back hooam tul Robin Hood,
Hissen o t' tael to leeten.
HUGH CLEVELAND THRUFF T' DANEBY BLACKLAND.
" Yer ken I could dee wi a boss
Owt amaist when at yam,
Bud t' lahtlest cauf at heeam in t' roke's
Mair canny an I am.
" I coom to Lunnon iv a deea
At fun t' king lahk yan wud,
For wad ye think 't a boss wur theer
Whilk match'd his, Robin Hood !
" I wur sair ho't an whemml'd ower,
Bud said I wur nae gannan
Afore mah boss to rin the'd seed,
Gin t' king wad race t' new fan an.
" T' tweea bosses wur then browt oot;
I ommost had to bluther:
Bud for t' brown raitch ya couldn't ken
The t'ane boss fra the t'other.
" Yit nae wor match'd t' lile stars o t' raitch,
Yan wur a bit agee,
An t' king he wur nae arf to ax
What aim'd I for to dee.
" ' A Yorksherman, I thowt,' saidst he,
' Wor up to owt i bosses ;
I thowt ya yabble an weel-kenned,
An yan at heeaf nae losses.'
ROBIN HOOD AN HIS MERRIE MEN 107
" ' 'T is varry weel gin this boss match,'
I said an forrard gang'd ;
* But gin ya'll finnd some watter hot
Ya s' seea ye hae been wrang'd.'
" 'T wor kenspack as t' cock on t' kirk-broach
Greean walnuts had made t' raitch ;
An then afore I had wissen,
T' brent king I'd aim'd to teych.
" ' Ya'll be at yam belive, baud man,'
Saidst he as t' raitch coom'd oot;
' Seea toon agean an gan to tell
Thah maaster this aboot.
"'Noohine!' I seea; ' thoo is t' gan,
Thae'v putten a bam on me ;
Bud keep thah routed hoss I sal
Deean't baffle, it raitch's agee.'
" 'Anon!' I said, 'ya'll keep mah hoss,
Anthers at it hae routed.
Mah maaster weant believe mah tale ;
I s' hing when I've been clouted !
" * Ye're ower monny for me, king,
I am bud nowt i leear;
An thruff t' plewf o t' Daneby blackland
I've been bud yeears tweea.
" ' For Karlethwaite's anenst mah heeaf:
Bud t' babbish backen t' deeas,
Yit wad I wur i t' marrish yam
Afore t' heeaf bally bleeaze !
108 TALES AND BALLADS
" ' King, they's to lait at liv'd i t' hoos:
I offens gaed an steead
Ower bi wheer t' aud fowk last ligg'd,
Wivoot owt on mah heead.
" ' T' aud lass sha wur nae brashy, king,
Bud deed o yeears, alack!
An t' father wur a skeely man ;
To tell ya is nae frack.
" ' To threp lees sichan agate, king,
I wad nae dee for owt;
I've geean a weea i mah tale:
Men weel as hosses rout.
" ' I mun gan yam agean noo
Gin mine's nae t' hoss ye've wanted ;
Seea I s' gan heeam for t' skelp or t' tree,
An I am reight belanter'd.
" ' A bonny deed it is an seear,
I hae nae beggar staff,
Nor poke to ax almisse or owt
Hoo can ya shame to laugh !
" ' It is a far an deeafly heeam;
I'm deean gin Robin Hood
Sud coom oop on a brent moor sahd,
An mak me amaist wud.'
' ' ' Non ? Robin Hode's a man I'll hae,'
Iv a gert router saidst he;
' 'T wad be sair ill to let t' puir hoss
Sike an oot an ooter see.
ROBIN HODE AN HIS MERRIE MEN IOQ
" ' He has I heear bud herrin roans
When he's at Whitby Abbay,
All manders else i t' grean-wood shade,
An wodn't ho't a babby.
" ' Bud anthers ye s' seea Robin Hood,
Seea Yorksher allus blesses,
An yit for all it accres wide
It hae nae drith wi hosses.
" ' Robin's ower mickle a feeal
Gan tell him seea for me.
Noo hine! owt else I weant hear;
Thoo is t' gan or dee!' ' ;
ROBIN HOOD.
" A bonnie tael tha's browt us, lad,"
Said Robin, lewkin fahf 1 ;
" This Lunnon king we s' e ta teych
At Yorksher fowk can tahl !
" 'T is seur t' king will allus wesh
A hoss sin tha hes teld him ;
Bud I mun see this hoss missen,
An finnd fro wheer the seld him.
" Dick Skidby, get thi goan to Hull;
Yar fowk mak oss for booat,
To sael tul Lunnon tahn full soin,
An up Thames watter flooat."
110 TALES AND BALLADS
PART III.
It is a reight an merrie tael
Hah Robin Hood an Dick,
Tul Lunnon tahn boath come one day,
An hod o t' king" hoss click.
Bud i his kale Dick made it aht
Tuv all t' bowld men an free,
At ligg'd bi Robin Hode o neets,
Aneyth wer greanwood tree.
Dick speyks a bit like Cleveland lad,
Yit noan soa varry like,
For t' fowk bi Hull an rahnd abaht,
Ther oan way hev ye'll pike.
DICK SKIDBY FRA HULL WEEA.
" To gan wiv Robin I was bug,
An was weel up ti gam ;
Nut akin all day lang aboot
I fan missen i yam.
" It stackers ma to think o rooad,
In slack an oot ageean
Wiv blath'ry muck, it was a tew:
I mowt a smoot ha teean.
" I thowt o skelp an bam I'd had
When lahtle lad at heeam,
An hazin, as oor beald rig- tree
Come up as lahke i dreeam.
ROBIN HOOD AN HIS MERRIE MEN III
" Hoss frush'd ti byre an chavell'd sthreea;
Some hand breed off I went
Ti deear, wheer bunch'd aboot I'd been
When callit aunt was bent.
" I could see ti back end o spot
As inti hoose I glooar'd,
An wheer I'd had mi waxin pains
Yan lewk meead oot for rooad.
" Ther was a smell o haver cakes
Mi aunt had fire-fang'd,
An in I went as sha come up,
Awd lass I nivver wrang'd.
" ' Thoo bug wretch, oot o hoose thoo gans !'
Said awd aunt, tho rain sile;
I gooav'd like daft watty wad,
To late a heeam smile.
" Seea oot I com an seean I fan
Missen goff 'nin at tahd,
Wiv rummlin weeam, thinkin o Rob,
At Humber watter sahd.
" It was a full booat tahm for ma
Till Robin Hood com doon.
Said I, ' I've awder'd vast sin I
A baynie was i toon.'
" ' Thoo's nut pock-arr'd, wiv een akest,'
Laugh'd Hull lad i his weea;
4 Thi blashy talk's for wakky heeads,
Nut yan seea strunt, for seer.'
112 TALES AND BALLADS
" I said I went ti owmly hoose
A neet as dark as pick,
An fan a'nt's neeaves lewk'd as gif
Sha was nooa mak for Dick.
" ' I was varry feeath o gannin,
An mud have ligg'd wi laugh ;
Bud then awd aunt mowt have meead
Ta feigh ma oot lahke caff.'
" ' A'nt, hod thi clack, 1's gannin noo,'
I said, seear as a bile,
' To lopper milk thi lewk will deea ;
Pig milk deeant want a sile ! '
" ' Tak skeeal an gan thoo an milk ky,'
Spak sha ti lad at yat:
In trewth I couldn't lig i hoose
Wiv callit aunt lahke that.'
" Aback-a-beyont is mah yam,
Ower anenst floor mill;
Astoop is mah awd callit aunt:
Live lang I hoap sha will !
" I think I skail heeam sthreea aboot
I'm far fra Lunnon toon;
Na mare I'll tell, mi tale's kessen,
Oor Robin's noo come doon."
ROBIN HOOD.
" Dick mud a been browt uppa milk,
Aneyth t' hoam breead-fleeak :
Is t' fond o loppards, tell us, lad ?
Ta's fond o t' owd hen peeak !
ROBIN HOOD AN HIS MERRIE MEN 113
" Bud hod thi din, I'm stall'd o t' tael
I heeard thi oss to tell,
Whol Little John beheend t' gert ooak,
Prick'd ears as at hart bell.
" Tha's getten fer as t' watter, lad;
I s'tak up t' tael missen :
B5 ship we sael'd tul Lunnon tahn,
Taen bi yar watter men.
" Full sooin t' king man we hed fun,
An ast to see t' king boss ;
Reight glad he war to gie us t' seet,
For fear a friend he'd loss.
" I mark'd reight weel it raitch an t' rest,
Set on t' owd hossin clog;
An then I said a boss we'd bring
At grazin war i t' fog.
" ' Noa mak ye'll bring,' spak he wi laugh,
' Wor ye t' Owd Lad hissen,
For t' raitch wi t' star is bad to finnd ;
I ne'er seed t' like missen.'
" Bud t' wick atefter, reight eniff,
We corned wi boss to match,
Soa varry like the war at t' man
Gat riled, an gan to fratch.
" ' Ye come fro Yorksher I can tell,
An deeal noan fair wi bosses;
Ye've browt a match, yit hah knooa I
Bud soin it raitch it losses ? '
114 TALES AND BALLADS
"Then straight bi t' throit I click'd him strang,
An dahn on t' grahnd we fall'd ;
Soa whol all t' stable fowk comed up
Dick gat wheer t' hoss wor stall'd.
" I made a mahlerk, reight an seur;
Nine men a-top mi come.
' I sal drop eych man-jack on ye,'
I shriked, ' I sal bi gum !'
" ' Neea, neea,' said Dick a-comin up,
' Hoo can yu sheeam to feyt ;
I's gannin heeam ti teeak hoss
Till king can see it reight. '
" Soa boath on us gat off wi t' hoss,
Whol scahl'd the one an all.
' Way, t' king'll knooa t' raitch is false ! '
Wor t' king man weeazy dole.
" 'T worn't lang afoor we'd come tul t' king,
Ameng his bowmen lank;
For monny merrie tourney bouts
Yar Robin the'd to thank.
" Wi bow and lance an quarter-staff,
On hoss an i a tilt,
The fan I wor a reight dab hand,
An merrie blooid spilt.
" Bud t' wimmin o theas Lunnon fowk
Wor noan wer Yorksher fair;
Thoa varry weel an noan amiss,
The comed nowt i mah wayer.
ROBIN HOOD AN HIS MERRIE MEN 115
"Ther worn't a Yorksher lass reight throoa,
Wi t' oppen-spokken rooad ;
Ther worn't a Yorksher lass to speyk
A Yorksher word I knooad.
"A lass wi Marian bliew een,
At hair smells like new hay ;
Mi lass at bonnie hands oft elapse,
Reight maidenly to pray.
" Yit I hed wi mi, Dick, trieu lad,
One aht o t' Ridins threi :
' When t' king hoss we hev fairly shut,'
Spak I, ' we sarn't be neigh ! '
" E clooas o listed gowden threead ;
Wi kneyt an dame an frere,
Come t' king wer new hoss for to see,
An threp us aht an sleer.
" Bud t' hoss we'd browt wor fun to match
Soa weel wi t' other hoss,
At tul his fowk he said ' E sooth,
We nah wer gowd sal loss !
" ' Ho ! fotch us watter for to wesh
Away t' raitch off t' new mahnt,
An if it's reight an t' star's noa faerk,
Be meean forseur we sarn't.
" ' All wer kingdom's been lated weel
Bi erle an barren triew,
Monny bowld kneyt ligs deead to-day
At did wer hoss beshriew.'
Il6 TALES AND BALLADS
" Yit dousin sowle ne'er wesh'd off t' raitch,
For 't warn't a brun nut-steean ;
Noan one brun hair ther war i t' star
At hedn't grow'd, the leearn.
" ' What will ye hev, goid men ? ' t' king ast
'A castle heigh, an name?
What blooid's yars, an wheer's yar hooam,
An is yar life baht shame ? '
" Dick teld his tael, an then said I,
' I'm Yorksher, goid Sir King !
An noan a drop o better blooid
E'er weet a grey gois wing !
" ' I'm Yorksher, 'tis a deeal to say,
An bowld am I to tell it ;
Bud some are nowt an some are gert,
Soa prahd am I to bell it.
" ' Mi hooam's Yorksher, it accres brooad
Hod mooast mi kinred booans ;
Noa wrang I do bud sal to-morn
Be reckon'd wi t' bye-gooans.
" ' Yit if a knight ye wod I'd be,
Wi lands all for mi ooan,
Gi tul ma then wheer Robin Hode
Is king i t' grean-wode looan.'
" ' Ye are a wakky theeas to say
An soa to lois goid land,'
Spak t' king, bud reight an glad at heart ;
' Noan flays ye Robin band ? '
ROBIN HODE AN HIS MERRIE MEN
" ' A pig-gin temm'd full o cleeat wine,'
Said I, * Will allus mak,
A friend o Robin Hood the say,
If owt's i t' wimmin clack.'
KING.
" ' Wimmin fare weel wi t' worsist man ;
Bud g-oa i quick-sticks, goa !
Sud t' speyks I'm teld be reight ye'll finnd
Yar Robin soin ye'll knooa.
" ' On t' wishin kneyl ; nah rise, Sir Kneyt,
Thi name Sir Robin Hode ;
Other Robin I s' noan hev rooam
E Yorksher dael or wode.'
" ' 'Tis hard an sharp, an I mun goa,'
Spak I, ' soa Dick's mi 'squire ;
We s' hooam it like triew Yorkshermen,
An intul t' eytin, Sire !
" ' Send wi us gateards, goid Sir King,
A trusty man an triew.'
' Sir Robin, soa sal 't be ; nah goa
Tul Yorksher moorlands bliew.' "
PART IV.
" For monny miles we northards rade,
Dick wi mi, an t' king man,
As lanky en as e'er I seed,
Likelier ne'er I fan.
Il8 TALES AND BALLADS
" ' Ye tell yar king I'm Robin Hood,'
Spak I to send back t' man ;
1 An say 'tis allus soft to sleer
At Yorksher if ye can.
" ' Tell t' king at t' boss the wesh'd worn't ahrs,
'Twor his oan hoss we'd swapp'd ;
Bud we will sup tul t' reight goid health
t' king we fairly capp'd.'
JOHN LANGSTROTH FRA TH' CRAVEN HILLS.
" 'Neea, nay, neea, nay, I'm John Langstroth,'
Brast aht t' king man straight-way;
' Like awther thee or eeather thoo
1 speyk, an soa sal stay.
" ' Wi ye goid Robin Hode I'm bahn,
An thoo Dick sal I gang ;
Forseur I come fra th' Cravan hills,
A Yorksher gallostang.
*' ' An owd said say an a trew yan,
Sal I it sayne to-day ?
Scot will allus help a brother,
An Yorksherman him nay.'
ROBIN HODE.
*' ' Noa, noa ! ' spak I, ' thooa sich be trieu,
For Yorkshermen are hard ;
We hev ronk hate o yarmy fowk,
An nivver will em mard.
" ' Bud ne'er yit, lad, sal it be telt
At Yorksherman said nay,
Tul kinred fowk at, reight an fair,
Hed corned to ass ther way.'
ROBYN HODE AN HIS MERRIE MEN Iig
JOHN LANGSTROTH.
" ' Dirl ma mi heart-strings, an thoo wol,
Thoo's t' beatem of yower king" ;
A Craivan shippon be for me,
Mi whishin be Yorksher ling !
" ' Thoo'lt nut mak gam ov ma, Robin :
We'll off tiv faar tagither ;
Thof I wor spaan'd i Malgum-dael
An kirsen'd theer, gang thither !
" ' I laked theer oft at chicken-chow
When mother wor sindin t' kit ;
Whol th' clooathes wor blaanin i t' black-frost
At all t' blake leeaves hed bit.
" ' Lile lad I wor wi shive o breod,
An t' piggan full ov ream ;
I've oft been laten i th' mista
Wi th' reed bud goid owd deam.
" ' To beb ov th' kirn-milk I wor loath ;
I'd sowle i th' reeam reight,
An had I nobbud thar-cake sweet
Kirk-maister I wad feyt.
" 'Ta reeak up tul th' owd rekkan crook,
I am a-rove to-day:
I worsel up an roy it reight,
When skime I Lunnon way.
" ' White-slatt birks oumer t' gait bi t' hoam,
A stower-length fra t' rig;
Red ran-tree berries breet will be
Bi wheer we all sal Iig.'
120 TALES AND BALLADS
ROBYN HOOD.
" ' Then John Langstroth come ye wi us,
I am Sir Robin Hode;
Fat Yorksher hart to-mooan neet
We'll rooast i t' greean-wode.
" ' Yar Malham Moor wor t' fastness hooam
O Malgo, Britain's king,
O Northweg'a, Hibern'a, king,
An lands away, the sing.
" 'Tis lang agooa, an fowk ma threp
Yar Craigvan noan hed king,
Bud bless yi lad, oft triew owd taels
Fare far on merry wing !
" ' Ulf Malghum, Meldred, an Godid,
Wor all o laerter days ;
T' Prior o Fountaynes hes all ther names
In t' wreetin roll he maes.
" 'Ther wor Uctred, Ranulph, Roschil,
Torsin, John, an Adam,
Sigeria, Ingold, Gamel,
Eych one a De Malgham!'
" An soa mi merrie Yorkshermen,
At come fro t' Ridins threi,
We've telt t' tael in York's speyches five,
Aneyth wer grean-wood trei."
FRERE TUCK.
" A reight an merrie do, mi sons,"
Then spak up Freer Tuck ;
"-God-bless'd be ivvry Yorksherman,
An smittl'd wi goid luck!"
T' WOOIN O ELLA.
LASSES are mich like flahs: the're happen noan t' same as
others, bud ivvry one on 'em is a wonder o sweetness an
fairness i 'er oan way. Ella Wain wor a rare slip of a lass,
fresh as a spring daisy after a sunshine shah, sweet as t'
smell o wet violets, fair as aigh blosm i owd May; an though
ther's monny a lass i t' North Country at is worth aboon a
thowt, yit Ella i mah mind come afore onny on em.
Ella wor one at nivver knooad owt bud sunshine. When
sha wor nobbut a bahn 'er father an mother deed an left 'er
to be browt up bi an owd maid aunt, at loved 'er as mich as
a soft cushy cah loves it mutty-cauf ; an the'd noan forgetten
to let 'er hev a goid bit o brass to be goin on wi, nawther.
At Wain lass nest wor feather'd ivvrybody knooad, bud
ther's noa sayin if t' lass did. Fowk wod hev it sha noan
bother'd to ass 'ersen, an at sha taed t' luck o life like sha
did t' smell of on a rooase, an reckoned it at nowt bud it
sniff worth. Fooils em ! as if we all on us moant sup mistal
milk baht thinkin o sah cruds an loppards! An soa asteead
on 'er gettin fahler as sha gor owder, sha gat all at med be
lewked for wheer ther's nivver clahd nor nowt i t' way o neet
love-dimples, health-blooim, ee sparkle an wicked laughin
lips. Goi! bud hev ye ivver heeard summer? then ye mun
a heeard Ella laugh. Ther's nowt bud summer i 'er heart,
an sha laughs it aht agean. Bud crabbed fowk witter
thersens at a lass can be flayd o nowt; an some on 'em said
Ella wod soin eniff rooar.
T' lass wor a lang while ower it : sha noan gav ower
laughin, an t' fahl-faced uns, at lewked as if the nivver
weshed thersens i owt bud hask watter, gat soa riled the
121
122 TALES AND BALLADS
said the wodn't speyk tul 'er. Yit whenivver the met 'er,
t' lass smile smittled em, an the said to thersens at after all
sha war a reight lass, chois hah.
Of a June nooin Ella wor sitten aht i t' gardin on t' gert
gers plat. Waivin clumps o white an pink leelacs wor
cluthered thick beheend 'er, an i t' front on 'er wor t' orchard,
white ower wi blosm. Tul one side wor a leeavy wood wi
bliew-bell shades an t' hum o bees, an t' tinkle o hiddyin
waiter lairkin amang t' rusty bracken o t' back-end, an t'
fresh young grean growth at wor sprent ower wi brazent
flahs o' flarin yolla an gloarin bliew wheer t' hawf-flayd
white little wind flah hed gen t' leead o Spring tul i t' days
when t' lundy March wor ravin wild at hevin trodden on t'
train o Winter trosslin snooa gahn ; an of t' other side o
Ella wor Will Ingle, t' rich lad at all t' sah-faced fowk war
hooapin an sayin wod ne'er wed 'er noan 'im !
" It's nowt to ass," 'e wor sayin, " nobbud a kuss."
"Then tha sudn't ass for 'a nobbud,' an tha sarn't hev
one," answered t' lass, smotherin a fause peepin daisy neyth
'er foit, 'er cheek as pink as t' blosm pinned at 'er throit.
T' lad tugged at 'is wescot, an teld 'issen, wi ommost a
sweer, at sha wodn't speyk soa tul 'is cousinn, Lister
Eckroyd o t' Grange.
"Ther's happen sum'dy else ye wodn't be soa stingy
wi," 'e mummel'd.
Sha laughed softly, an shiftin 'er little foit let t' daisy
liff it 'ead ageean. " What if ther is ? " sha said.
"Way, if ther is I sal be fun i t' tarn."
" Why, sal ta bade theer allus after? "
" Ne an I sarn't. The'll finnd me deead an drahnd."
"Tha mun ma thi will first."
"I s' do more nor that. I s' wreet it dahn who's to
blame for it all."
T' lass laughed agean, an sha kicked t' daisy 'ead off.
" An whoa sal ta blame ? "
"I s' blame thee, Ella."
T' WOOIN O ELLA 123
" It sahnds grant!" sha laughed. "Tell it ower agean,
Will!"
" Is ta glad to think the'll finnd ma deead an drahnd? "
"What a soft thing to be assin ma! Tha med as weel
ass ma if I want thi to live. Why, I want ivvry thing to
live ! "
"Tha says soa, but tha's as gooid as killed mi bi nah.
I'd soiner tha'd kill ma reight aht like t' daisy tha's kicked
yed off on nor hooin me as tha art." t
T' lass cahr'd dahn an picked up t' 'ead, an then sha
tossed it thro 'er wi a laugh.
" Hah glib tha talks abaht mi as goid as killin thi! An
all becoss I weant hear summat abaht a kuss. . . . Nah,
soft gauvison, what's ta lewkin ower yonder for ? "
"Why, ther's Lister Eckroyd, seur as owt ! Bud I'll
tell thi, Ella, I'm nooan bahn to ma rahm for 'im!"
" Yi can boath yi goa hee yarsens hooam. I doan't
want botherin wi nawther on yi!"
" Way, I sarn't goa till 'e goas."
Bi nah Lister Eckroyd wor wi em. 'E'd ridden ower
thro t' Grange, an 'is ridin scutch wor wi 'im yit.
"Hah dew, Ella," says 'e, ne'er lewkin at Will. "I
reckon Summer hes ower-reiked 'issen to sithi set aht like
this ameng t' blosms an t' flahs. . . . Goi! bud i'n't sun
hot to-day!"
Then 'e nodded to Will as if 'e'd a weng'd summat at
'is heead, said t' day war reyt grant, an gan a-payin t' dust
off on 'is shooin wi 'is scutch.
" It's reyt luck ye hev corned," said Ella; " I want some
bliew-bells gerrin aht o t' wood. Ther wants to be a reyt
lot soa as mother sister ma tell mi hah 'er mother mother
gat t' sap aht on 'em to starken t' ruffs wi. ... I mun
goa sei if t' kettle's hingin on t' rekken, an I mun hev a
piggin tern-full o milk for t' bonnie kitlins i t' mistal laithe.
Mother sister wor thrang kneydin t' breead, an I doan't
knooa if sha's knodden yit. Shoo'd a reyt jorum o pots to
124 TALES AND BALLADS
wesh an all, for boath wer lasses hev gooan off a bit, bein
t' tide ower wheer the come thro, an t' first tide i t' yeear."
T' lads lewked gormless, an ne'er said nowt.
" Way," spak up Ella ageean, " onnybody at thinks owt
o me weeant want assin noa moor."
" Hah monny bliew-bells does ta want?" ast Lister.
"As monny as ye boath can hug; an I'll noan speyk tul
awther on yi till ye've filled this binch wi em."
Taain it i t' best way, t' lads went off to sam up t' bliew-
bells, as the'd nit done sin the wor childer. An it warn't
soa varry lang afoor the war fotchin a reyt armful on em
back to wheer the'd left Ella. A woman wor stood bi t'
binch, bud nawther o t' sackless lads thowt it wor Ella.
" Bi gow ! Ella's goan an left us to ta t' fiahs tul 'er
mother sister," said Ingle lad as the gat gainer ; bud Lister
Eckroyd wor that wild 'e wodn't speyk.
" Eeh, what a lot o bonnie bliew-bells !" said t' owd a'nt
throwin up 'er arms. " Fotch em i t' hahse wi ye. Ella hes
goan to gerr a drop o teah browt aht i t' gardin, an sha'll soin
be back."
" I reckon we med as weel mak up wer mind to do as
we're teld," laughed Will Ingle.
" Ahr, an we hed," put in Lister Eckroyd, sweetened a bit
wi t' thowt on a cup o teah thro Ella'ands.
Soa the hugged t' bliew-bells to t' hahse, an when the'd
taen em i t' kitchin the both on em went rahnd bi t' big gardin
to see hah t' growin stuff wor comin on. At last Lister
Eckroyd went an stood agean Will Ingle :
" Nah, lad," said 'e, " which on us is bahn to win Ella ?"
" I am if sha'll hev ma," wor t' answer.
"An I am if sha will ha me. Sha happen weant hev
awther on us. Bud tha knooas thi father's mah earn an we're
cousinns, soa gie ower lookin aigre an crabbed at me, for I
sal win t' lass if I can, an tha mun an all. T' lass'll ass
'ersen, an noa goid'll come on us fratchin."
"Tha talks abaht mi lewkin sah, Lister. Ther's nobb'dy
T' WOOIN O ELLA 125
aigrer nor thee when tha likes. Bud sah or noa, I'm noan
bahn to gie up t' thowt o Ella."
"All reight, Will lad, thee stick thi to t' thowt, an I'll win
t' lass."
When the gat back agean to wheer the'd first left Ella the
fan t' lass wi a binch the'd sprodden wi white linen on which
wor spice-cairk an teah, noan watter-bewitched nawther, an
fresh-mashed ; stiff creeam ommost clotted, dabs o butter reyt
thro t' kirn ; some crisp grean stuff, an lots else besides. Bud
more nor all, ther wor other lass wi Ella a friend at hed come
to be wi 'er a while. An it wor Nancy Grean, a lass as hed
been Lister Eckroyd sweetheart when 'e wor nobbut a lad.
'E'd lost t' seet on 'er on a suddin for 'er father hed sent 'er to
be browt up bi some kinfowk reight away. Bud for all that
Lister hed ne'er oss'd to finnd 'er aht, the'd been soa young ;
an then wi Ella comin 'is rooad 'e hed gen ower thinkin on 'er.
Somehah, hahivver, when 'e set een on t' dainty Nancy,
nawther t' thowt o Ella nor t' other on em could stop 'is 'eart
thro leetenin like a lavrock 'eart i sunshine ; other minute it
hed weightened like a packman load, for Will Ingle made
straight tul Nancy :
" Hah are ye, Nance?" 'e ast. " It's monny a year sin I
seed ye, an bi gow ye noan unlike yer owd sen ! Hah's t' father
an all on em ? "
T' lass laughed an said summat ; an seur a smile worn't
away thro hooam i 'er sunny blieu een !
Lister thrust 'issen forrard an made as if to speyk, bud 'e
fan 'e wor hooarst.
"Oh, an is it Lister Eckroyd," t' lass said, i an offhand
way ; an then when Lister hed answered at it wor, sha taed
'er een off on 'im an gan o talkin as sweet as owt tul Ingle lad,
who seemed to hev tippled top ower tooa i love wi 'er.
"Come rahnd an hev a drop o teah," said Ella. "Ye all
hev whittle gairt. Reik to, an help yarsens."
Then sha temm'd t' cups full an handed rahnd summat to
eyt. Soin Ella 'ersen gan to think at 'er friend Nancy hed
126 TALES AND BALLADS
taen ower quick to Will, an sha worn't ower seur navvther if
Will hedn't taen as soin to Nance.
An soa it war at Ella at last gat riled an spreng up,
leeadin Lister off to pull 'er some leelac blosms.
"I want 'em to gie Nance for 'er to put i t' ovvd hall
chamer to-neet. The'll smell nice when sha wakkens to-
morn," sha said when they wor to thersens.
" If ye want 'em for yarsen, Ella," said Lister, wi a face
reight red, " I'll ger 'em. But noan a leaf sal I pull for
Nancy Grean !"
" Why, I allus thowtye'd bin lad an lass sweethearts when
tha went tul t' grammar schoil on Schoil Hill."
" Ahr, an we wor. Bud tha sees what woman love is,
doesn't ta ! An this is t' first time we've seen one another
sin 'er father sent 'er tuv 'is brother fowk. Lewk at 'er
maggin it wi mi cousinn Will. Ne, I s' noan pull 'er t'
leelacs."
" Happen Will thinks nowt on *er."
"Nowt o Nance! nowt o Nance! Doan't thee blinnd
thissen, Ella ! Ther i'n't a man livin at wod think nowt o
Nance !"
T' words went tuv Ella 'eart wi a stang, an sha ommost
sownd.
"Ye talk, Lister, as if ye thowt aboon a bit abaht 'er."
" Ella, I can't help missen sin I've seed t' lass agean. I
ommost wish I hedn't, an then happen tha'd a hed ma, Ella ;
an sewerly then I sud a been reight. I'm noa tenger."
"Bud tha maes a mistak, Lister; I sud noan a hed
thee."
"Noa, nob'dy'll ha me, I reckon, whol ther's a glib-
tongued gallo-stang like mi cousinn Will abaht. Tha'd a
hed Will?"
T' lass blushed like red aigh blosm.
" A bonnie goa to nah, i'n't it ! Tha'rt flayd Will's i love
wi Nance, an I'm flayd at Nance's i love wi Will !"
" I ne'er said I wor flayd 'e wor i love wi Nance," put in
T' WOOIN O ELLA
Ella. "Let 'im hev 'er if 'e wants 'er ! An nah Lister
Eckroyd leeave mi. I'm bahn bi missen I'll shut all on it !
Thee mak noa coil ! "
Lister wor a bit freetened.
" Tha moant be soft, Ella," 'e said. Bud sha hed goan
ameng t' trees an war aht o sect.
At after Lister went to wheer Will an Nancy war. 'E
heeard 'em laughin ; bud 'e reckoned noan to mind, an 'e ast
'em if the'd seen owt o Ella.
"I'n't sa wi thi!"
" Wi me ! Sha's goan off i t' wood bi 'ersen "
Will Ingle spreng tul 'is feit, an 'is face wor white.
" What's sha goan i t' wood for, Lister? "
4 'Hah can I tell?"
" Bud tha knooas wheer sha wor bahn ? "
" What's ta want to knooa for ? "
" Om bahn efter 'er that's if tha'll noan mind stoppin a
bit wi Nance."
" Doant thee fret thissen abaht me, Will lad: I s' be
reight eniff, bi goi ! Ella went rahnd bi t' clump o leelacs an
intul t' wood. Off tha choils it after 'er."
" An ye weeant mind bein left wi mi cousinn, Nance?"
" Happen nit," said t' lass, hawf-flayd.
Soa off to finnd Ella Will heed 'im.
T'other side o' t' leelacs 'e fan 'er, for sha'd corned back
ageean.
41 Wheer's ta been, Ella?" t' lad ast.
"What's it to thee?" sha said, wi a frahn as flittin as a
summer clahd. " Thee goa thi thi ways to Nance."
" I'll leeave thi, lass, if tha likes, bud I s' nawther bother
Nance Grean nor nob'dy lang at after."
" Nay, it's as tha likes, noan as I like, Will."
" An can I stop wi thi ? "
" I ne'er said tha couldn't."
" Tha knooas tha said tha wodn't gi me a kuss."
" I said I wodn't gi thi ' a nobbud.' Tha said tha ast for
128 TALES AND BALLADS
nobbud a kuss, an it wor becoss I reckon at what's a nobbud
is next to a nowt at I said tha sudn't hev one."
"Ahr, I wor ma'in a mistak, lass, I sud noan a ast, I
sud a taen ; an nah I'm bahn to ta."
An tak 'is kusses 'e did.
" Pull us some leelacs, nah, if tha's done wi thi soft, Will
Ingle. I want em to sweeten t' hall-chamer to-neet for
Nance, an when sa wakkens to-morn."
" Oh, Nance thowts o what mi cousinn Lister '11 a telt 'er
bi nah'll be sweet eniff for 'er* to-neet, an to-morn neet an all."
41 What will 'e hev teld 'er, Will ? "
"Nowt mich, nobbud when t' spurrins are bahn to be
ast. It's nobbud a nobbud tha sees, an as I'm noan bahn
to ass thi ageean abaht a nobbud, I sal let ahrs be put up an
all. We all fower on us med as weel be wed together."
An seur eniff the all on em war.
WER YORKSHER WHISSON-MONDA.
WER Whisson-Monda, wer Yorksher Whisson-Monda,
Wi t' smell o aigh i t' air ;
When t' feylds are breet wi*t' butter cups,
An white wi t' yarrow fair ;
When t' dith'rin gers goas mates wi t' bent,
An t' sweet bliew-bells are aht ;
When t' ollin leaves noa prickles hev,
An t' greanist are abaht.
Cuckow meyt an mooin-pennies,
An cloaver white an red,
Wi t' bonnie aigh an esh i blooim,
Mak Whitsun, be it said !
Wer Whisson-Monda, wer Yorksher Whisson-Monda,
Wi t' lavrock singin heigh,
An t' cuckow callin looan i t' wood,
As mellow as could bei ;
When t' lasses donn'd i t' Whisson best,
Wi spiffin hat or hood,
Goa rahnd wi t' lads o t' Sunda schooil,
As Yorksher lasses sud :
The sing tul t' owd an t' badly fowk,
An tul t' weel off an all,
The sing tul some the love an knooa,
An then bi t' Stooan Hall.
Wer Whisson-Monda, wer Yorksher Whisson-Monda !
This varry day 't is here :
I'm stood i t' Stoan Hall grahnd, wi t' schoils
At come tul 't year bi year.
129 9
I3O TALES AND BALLADS
A little lass gav me a hymn
I've toathrie beside
An sooa, as ther's rahm at back,
I s' wreet o Whitsuntide.
Ther's Bradla yonder, ninety three ;
He talks o cahs an crops,
An says, baht tremel on his lip,
Hah quick eych Whitsun hops.
Wer Whisson-Monda, wer Yorksher Whisson-Monda !
Owd Bradla says he's bin
Wi t' schoils for eighty seven year,
An tells ye wi a grin.
Ther's t' Independents an t' Free Church,
An t' Baptists follow on
At after, wi t' Saint Luke bull heigh,
Corned t' Church lot, one bi one.
I sing wi all at are on t' feyld :
The kale wi kindly ee ;
It is soa hot to sing ye sweeal,
Ther's noan a shade to see.
Wer Whisson-Monda, wer Yorksher Whisson-Monda,
When t' singin is all ower'd,
An t' gams, an t' sup o teah an t' bun,
Come on, an t' sun hes lower'd !
When t' lasses pike aht who the'll hev
To dreeam on t' yeear through,
An t' lads are fallin aht an mad
At nob'dy hev to woo !
A chillin wind steyls ower t' gers,
An t' corncrakes sadly scrairk ;
A blieu mist grows thro aht o t' daels,
An few o t' childer lairk !
WER YORKSHER VVHISSON-MONDA 131
Wer Whisson-Monda, wer Yorksher Whisson-Monda,
When leets brek aht afar,
An t' neet first star, wi sorry ee,
Sees t' day is gerrin war !
Then wan is t' cheek o t' sweetheart lass,
An loups her blooid wild,
For sooin will sha hev to leeave
A lad wi kuss, or riled.
It's nowt at all, tul t' young yi say,
To love a lad or lass ;
Bud ass yarsen : ye noan forget
Yar Whitsun or Kersmas ?
Wer Whisson-Monda, wer Yorkshire Whisson-Monda !
An nah is t' har reyt laert;
It's cowd, an lewkin grim an black,
T' heigh moors like hill gods waert.
The weight mi heart theas watchin moors,
Soa dark agean t' blain sky:
" One Whitsun's nowt tul us," the say,
' ' At ages see goa by ! "
O wheer sal time noa langer chill,
Nor breet een dim wi tears ?
'T is wheer abides triew, steadfast love
Love lives aht deeath an years !
BATTLE O BOROUGHBRIG.
HAH monny tahns i t' North Countree
An hamlets, lait it thorough,
Reight worthy are to be afoor
Wer Yorksher owd Aldborough ?
When t' Angles corned the called it owd,
Or " Aldburgh," i ther way,
An, reight an all, for owd it war
Tul t' Romans i ther day.
As ' Iseur' 't war t' Druid hoam:
Soa delve whol hoil or cleft
Will summat gie thro t' Druid days,
An noan a skerick's left !
This tahn hed t' Brigantes lang ere
Rome limed wi t' Ure silt,
An lang afoor at Roman hands
Wer Eboracum built.
'T is hawf a mile fro Aldborough,
Tards t' dippin sun i t' west,
At Boroughbrig on t' Gert North Rooad
Gi's tuv a wand'rer rest.
Bud Boroughbrig for baitin hoss
An giein sup to man,
Wor weel an knooad days aht o mind,
Sin baitin days the gan. 24
132
BATTEL O BORROWBRIG 133
Soa Boroughbrig one Palm Sunda
War thrang wi feytin men ;
In t' yeear thirteen twenty two,
If ye it wod a gen.
An Boroughbrig noan donn'd itsen
E murnin weeds to see
Sich gallus knights, an bowmen bowld,
Come tul this counterie.
For 't war bud fewer yeears goan
At Douglas through it rade,
An wi his rampin reavin Scots
O t' tahn a bunfire made.
This Palm Sunda ther war a hooast
O knights an bowmen trew,
Wi barons come thro ivvry shire,
An Welchmen noan a few.
The come an come tul Borrobrig,
An t' wimmin fowk the say,
" O Thomas, Earl o Lancastre,
Ye've fun yar sorry day !"
" O mind ye weel o Bannockburn,
An doant pote an gope,
Or happen the'll ye click an hod;
Then ye'll noa langer yope. "
Sir Humfrede de Bohun wor theer,
An sadly did he rew,
For weel he minded at Bruce fell'd
A De Bohun o thew. 5 2
134 TALES AND BALLADS
An Sir Humfrede Bohun knooad
At clamrn'd the war an pade:
Tul Borrobrig thro Pontefract
The northards quick hed made.
Height cotter'd wor Earl Lancastre
Wi hevin corned up fast;
Soa t' barons triew him cluther rahnd
To feyt tul t' varry last.
Then Sir Andrew de Harkela,
A warden o Carlisle,
Wi Sir Simon Ward, rade up sharp,
As the'd corned mile an mile.
The darted up wi dodder war,
An sweeatin like a brok,
Bud bowld the ast Earl Lancastre
Wheer fan he here his jock.
"O shameful speych," said t' barons triew,
" For ye, De Harkela,
At hed to thank Earl Lancastre
For makkin ye a Sir."
Bud Earl de Lancastre spak then,
An said, " If ye will feyt
Agean t' De Spencer fowk for me,
A shire I'll gie ye, streight !"
DE HARKELA.
"For five and fifty shires, Earl,
I'd nivver feyt for ye;
Wer Edward is king o wer land
Whativver ye wod gie." 80
BATTLE O BOROUGHBRIG 135
EARL DE LANCASTRE.
" Noa mense nor feelin ye can hev
To gab like this tul me !"
Said Earl de Lancastre, reight flayd,
An white as he could be.
" Sich false knights end i sorry plight,
As triewly ye sal see,
If sooin ye wean't shift abaht
An come an feyt for me."
Then Harcla bowmen draw'd soa strang,
Eych bow wor like a harp
A-waitin for it oan bard hand,
To pluck or damper sharp.
Bud noa bard harp ther war to twang
An dirl tul onny lay :
Thep wing'd a blinndin flock o shafts
Earl Lancastre to slay !
As thoa the whirr'd straight back agean,
Other flock reight as black,
Come leetin on tul Harcla men
Like shippies on a thack.
Sir Humfrede de Bohun i mail
Wor ridin ower t' brig,
An soa some Welchman brod thro neyth
Browt baron tuv his rig.
Soa deed a friend o Lancestre
Weel knooad for feytin fair ;
Soa war he spared to see t' sad end
At war Lancestre share. 108
136 TALES AND BALLADS
Sir Roger Clyfford heead wor hurt,
Sir Roger Bernefeld kill'd,
Sir William Sulley fell an all,
An Lancastre wor mill'd.
O t' barrens triew to Lancestre
The taed Sir John Mountbray,
Sir Roger Clyfford wounded sore,
An others on this day.
Sir William Tuchet, he war taen,
An soa, to gie one mooar,
Sir William, de Fitzwilliam height,
An others ye mun knooa.
Tul t' chapel gat Earl Lancastre,
An foor the hally rood
He fleng hissen an cahrd i freet,
As flayd as fahl at's shood.
" O gooid Lord I gi missen
Tul Thee to hod till t' last ;
Thi ooan cade bahn, o med I be !"
He said as teears brast.
Bud up corned Harkla like a sleuth,
An Lancestre war teed :
" Noa nifflin nafflan for to-day,
Earl Lancestre we s'heed.
" Noa gammin i a kirk sal help
Nesh chap at is soa flayd,"
Said Andrew Harcla wi a sleer,
" On him at knight ye made ! 136
BATTEL O BORROBR1G 137
" Tha mun a all thi mail taen off,
An donn'd noan like a ' Sir,'
Enah as Lancestre ' mi man,'
Tha'll dar bud say mi ' yeh.'"
An soa the deng at Lancastre,
An soa the donn'd him up,
Wi t' varry gahn fro t' self-same man
At he'd gen meyt an sup.
Bi waiter war he sent to York,
Nit ferrist way ye'll finnd ;
An gateards wi him rowed a crew
As fer as the hed wind.
As nah Earl Lancastre yit hoap'd
At York sum thowt to get,
Bud war nor ivver his heart-wark :
York fowk on tuv him set.
He hooin'd war an slaked wi muck ;
The rived his ivvry clooa,
An wod a bray'd him once ageean,
Till t' Earl could thoil noa moor.
King" Edward tidins gat o t' strife
Wi Lancestre his earn ;
Wi t' Spencer fowk tul Pontefract,
He come wi een agleeam.
Tul Pontefract thro York wor taen
Earl Lancastre to see
King Edward an t' De Spencer fowk,
An on his trial be. 164
138 TALES AND BALLADS
A tahr he'd built bi t' abbay theer,
Wor hostel for a bit,
To hod him till he tried i t' hall
Hed bin bi wile an wit.
Ther war owd Sir Hugh de Spencer,
Sir Aimer Count Pembroke ;
Sir Edmunde Count o Kent, as weel,
At set to do all t' talk.
Sir Robert Malmethor an all
I moant forget to name ;
An sooin hed the said ther say :
Hah could the fair forshame !
On tuv a lat-ribb'd, spavin'd jade,
The Lancastre mak fast.
" O sal a body dee baht word ?"
He ast em fair aghast.
One Gascoyne taed em then away,
Baht bridle strop or owt,
An for t' Earl of Lancestre heead
A brokken hat he browt.
Ageean fowk gat muck to chuck,
An made to lammas t' Earl ;
Ageean bood an spit an girn'd
A crahd wi arms a-whirl.
A gooid freer wor fun all through
At Earl Lancestre side,
For soa he med hev a say
Wi t' Earl at after t' ride. 192
BATTLE O BORROWBRIG 139
A-top a hill aht-side o t' tahn,
Earl kneyl'd him lewkin Eeast,
Till one Hughin de Muston said
He wodn't hev him reeast.
An northards then he setten war,
As t' rooad Scotland wends,
An Earl Lancastre bitter fooas
Hed telt Scots war his friends.
A Lunnon chap how'd off his heead,
An gooid Lancastre,
Wi thowts o t' Eeast an een tul t' North,
Baht sprottle deed, or stir.
An t' day at after Pontefract
Seed fell'd like shammel beeasts,
Young Lord Fitzwilliam, Lord Cheney,
A-liggin on ther breeasts.
Lord William Touchet, an as weel,
De Bradburne, height Henrie,
Lord Warren, Lisle, and Lord Mandate,
Height Thomas, come to dee.
Lords Clifford, Mowbray an Deynville,
At York all lois'd ther heeads :
Reyt weel wer feyt o Borrowbrig
Says knightly blooid bleeads.
An soa yar singer will ye ass,
To mind at ready shaft
Thro chink hoil i yar coit o mail,
Sal win ageean yar craft ! 220
NOTES.
KIRKSTALL ABBAY.
KIRKSTALL ABBEY, near Leeds, built in 1147-53, was founded in
the circumstances I give in this ballad. Seleth, the anchorite,
owes much to legendary history. We are told that Alexander
came and included Seleth in his brotherhood. Beyond this I
have kept the ballad so close to facts that historical notes are
here unnecessary. These facts I have gleaned carefully from all
the ascertainable authorities to give the utmost historic value and
permanence to this ballad, which is the more important as I
have written it in the self-same dialect or language that has been
spoken outside and in its walls virtually from its very foundation
till to-day.
39. At son "Whose son." No sibilant possessive used.
43. I s'oss. " I shall put myself in earnest form for setting
off," pronounced Oss oss.
6 1. Our Lady's mantel. Sibilant possessives are not used.
See note on 39, and also " Of Lauerd blissing " in Northumbrian
dialect, 1250, in my Introduction.
118. The future of the projected abbey he sees as in a mirror,
even to the day of its dismantling.
128. ... waste an fowt. A cellar smelling mouldy is called
fowty. Yorkshire ow.
176. Hod soin at "Believe soon that." Soin is here a
monosyllable, though like very many words may be also dis-
syllabic. The iambics inform my reader, for I do not always
double the vowel, and soin and sooin may severally be slurred
into one syllable or given two.
177. I s'leeaver hod "I would be more inclined to believe."
Say, osst leerverodd.
218. Say, "It niks ertt stooern wark ee er wall."
225. "In honore gloriosae virginis et Matris Dei Mariae,"
such was the dedication. It was given to the monks of the
Cistercian Order.
141
142 TALES AND BALLADS
227. Henri de Laci, Baron of Pontefract, the founder, grand-
son of Hildibert or Ilbert de Laci, was buried here, as also were
other Lacies.
230. In the monk's narrative concerning Seleth, the vision of
Mary tells him to go to Kirkstall, but facts show the name of
Headingleeia was earlier, " Kirkstall " resulting from the erection
of the abbey.
254. Thro "on account of." A grange was a monastic farm
with its houses, etc.
273. Short form of "We sal a ta hev" : "We must endeavour
to strive after having." Say, wiss etterev.
306. . . . betaking "beat; overcame." The circumstances,
it has been suggested, were not quite what pious history loves to
record of certain church conquests of that day. Hence "ye
moant ass." We can only hope the end justified the means.
310-12. Walker Bardsa: ker and sa rhyme. Hence Pudsa
is Pudser, Thackla Thackler, for Pudsey and Thackley ; Coverla
for Calverley, and so on.
349. The Tempests founded Bolton Abbey.
372. . . . yond rig. Immediately after the dissolution the
roof was removed and the work of destruction begun. The abbey
was surrendered to the Crown, November 22nd, 1540, in the
thirty-first year of the reign of Henry VIII. An entry in the
book of the Churchwardens at Leeds, in 1583, notifies the paying
of sixpence a day to labourers for removing materials from
"Christall Abbaye" for building purposes. The dormitory fell
in the winter of 1746, and two sides of the tower and a part of
the third came crashing down on January 27th, 1779.
373, . . noa dratin. Said an old Windhill Methodist friend
to me recently, speaking of a place of worship on the hill top
now not Methodist: "I went, an it war cowd [spiritually]! I war
frozzen to deeath ommost, an eeh ! sich dratin hymns ! The war
all on em deead ! "
401. I s'ass ye I shall beg of you. Say, Osst ass yi.
403. See note on line 372.
405. Thanks to the late Colonel North, the Abbey came into
the hands of the Leeds Corporation, and they have commend-
ably, and with great respect for its associations, made well-advised
renovations, preserving it for the public. The Abbey is now no
longer at the mercy of wind and weather, but will be henceforth
an instructive and appealing historic resort of interest, guarded by
a vigorous municipality which recognizes it possesses one of the
richest monuments of Yorkshire history.
NOTES 143
409. The nunnery of Esholt, or Essheholt, was founded by
Simon de Ward in the middle of the twelfth century and dedicated
to God, Saint Mary, and Saint Leonard. It was suppressed in
I530-
410. Eckershill, or Eckersill, a pronunciation I hear frequently
for Eccleshill among the natives. There is no record of an early
church here, our parish church being quite modern. Of course,
though north of Bradford, it anciently belonged Dewsbury Church,
but it may be that the Ecclesia of the scribes was a corruption.
Eagleshill has been suggested as an etymology, perhaps because
we have a Ravenscliffe at hand. Certain it is that old local
documents use the Ecclesia form Eccleshill. In this volume,
however, I record what I myself hear spoken, and I have given
both forms : see line 2 in ballad " Coverla." So it is I write
Esseheld, or Esheld, for Esholt.
413. The Priory of Cluniac nuns at Arthington, near Leeds,
founded in the twelfth century by the Peers de Ardyngton,
flourished till the Dissolution.
418. We shall declare. Say, Wiss tell it aht tull. Tul rhymes
with full.
NOBBUD AN ACKREN.
... a ghast goit for t' sea a very demon for the sea (Saxon
gast, a spirit). " He's a ghast un " means " He is a demon," but
this only in the sense as shown in the " Huntin Song" I have
written,
I hear only "ak'orn" about Bradford, but as a Stannington
boy I knew it only as "ackren."
'E'n SAID IT.
Garth dowter Sibilant possessive not used. See Notes on
"Kirkstall Abbay," 39, 61.
Bud sha decked. A horse refusing a fence is said to deck.
This verb means also to nibble, to pick, to object, and is not
related to the verb " deck " mentioned in our dictionaries. An
animal refusing a part of its food is said to be " deckish." The
word "mardy," spoilt, pampered, is used in the same sense of
people. This word "deck " earned me my first silver in literature.
I wrote upon it a very learned-looking little article for The
Sheffield Independent in my early teens, some time before that
journal published serially Kalderworth, my first novel. To this day
I have not seen the word in any dictionary or dialect glossary.
144 TALES AND BALLADS
COVERLA.
I wrote the whole of this ballad with an oak pen I cut from a
green oak-tree in Calverley Woods specially to write it. Windhill,
whose name, thanks to Professor Joseph Wright's Grammar of
the Windhill Dialect, scholars now give to the Yorkshire dialect
of the Bradford district, is in the parish of Calverley, where of
course this dialect is quite at home. This tragedy provided the
subject matter for the much-discussed play printed in 1608
entitled:
"A Booke, The Yorkshire Tragedy, written by Wylliam
Shakespeare."
I will not enter into disputation as to the authorship of that play,
but whosoever the writer he had worked from the details found
in an ill-informed author's pamphlet:
" Maister Caverley's unnatural and bloudie Murther com-
mitted uppon his Wife, and practised upon his
Children."
It is said that, maddened by drink and gaming, Walter Calverley
of Calverley, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the head of an
ancient house originally called Scott, in a fit of jealousy, murdered
his sons William and Walter, attempted to kill his wife, and rode
off with like intent to his other son, Henry, out at nurse. His
horse stumbled, tradition tells us, and Calverley being captured,
was examined by Sir John Saville and Sir Tho. Blande. It is of
interest to note that the publisher of the play had printed in 1605
a ballad upon the tragedy entitled: "A ballad of lamentable
Murther done in Yorkshire by a Gent upon two of his owne
Children, sore wounding his Wyfe and Nurse."
The examination of Walter Calverley, Esq., taken before "two
of his Majesties Justices of the Peace" on April 24, 1605, gives
insight into the lamentable condition of the unhappy man's mind
even the day after the tragedy, and from the facts herein revealed
I have written this ballad. The cause of the crime is ascribed in
the Calverley family pedigree to Walter Calverley's being delirious
with fever. It is clear he recovered a more normal mental state,
for something over four months later he refused to plead, standing
mute upon his arraignment. By refusing to plead he saved
forfeiture of his chattels at the cost of a slow, agonizing death,
and endured the peine forte et dure. But the manors of Calverley
and Pudsey, with "the appurtenances in Calverley, Eccleshill,
NOTES 145
Farsley, Woodhall, and Pudsey," being in strict settlement, could
not have been affected by a forfeiture.
6. ... trei . . , Coverley . . . See note 72, on "Battle o
Boroughbrig."
27. I want . . . the want "I ought . . . they ought."
34. Woodhall Hills I look on from my bedroom. It is quite
at hand, and about on a level with or perhaps lower than Scarr
Hill. It is said Ingleborough Hill can be seen from there on
favourable days, looking north-west. The Aire valley opens wide
before it. This is our favourite short stroll. Standing here and
glancing round the magnificent expanse of blue moorland hills
and green dales, and breathing deeply of the keen air, one
exclaims involuntarily, "My Yorkshire!" Some quaint old stone
houses back from the road hide among trees a little away, near
a small school-room by the roadside built in 1837.
47. A local superstition still vaguely believed is that t' barguest,
or t' guy-trash, a supernatural dog, appears to one of a family whom
disaster is to overtake. Hence every true Yorkshireman feels an
eerie sensation on being passed on a dark and lonely road by a
great silent hound, and often makes inquiries likely to throw light
on the dog's being no ill-boding, shadowy sleuth.
128. E am (say, ee am) "I am." The pronunciation of I
like ee in eel, is often used in plaintive and whimsical moods.
Only this year the character I mention in " Wer Yorksher Whisson
Ivfonda," which I wrote the year before, said to me, whimsically
smiling: "E walked wi t' childer eighty-eight year agoa," speak-
ing of himself.
History records that members of the Calverleys fought in
France, etc. Some of the women were nuns at the adjacent
Esholt nunnery. See note on Essheld, " Kirkstall Abbay."
The Rev. John Malham., Corrector of the Press, mentioned
in the Dictionary of National Biography, was curate of Calverley
Church, 1772-75. Those interested in heredity may make
interesting comparison with his published works and those
of my great-uncle, the late Mr. J. B. Dimbleby (" Herbert
Broughton"), author, who was nephew to John Malam, the
inventor, I mention in the notes on " Robin Hood," etc., The
Rev. William Malam, M.A., Rector of Keighley, Yorks, and
Buxton, author of Black Letter Saints, was another nephew and
I think they must have been members of quite distinct branches of
the Malhams. John Malum, or Malham, of Elslack, married the
grand-daughter of Margaret Calverley, daughter of Sir Walter
de Calverley, Kt. (who died in 1404), and great-great aunt to
10
146 TALES AND BALLADS
Sir William Calverley, Kt., I mention in lines 74-76. Reginald,
Bishop Heber, the hymn-writer, and Mary Cholmondeley, author
of Red Pottage, etc., are in this descent, through Ann Malum,
sister to William, whom Reginald Heiber of Marton married.
See Calverley Charters in British Museum, and as published by
the Thoresby Society.
TUL A GREEAN-WOOD FLAH.
This was perhaps the wild anemone or the wood sorrel, but I
write of my earliest childhood, and cannot be sure which flower.
. . . t' honey tells Heather honey has that aroma, and
so on.
T' FAIRY RING o ESHING.
Sunwithards To go round contrary to the sun. Those who
wished to see the fairies were always thus advised by the professors
of the Black Art.
. . . scrawmin up a tree. Professor Joseph Wright, in his
English Dialect Dictionary, queries the spelling of this word. I
have not heard it myself in the Windhill district, but it was quite
common in Bradfield and Stannington, north of Sheffield. It is
"scrawm" (scrome), and never, so far as I know, "scrawn."
IN T' BLEGGIN DAYS.
A forsak. If an egg be touched, the birds will not hatch out.
And thus a nest may be found in the autumn containing one or
more forsake eggs. "Don't mell wi em or the'll be forsak !" is
always heard among country-bred lads when a bird's eggs are
found in the nest.
WER TIDE.
When the feasts, or tides, begin their round the time is
generally after hay-time the country folk say the year is "on the
turn." It is therefore not without a feeling of regret that we hear
the first strains of a distant tide on the hills.
IN T' BURNIN o T' GREEAN.
One S'omas Day. St. Thomas' Day, the festival preceding
Christmas. On this day it used to be a Yorkshire custom to eat
small cakes called "S'omas cakes."
NOTES 147
Enah sa gan (ser gan) "In a little while she began . . ."
Sa (ser), she, I have heard only in the rapid speech of old Wind-
hill speakers, and it has sympathy with sal, sarn't, sud, which in
modern English are shall, shan't, and should. See " 'E'd Said It !"
An E am owd "And I am old." See "Coverla," note 128.
ROBIN HOOD AN His MERRIE MEN AT COME FRO T'
RIDINS THREI.
This ballad on Robin Hood in regard to the story of the
horse I have built entirely from my imagination. Scholars now
well know that Robin is of questionable history. Obviously the
two chief "boggards" of our primitive ancestors were the wild
man and the wild beast, and any incident that unexpectedly
presented a kind and romantic side of these boggards at length
produced a legend, a ballad, a song, and ultimately the work of
the grave historian, who built upon the material facts which the
ballad-maker had introduced to give local appeal and appearance
of truth to his narrative.
Behind the legend there are often ages of superstition, and
any characteristics or associations of a particular superstition were
always conveniently suggestive for the ballad. Thus, as Dr.
Henry Bradley has pointed out, Robin Hood is Hod, the god of
wind, a form of Woden; Maid Marian is Morgen, the dawn
maiden; Friar Tuck is Toki, the spirit of frost and snow. But
fact has a way of being an apparent imitation of precedent legend,
and it is clear England soon had her Robin Hoods men who
were given that name. To live an outlaw in the woods and be
proficient in archery were the two essentials for his popular outfit:
Robin o' th' Woods, or Robin Hood, he became.
Among all the dubbed Robin Hoods there certainly must
have been characters deserving more than others the special
association, and as a Yorkshireman whose boyhood was spent in
Loxley Chase I have pleasure in claiming herewith special dis-
tinction for the Robin Hood of Loxley, in Bradfield, north of
Sheffield. Robin has been declared also to be a native of
Wakefield, and likewise to have been Earl of Huntingdon
though only the convenience of an early rhyme is said to be
responsible for this; and he is stated to be buried at the old
nunnery, Kirklees, near Dewsbury, on the site of which Sir George
Armytage, Bart., one of my readers, resides. Mr. S. O. Addy,
M.A , in his Sheffield Glossary, prints an extract from " Harrison's
Survey," a manuscript dated 1637:
148 TALES AND BALLADS
"Imprimis, Great Haggas croft near Robin Hood's Bower.
. . . Item, Great Haggas croft near Robin Hood's
Bower. . . . Item, little Haggas croft, wherein is the
foundacion of a house or cottage where Robin Hood
was born, this piece is compassed about with Loxley
Firth."
That this volume according to all circumstances will be a sur-
viving and standard monument to the memory of our ancient
mother speech, Inglis or the Northumbrian Dialect, I perceived
before I had finished the book. The knowledge of its special
idiom being that of the West Riding dialect as spoken about
Keighley, Bradford, and Leeds, brought before me the claims of
some other Yorkshire dialects the Craven or North-West Riding
dialect heard from Skipton to Malham; the East Riding, which
extends from Hull to York; the North Riding and Cleveland
dialect, as spoken from Whitby to Richmond; and that of Hallam-
shire or the South West Riding spoken from Sheffield and having
sympathy with the Lancashire border dialect, extending north-
wards to Huddersfield, Halifax, and Haworth the Haworth
natives and their dialect marvellously recall to me those of
Stannington near Sheffield, where I lived in my boyhood and
school days. As a Malham "of ye antient family of Malum
owt of Malum, Yorkshire," I had by blood a very personal interest
in the dialect of Craven and the North West Riding; while my
paternal grandmother was a native of Hull and her people sea-
farers, and on another side my father's paternal great-uncle, Mr.
John Malam, the civil engineer and inventor, was Sheriff of Hull
(i847), a this making me at one with the Hull and East Riding
folk. And as to the Hallamshire dialect, I am a native of
Sheffield, while my maternal grandfather, the late Mr. William
Whitworth, was a scissors and cutlery manufacturer (vide White's
Sheffield Directory, 1860, plate 138), albeit his father was of the
Manchester Whitworths; my maternal great-great-great uncle
Slater was a book publisher in Fargate, Sheffield, nearly a
hundred years ago, and he or his son published The Sheffield
Figaro newspaper. On another side I am lineally descended
1 Inventor of the first dry gas meter, etc., 1819; was awarded a gold
medal by the Society of Arts for his services to the public as an inventor :
built gas works abroad and throughout the United Kingdom in the pioneer
days of gas manufacture. For his inventions see Peckstone's Treatise on Coal
Gas; Hughes; Richards on Coal Gas Manufacture, and Speight's Nidderdale;
see also a letter I wrote on " The family of Malham, Malam or Malum," in
Lincolnshire Notes and Queries, April 1904.
NOTES 149
from the Rev. Dr. Cuthbert Browne, 1 Curate of Attercliffe, 1662-
1673, Rector of Treeton, and Prebendary of York Cathedral,
chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk, through the daughter of his son,
the Rev. Obadiah Browne, M.A., Rector of Whiston, Yorkshire,
1689-1738, my maternal great something grandmother. So
Yoricshiremen of every part may understand I personally must
have felt that the different dialects of our broad-acred shire called
for a place in my volume.
Hence I have written in the representative five dialects of
Yorkshire this ballad " Robin Hood an his Merrie Men at come
fro t' Ridins Threi." I open the ballad in the Windhill, or
Bradford, variety of the dialect, and let Robin Hood himself
speak the same dialect throughout; Joa Whittel speaks the
Hallamshire, or Sheffield dialect. Hugh Cleveland uses the
North Riding dialect; Dick Skidby the East Riding dialect, and
John Langstroth the Craven dialect. Ample opportunity of
making interesting comparison between the several varieties of
the Northumbrian dialect Scots, Northumberland, Cumberland,
and Durham is afforded by the five Yorkshire dialects I give
herein. Thus a close relationship is seen to exist between the
East Riding and North Riding dialects and the Scots dialect; and
it may be noted that the Scots dialect and those of the East and
North Ridings of Yorkshire are less masculine, or virile, than the
Windhill dialect, in which I have written the whole of these
"Tales and Ballads." Scots and the East and North Ridings gane,
stane, steean, aud, auld, bauld, baud, cauld, caud, gang, nae, mair,
seea, heeam, hame, etc., have not the strength of West Riding
goan, stooan (gooern, stooern); owd, bowld, cowd (Yorkshire
ow); goa (gooer), noa (nooer), nooan (nooern), moor (mooer),
soa (sooer); hooam (hooerm), etc.
The Rev. M. C. F. Morris in Yorkshire Folk Talk, dealing
with the East and North Ridings dialects, asserts that three-
fourths of the Yorkshire dialect words are survivals from the
Danish conquest of a thousand years ago. Certain it is that after
A.D. 900 many old Icelandic words were introduced by the Danes,
but the more or less close relationship of the Angles, the Saxons,
1 "... Rev. Cuthbert Browne, commonly called Dr. Browne . . . came
from Greasborough to Sheffield. . . . He was chaplain to the Duke of
Norfolk, and had a general commission for the management of his Grace's
estates in and about Sheffield. . . . He was ordered to attend the House of
Peers, November 1678, for a private letter he wrote to the Duke of Norfolk
advising him to go out of town. . . . " History of Hallamshire, pages 409-
413, 491; see also the Series in the House of Peers concerning The Popish
Plot, lamo, 1681, pp. 85-91.
I5O TALES AND BALLADS
and the various Scandinavian races, must never be forgotten in
these considerations of the associations of words.
PART I. IN THE WINDHILL DIALECT.
Ne I sal. I have heard only old speakers use this negative.
Ta's sad flayd. A perfect idiom for " you are much afraid."
Say, tar's, for "you are."
I s' with the apostrophe after it is either a form of I sal or I
sud, and in sound is oss or osst, short o; hence osst finnd it, oss
match, for " I shall find it," and " I shall match."
PART I. IN THE HALLAMSHIRE OR SHEFFIELD DIALECT.
A bensillin. The ancient rivalry among the Sheffield cutlers
of different valleys is here referred to. Bensillin is a thrashing. I
have not met the word Windhill way, but it is used farther north,
in Nidderdale.
Mull is a depreciative, and seems to be related to mullock,
both words meaning originally rubbish. "To mak a mull" is
the same as "to mak a mullock," and means a fiasco, a failure, a
tangle. O.E., mullok, rubbish; Flemish, mul, dust.
Den bank. We Stannington boys always called what Mr.
S. O. Addy and others write down as Dean bank " Den bank."
Wheel. The name of grinding sheds. When the wheel was
not working the water was shut out from its little dam, and passed
by the side; and if the dam-shuttle got clogged up the dam
became stagnant.
Tharf cake. A heavy, unleaven, sweet oatmeal cake now
made chiefly on the fifth of November. It is not known by that
name in the Bradford district, being called "parkin," and an
inferior kind " moggy." But in the Craven district, Skipton way,
it is called "thar cake." "Therf loove," or "tharf loav," means
unleaven bread in Wicliff's Gospels, Matt. xxvi. (A.S. theorf).
Yo st, or yo s' a form of "you shall."
Soa hetterly " With such intensity or earnestness." It also
means bitterness, and in a sense spite. "... heterly to the
hyge hylles thay haled on fast" West Midland (Lancashire)
dialect, 1360. (Icelandic heitr, hot.)
Smither-slek'd. Sheffield mothers brighten steels with dry
"smither-slek," the fine steel scales that exfoliate from red-hot
iron on the stithy or anvil.
NOTES 151
Bell Hagg a rough, craggy hill above Den Bank. Here I first
saw a shrew-mouse, and was amused to see him shrug his "snaht."
Mut cree might be permitted to expand. Grain for "frum-
erty" is first put "to cree," or soak in a stew-pot to cook.
Fasch the turned edge of an over-sharpened blade when it
burrs.
Tha brades o "manifest its characteristics," herewith those
of audacity. Used also about Bradford.
Fleribokes circumlocution. Also used for an extravagant
style of hand-writing.
PART II. IN THE CLEVELAND OR NORTH RIDING DIALECT.
Yan wud "one mad." This word is not common to the
West Riding, but it occurs in the Lancashire dialect. (A.S.
wod, mad.)
Whilk which; occurs in the Northumbrian dialect, 1250.
It is also common to Chaucer.
Routed " wandered off." Chaucer uses the verb.
Karlethwaite. An ancient documentary spelling. See the
Rev. Canon J. C. Atkinson's Fifty Years in a Moorland Parish ;
also for an interesting geological description of the submerged
forests which cause the black or marsh lands of Daneby.
Beggar staff The old sign of a beggar.
Non ? What ?
Iv a gert router With a sudden start of astonishment.
At Whitby Abbay. Whitby, a retreat of Robin Hood. One
day Abbot Richard of the Abbey and Monastrie of Whitby in
1185, took Robin and Little John to the top of the abbey, where-
from each shot an arrow which fell not far from Whitby Laths
. . . more than a mile away! In memory of this a pillar, says
the historian, was set up by the Abbot, a field where one arrow
fell being called Robin Hood's Field, and where the other fell,
John's Field. Robin Hood's Bay, about six miles from Whitby,
is said to have been the spot where Robin had his fishing-boats.
Anthers ye s' see " In case you should see."
Allus blosses " Always shows itself to good advantage."
" Bloss up ! " is in Yorkshire an injunction to brighten up.
Nae drith wi bosses " No success in regard to horses."
Thoo is t' gan or dee " You must go, or, remaining, die."
Robin Hood ends this part of the ballad in the Windhill
dialect.
Mak oss " Induce to set out earnestly and arrange for."
152 TALES AND BALLADS
PART III. DICK SKIDBY SPEAKS THE EAST RIDING DIALECT.
The reader will notice the absence of the definite article, as in the
Northumbrian Psalter I quote in the Introduction to this volume.
Nut akin . . . aboot " Not wandering aimlessly about." In
the West Riding we use "allakin abaht" similarly.
Breed, for "breadth," is common to other of the Yorkshire
dialects. (A.S. braedo, breadth.)
Back end o spot "Far end of room."
Feigh. This is also common to the West Riding. See my tale,
" In t' Bleggin Days." The word may be, I believe, of Icelandic
origin, meaning "to cleanse." Indeed, John Nicholson's Hull
Dialect (Glossary) gives very many Icelandic etymologies of East
Riding words, though we should remember the difficulties the
cognate origin of the Scandinavian and other kindred races creates
for the student of words.
Callit "scolding." The W.R. word cal, to gossip, is perhaps
related, as gossips may be scolds and scolds gossips.
ROBIN HOOD CONCLUDES PART III. IN THE WINDHILL DIALECT.
Breead-fleeak, or fleik a rack hung overhead in kitchens to
dry the haver cake, or oat cake.
Oss to tell" attempt to relate."
Hart bell cry of the hart.
Hossin-clog, from which a horse is mounted.
A ... dab-hand "clever."
Wayer. The real pronunciation of "way." See my remarks
on ai.
Threp us aht an sleer "assert contrary to evidence, and then
to ridicule."
PART IV. JOHN LANGSTROTH SPEAKS THE CRAVEN DIALECT.
Craven (Craigvan) is the Switzerland of Yorkshire, by reason
of its wild, romantic character, and its position on the Yorkshire
"frontiers." The Rev. Mr. Carr's work Craven Dialect, 1828,
points out that different parts of Craven have a dialect like
that of Leeds and Bradford, West Lancashire, and the North and
East Ridings: "The dialect is spoken in its greatest purity on
the banks of the Wharf in the parish of Skipton to Langstroth, or
Strother, the language of which is so well described by Chaucer;
and on the course of the Are, or Aire, from Skipton to the
northern boundary of the parish of Kirkby Malham . . . five or
six miles east of Skipton parish, the pronunciation is entirely
NOTES 153
changed. Thus, house is hoose, mouse moose, cow coo, as in
the North and East Ridings. . . ." While I have endeavoured
to write the purest and accepted form of the Craven dialect, I
open it by John Langstroth using two forms of his dialect at the
same time, to compliment the West Riding Robin Hood and the
East Riding Dick Skidby. After that John Langstroth speaks
the Craven dialect in ordinary.
Thoo's t' beatem "You are the winner or outwitter."
Roy it reight Put on the lord or master.
Robin Hood concludes in the Windhill dialect, and shows
John Langstroth he knows details of Craven's history and is
intimate with the Prior of Fountaynes Abbay. Malgo, who
reigned before Caractacus, is mentioned in the old chronicles,
Gervasii Cantuariensis Opera Gesta Regum in particular. Place
name etymologies are either geographical or personal and argu-
ment can play the advocate for each. The mention of Malgo
as the founder of Malham is made in a footnote to an ancient
Latin or Anglo-Saxon chronicle I read some years ago, but I do
not just now recall the title.
I have included Ulf Malham, Uctred, Ingold, Torsin, John,
Roschil, Godid, and other Malhams, to give an idea, as scarcely
anything else save the dialect itself can, of the origin of the race
who were natives here, these names having been long familiar to
me. They are found in the published memorials of the numerous
benefactors to Fountains Abbey in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries, and may be seen in Burton, etc. Says Mr. Harry
Speight:
" Malham, which before the Conquest was one of the manors
of Bernulf, was granted by the Conqueror to William
de Percy; and soon after, on the origin of local appella-
tions, gave name to a race of mesne lords who frequently
occur in the attestations of the most ancient charters
relating to Craven. Of these Sir Hertil de Malham
(Malum) appears from circumstances to have lived in
the reign of Stephen. The Manor of Malham belonged
to the Abbots of Fountains, and was in the parish of
Kirkby-in-Malhamdale. . . ."
T' WOOIN o ELLA.
Loppards. Milk when sour is said to be loppered.
Hask-watter. Glossaries give hask or ask as "dry," "parched."
But it is also used for " hard " water.
154 TALES AND BALLADS
Winter trosslin snooa gahn. A woman's dress trailing on the
ground and sweeping up the dust is described as trosslin.
(Icelandic tros, sweepings, dregs, filth).
A fause peepin daisy. Fause means presumptive, forward,
too-knowing, applied often in a tolerative spirit. It has been
said it is allied to foxy, but the terms are certainly not synony-
mous. Nor is it to be confounded with a similar word in the
Scots dialect meaning false.
Fotchin armsful back. To fetch, or fotch, is often used in
the sense of to take, as well as bring.
Top ower tooa. From head to foot; altogether; utterly.
See, " Till top ower tail, etc.," in ' ' Robert Bruce," in the Aberdeen
Scots dialect of John Barbour, 1375, quoted by me in my
Introduction.
WER YORKSHER WHISSON-MONDA.
I wrote this a year ago, at Whitsuntide, exactly as I state.
See note 128 on "Coverla."
. . . S'nt Luke bull heigh. The Eccleshill church banner
with the bull, representative of the Ripon diocese.
BATTLE o BOROUGHBRIG.
70. ... Harkela.
72. ... Ye a Sir. This is a perfect rhyme. See note 310-
12 on " Kirkstall Abbay." My reader will observe that, in the
manner of poetry, I take the license of rhyming Coverley with ei,
as if pronounced Coverlei. A set form of spelling a name is
quite a modern method.
127. Thi oan cade bahn. A child brought up tenderly for
the sake of its delicateness. Here is implied a plea of forgiveness
for inherent faults.
131. Noa nifflin nafflin. No sentimental trifling.
138. ... Sir.
140. . . . Yeh. A true rhyme. I gave it here specially to
show the value of this interesting affirmative which is used like
"yes" ordinarily, and is distinct from the hearty affirmative
"yah."
144. To be dependent upon one for meyt and sup means
wholly. Meyt is solid food, including all viands; sup, every
common drinkable liquid taken with meals.
GLOSSARY OF WORDS IN TALES AND
BALLADS IN THE YORKSHIRE DIALECT.
THE letters C., E., H., and N. indicate when a word is
common to the Craven district, the East Riding, the
Hallamshire district, or the North Riding-. Though often
such a word may be used in the West Riding, to which all
the other words belong. Be it noted that most of the words
used in the West Riding are common also to the above-
mentioned districts of Yorkshire, and, of course, Craven and
Hallamshire are in the West Riding. It is not surprising
that certain parts preserve ancient words which are unknown
to another. For I find that individual Yorkshiremen in one
and the same locality will use old Yorkshire words their very
neighbour does not understand, these having come down to
them through their own particular Yorkshire ancestors.
The sound sometimes I give in brackets, but the chapter
I have written on the pronunciation should be read, and the
notes on my ballad entitled " Robin Hood an His Merrie
Men at come fro t' Ridins Threi." Ern in my examples is
always short as possible; er and erl are always short; ah
is the Yorkshire long back , and is not like the modern
English exclamation ah mah, thah, teah, and yah are
exceptions. And fer, far, is fur.
A (ER, and like a in apple), have.
A (er), on ; of. See O.
Aback-a-beyont, out of the way. E.
Abahn, going;.
Abaht, about.
Abide, endure ; tolerate.
Aboon, above ; more.
Aboot, about. E. ; N.
Ackren, Ackorn, acorn.
Addle, earn.
Afeard, afraid.
Aflayd, frightened.
Afore, afoor, before.
155
Agate, commenced ; working ;
going ; active ; busy.
Agean (ergeern), again ; nigh.
Ageean, ,, ,,
Agee, awry ; to one side. E.
Agen, again.
Agooan, agoan, gone by ; gone.
Ahr, our ; yes.
Aht, out.
Aigh, hawthorn; hawthorn blossom.
Aighs (aergs, like , in egg), haw-
thorn berries.
Aigle, eagle.
156
TALES AND BALLADS
Aigre, scur.
Aim, purpose ; try ; intend. N.
Aim, hoar frost.
Akest, asquint ; oblique. E.
Akin, wandering aimlessly. E.
Al, will.
Al be, although.
Allus (alluss), always.
Aloan, alooan, alone.
Amaist, almost. N.
Am'it, am'ot, am not.
An, and, if, than.
Anenst, anent. E. ; N.
An all, also ; too ; likewise.
Ane, one. N.
Aneyth, aneath, beneath.
Anoan, anon ; presently.
A'nt, aunt.
Anthers, lest ; in case. N.
A-payin, beating.
Ar, scar ; weal.
Arf, afraid. N.
A-rove, a-stir ; set out. C.
Arrand, spider.
Arle, earn. H.
'Art-wark, heart-ache.
Aside, compared with.
Askard, lizard, newt.
Ass, ashes.
Ass, ask.
Ast, asked.
Asteead, instead.
At, v., attack ; set on.
At, who, whom, which, whose (no
sibilant possessive) ; that ; lest.
At-efter, afterwards.
Ather (ayther), either.
Aud, awd, old. E. ; N.
Avril, April.
Awdered, aged. E.
Awther (oh-ther), either.
Ax, ask. E.; H.; N.
BABBISH, childish. N.
Back-end, close of year.
Bade, bathe.
Badly, ill ; unwell.
Bahn, child ; near ; going.
Bahnest, nearest.
Baht, without.
Bairk, bake.
Balk, cross-beam.
Bally-bleeare, bonfire. N.
Bam, trick. N. ; brow-beating. E.
Barghest, a legendary hound-
apparition ; guy trash.
Barkle, incrust. H.
Bass, soft basket. H.
Bastin, thrashing. H.
Baynie, child. E.
Beald, cattle-shed. E.
Beatem, winner, conqueror. C.
Beb, sip. C.
Beeasts, cows ; cattle.
Becahl'd, becowled.
Beck, brook ; stream.
Becoss, because.
Bedizen, bedeck; illuminate; strew.
Beggar-staff, old sign of the beggar.
Beheend, behind.
Belantered, delayed ; over-late. N.
Beld, pret of Bell.
Belike, perhaps. H.
Belive, quickly ; soon. N.
Bell, cry out ; proclaim ; weep.
Bensillin, thrashing ; chastisement.
C.; H.
Bent, moorland ; coarse grass.
Beshrew, curse.
Bet, pret of beat ; overcame.
Bi (like mi), by ; with ; be.
Bide, wait ; abide.
Big, build.
Biggin, building.
Bile, a boil.
Bilk, rob ; cheat. H.
Bin, been
Binch, bench.
Birk, birch.
Birle, pour out. H.
Bi 't (bit, short), by it ; be it.
Bi t' (as above), by the.
Black-frost, ground frost.
Blackland, bog ; marsh. N.
Blain, white ; pale.
Blainin, bleaching. C.
Blake, yellow. C.
Blashy, weak ; silly. E.
Blathry, muddy. E.
Bleead, bleed.
Bleggin, blackberrying.
Blegs, brambles, or blackberries.
Blew, Blieu, blue.
Bliew-bell, wild hyacinth.
Blob, bubble ; little round vesicle ;
flower.
Blooid, blood.
GLOSSARY OF WORDS
157
Blosm, blossom ; bloom.
Bloss, improve on ; exaggerate.
Bluther, weep.
Bocken, nauseate.
Boggard, eerie ; ghostly ; devilish.
Bonnie, pretty ; sweet ; ideal ;
healthy.
Booit, Boit, boot ; to boot.
Bosky, woody.
Bother, trouble.
Bothrin, anxiety ; worry.
Bowld, bold.
Brade o, resemble ; be like.
Brah, brow.
Brak, broke.
Brakky, salty ; bitter.
Brash, dry twigs ; rubbish.
Brashy, delicate ; ailing. N.
Brass, coin ; money.
Brast, burst.
Brat, child ; pinafore ; smock.
Brazent, impudent.
Breead, bread.
Breead-fleeak, frame overhead for
oat cake.
Breears, Brears, briars,
Breed, breadth. E.
Brecken, brake ; dog-fern.
Breet, bright.
Brek, break.
Brent, steep ; pompous ; proud. N.
Brig, bridge.
Brimm'd, kindled ; lighted.
Brod, dig ; thrust.
Brokken, broken.
Browt, brought.
Brun, brown ; burn.
Brunn'd, burnt ; browned.
Bruntlin, beetle. H.
Brussen, p.p., burst.
Brust, burst.
Brust-up, the end ; catastrophe.
Bud, but.
Bug, proud ; conceited ; strutting.
E.
Buish, bush.
Bull-week, week before Christmas.
H.
Bun, pledged.
Bummelkites, blackberries.
Bunch, knock about. E.
Bur (buhrr, short), but. H.
Burn, brook.
Butter-blob, kind of buttercup.
Byre, cow-house. E.
CADE, spoilt ; petted ; delicate.
Caff, chaff. E.
Gagged, caked.
Cah, a cow ; crouch.
Cah-week, second week before
Christmas. H.
Cahr, crouch ; bend.
Cairk, cake ; bread.
Cakin-day, feasting day ; celebra-
tion. H.
Cal (rhymes with al in talent),
gossip ; talk.
Call, upbraid ; abuse.
Callit, scolding. E.
Cannel, Can'le, candle.
Canny, healthy ; contained ; know-
ing.
Cap, astonish.
Cappia, wonderful ; astonishing.
Carr, marsh ; swamp.
Cauf, calf.
Cauf-week, third week before Christ-
mas. H.
Chamer, chamber.
Chavel, chew loosely.
Cheeat, Cheet, give joyful vent to
song or notes.
Chicken-chow, swinging pastime.
C.
Childer, children.
Chockful, full as possible.
Choil, haste away.
Chois, Chooase, choose.
Chuff, delighted ; proud.
Chumpin, gathering tree-stumps,
etc., from the woods.
Chunk, solid piece.
Cinglit, under shirt next the skin.
Clack, gossip.
Clag, eat like dough, heavy ; clog.
Claht, strike; chastise; sharp blow;
cloth.
Clam, starve ; hunger.
Clappin, fixing upon; meeting with.
Clarted, smeared thickly ; caked as
with mud.
Clarty.eat like dough, heavy; sticky.
Cleat, foalfoot.
Cletch, brood.
Click, snatch ; seize hold of.
Cloa, garment.
Clock, beetle; lady-bird.
'58
TALES AND BALLADS
Clog, log.
Cloggy, heavy.
Clois, field ; a close.
Clong, clang.
Clout, strike ; cuff.
Cluther, gather round ; encompass.
Coil, coal ; fuel ; noise.
Coit, coat.
Coom, come. N.
Come, corned, pret, came.
Corned, p.p. of come.
Con, know ; perceive.
Cotter, punish.
Coverla (Coverler), Calverley.
Cowd, cold.
Cower, and cowlrake, iron to clear
out cokes or flues.
Cowk, heart ; kernel ; bottom ;
cinders.
Crack, boast.
Crahd, crowd.
Craigvan (Craven), obsolete.
Cratch, a frame.
Cree, soften in water as hard grain.
H.
Croodled up, shrunken up in a heap
as with cold or pain.
Crow-fooit, wild hyacinth with three
or four blue bells, giving the
appearance of a crow's foot.
Windhill.
Crozz'l'd, burnt coal or log incrusted
and charred.
Crudded, curdled.
Cruds, curds.
Crusses, crusts of bread.
DAEL (daaerl), dale.
Daft-down, atmospheric depression.
Daft-watty, simpleton. E.
Dahn, down.
Daht, doubt.
Dar, dare.
Daze, make or become heavy, as of
bread ; bewilder.
Deam, dame.
Dean, Den, valley.
Dee, die ; do. N.
Deea, do. E. ; day. N.
Deeafly, lonely. N.
Deean, done. N.
Deean't, don't. N.
Deear, door. E.
Deck, refuse ; carp ; cavil.
Delf, stone-quarry.
Delve, dig; quarry; work.
Demmicked, gathered ; hurt ; bad.
Deng, pret, upbraided.
Dew, do.
Dike, river ; stream ; pond.
Dirl, quaver. C.
Dither, tremble.
Dodder, mud.
Dole, grieve ; bemoan.
Doon, down. E. ; N.
Dousin, drenching.
Dowd, Dowdy, scold ; ill, or over-
dressed woman.
Dowter, daughter.
Drahnd, drown.
Dratin, droning ; singing without
tune or spirit.
Drave, pret, drove.
Dree, miserably monotonous ; dismal.
Dreedist, dryest.
Drith, success ; prosperity. N.
Druffen, drunken.
Drukken, intoxicated ; drunken.
Duff, evade.
E (EE), I. See notes on ballad,
"Coverla."
E (like e in set), have.
E (short i as in it), in ; at.
'E (same sound as above), he.
Earn, uncle.
Ed, had.
Eckleshill, Eckershill, Eccleshill.
E'd (idd), he had ; he would.
Ee, eye.
Eeather, either.
Een, eyes.
Efter, after.
Eldin, firewood ; fuel.
Em, them.
Enah, presently; soon.
Eniff, enough.
'Er, her.
Est', art thou.
'E's (is), he is ; he has.
'E s' (iss), he shall or should.
Esh, ash-tree.
Esseheld, Esholt.
Etten, eaten.
Ev (see hev), have.
'Evn, heaven.
Eych, Eeach, each.
Eyt, pres. of eat.
GLOSSARY OF WORDS
'59
FAAR, fair ; feast. C.
Faerk, trick ; stratagem.
Fahl, ugly; angry; wicked; a hen.
Fair, very ; much ; pure ; right ;
quite.
Fairly, quite.
Fan, Fahnd, pret, found.
Fasch, burred edge of a blade. H.
P'ause, too knowing ; precocious
[not used as "false"].
Felther'd, entangled.
Feeal, fool. N.
Feeath, reluctant. E.
Feigh, Fey, applied to a dog scratch-
ing itself ; cleanse; clear out.
Fend, look after ; provide.
Fer (fur), far.
Ferrist, farthest.
Fettle, good condition; clean out.
Feyld, field.
Feyt, fight ; battle.
Finnd, find.
Fire-fanged, over-baked; burnt. E.
Flah, flower ; bloom.
Flannin, flannel.
Flay, frighten.
Flayd, frightened ; timorous.
Flaysome, terrible ; fearful.
Fleer, laugh scornfully.
Fleng, pret, flung.
Fleriboke, circumlocution; flourish.
Flig, fly; go; depart.
Fligg'd, flew.
Flit, remove ; change abode.
Floor, flour. E.
Fog, aftermath.
Foist, bitter; brakish; ill-smelling.
Foit, Fooit, foot.
Fond, silly ; doting ; affectionate.
Foor, Fore, before.
Forest king, tallest and oldest tree
in the wood.
Forger (fergerr, short), forget.
Forrard, forward.
Forseur (fersewer), truly.
Fotch, bring ; fetch.
Power (Yorkshire ow), four.
Fowk (as above), folk.
Fowl (as above), mould ; decay.
Fra, from. E., N.
Frack, impertinent ; over bold. N.
Fratch, quarrel.
Freeasin, freezing.
Freer, friar.
Freeten, frighten.
Fro (frer), from.
Frow, term of feminine reproach.
Frushed, rushed. E.
Fullock, rush; impetuous onset. If.
Fun, p.p., found.
GAB, perorations ; talk ; volubility.
Gael (gaaerl), gale.
Gaed, went. N.
Gahn, gown.
Gain, near.
Gainer, nearer.
Gairt, Gate, way; road.
Gallostang, rake; scamp.
Gallus, roguish: rakish.
Galluses, braces.
Gam, sport; trick; frolic.
Gammin, pretending.
Gan, began.
Can, go. E., N.
Gang, go. C., E., N.
Gang'd, went. C. , N.
Gannan, going. N.
Gannin, going. E., N.
Garth, inclosure ; yard.
Gat, got ; arrived.
Gateards, on the journey.
Gauvison, star-gazer ; silly fellow.
Gav, gave.
Geean, gone. N.
Geed, gave. H.
Gen, given.
Ger (gerr, short), get.
Gerrin, getting; becoming.
Gert, great ; noble.
Ghast (gasst), full of spirit and
daring.
Ghast un, a very devil, but not in
an ill sense.
Gi, Gie (i short as in it ; and long e),
give.
Gif, if. E.
Gill, glen.
Gin, begin.
Gin, if. N.
Gip, nauseate.
Gird, a brief fit ; a dizzy bout.
Girn, grin ; sneer.
Glaed (glaaerd), glade.
Glear, glare.
Glester, glisten.
Gloar, stare fixedly.
Gloarin, brilliant.
i6o
TALES AND BALLADS
Glum, solemn ; brooding.
Goa (gooer), go ; happen.
Goan-off, having a fling or holiday.
Goan, dead ; gone.
G oa- to, affair ; time; to do; fiasco.
Goaved, stared vacantly. E.
Goffnin, staring vacantly. E.
Goi, Gow, kind of oath.
Gois, goose.
Goit, brook ; stream.
Goit-hoil, bed of a beck.
Goid-shut, good riddance ; glad
farewell.
Gooid, Goid, good.
Gope, wander or stare aimlessly.
Gor (grr), got.
Gormless, senseless ; foolish
Goster, laugh loudly.
Gosterin, boisterous ; rude.
Gowd, gold.
Grab, acquisitiveness.
Grahnd, ground.
Grange, monastic farm and out-
buildings.
Grant, grand.
Graft, hard work ; toil.
Grean (greern), green.
Greean, green.
Greeave, grieve.
Grindle-cowk, old grindstone. H.
Grisli, unearthly; goblin.
Grommel, Grummel, grumble.
Gu, go.
Gumpshun, good sense ; intellig-
ence.
Guytrash, a legendary hound-
apparition.
HA (like a in apple), have. See
also a, e, ev, and hev. H is
not aspirate, as a rule.
Hae, have. N.
Hael (haaerl), hail.
Haest (haaerst), haste.
Hafe, half.
Haffle, hesitate. N.
Hag, plantation ; trees were sold
by the hag.
Hah, how ; hour.
Hahnd, hound.
Hahse, house.
Hally, Hali (rhymes with valley);
holy.
Han, have. H.
Happen, perhaps.
Har (hah), hour.
Harden, harden steel. H.
Harvis, harvest.
Hask-watter, hard water.
Haver-cake, oaten cake.
Hawf, half.
Hazin, thrashing. E.
Hed, had.
Hee, high ; hie.
Heeaf, hearth ; home. N.
Heeam, home. N.
Heigh (hey), high ; hie.
Height, called ; named ; bight.
Hes (hez), has.
Hetterly, bitterly ; hastily. H.
Hev (like ev in level), have.
Hevn, heaven.
Hiddy, hide ; conceal.
Hine ! away ! begone ! N.
Hine berries, raspberries. H.
Hing, pies. hang.
Hip-breear, wild rose.
Hissen (see missen), Hisseln, him-
self.
Hoap, Hooap (hooerp), hope.
Hocker, stammer.
Hod, hold ; believe ; maintain.
Hoil, hole ; house ; abode. See
Hull.
Hoin, ill-use.
Holmes, meadows by river-side.
Holt (rhymes with salt), bog ;
swamp ; woodland.
Hooam, home.
Hooamards, homewards.
Hoos, Hoose, house. E.; N.
Hoss, horse.
Hossin-clog, an aid to mount a
horse.
Ho't, hurt. N.
How, chop ; fell.
Howd (Yorkshire ow), hold. H.
Hower, stone dresser or hewer.
Hug, carry.
Hull, home ; grinding place ; a
humble abode.
Hummel bees, humble bees.
Hurstland, woodland.
I (OR), I.
I, same as E (short i in it), in ; at.
I is, I am. E.; N.
Ilkla, Ilkley.
GLOSSARY OF WORDS
161
I'm (omm), I am.
Imp, devil ; mischievous spirit.
Ing, small field.
Ingle, fire.
Ingle-nooik, fireside corner.
Innards, vitals, bowels.
In t', in the.
I' n't, is not ; is it not.
I' n' t', is not the.
Intul, v. , go into ; commence of.
Iren, iron.
Is, am. E. ; N. ; art; is; are.
I's, I am. E.; N.
I s' (oss), I shall or should.
'Issen (see missen), himself.
1st (osst), I shall or should.
Ista, art thou.
It, it ; its, no sibilant possessive.
I t' (it), in the.
Itsen (see missen), itself.
Iv (short z"), of.
Ivin, ivy.
JABBER, chattering.
Jender, rattle.
Jert, jerk.
Jimmers, hinges.
Jimmy, slender ; fragile ; small.
Jock, food ; bread.
Jorum, a many ; an incredible
number.
Jowl, knock against another ; rap
and hurt accidentally.
KAHL, a blow.
Kale, turn ; alternate ; follow after.
Karlesthwaite, Carlesthwaite. N.
Keethla (Keethler), Keighley.
Kek, den ; retreat. H.
Ken, know. N.
Kenspack, plain to perceive. N.
Kep, kept.
Kersmas, Christmas.
Kessen, p.p., cast off; given up.
Kine, cows.
Kirk, church.
Kirk-maister, churchwarden. C.
Kinl'd, kindled.
Kinred, kindred.
Kirn, churn.
Kirsen'd, christened.
Kit, pail.
Kittle, tickle.
Kitlin, kitten.
Kneive, fist.
Kneyd, knead.
Kneyl, kneel.
Kneyt, knight.
Knodden, p.p., kneaded.
Knooa, know.
Knooad, knew ; known ; pret. and
p.p.
Knop, bud ; head.
Knope, a rap.
Kuss, kiss.
Ky, cows. E.
LADY-CLOCK, cow-lady ; lady bird.
Laert, late.
Lahd, loud.
Lahke, like. N.
Lahtle, little. E.; N.
Lairk, play; sport.
Lait, Late, seek. E. ; N.
Laithe, barn ; out-house.
Lake, play ; sport.
Lammas, thrash ; punish.
Lang, long.
Langer, longer.
Langsettle, long wooden seat.
Lapp'd, wrapped.
Lar, learn. H.
Lat, late.
Lat, lath.
Laten, sought. C.
Lavrock, skylark.
Leear, gift ; learning. N .
Leearn, teach ; learn.
Leeast, leost (leerst), least.
Leeaver, rather ; sooner.
Leelacs, lilacs.
Lees, untruths. N.
Leet, Leeat, light.
Lekkin, downpour ; shower.
Leng, Ling, heather.
Ler (lerr), let.
Lerrin, letting.
Let, pret., lighted, ignited.
Lewk, look ; seem.
Liffin, lifting.
Lig, lay ; recline ; remain ; be idle.
Like to, must ; can ; compelled ;
may.
Likely, handsome ; agreeable.
Lile, little. N.
Lilly-low, bonnie light ; flame.
Lime, mortar ; mason's cement.
Lithenin, broth flour thickening.
II
1 62
TALES AND BALLADS
Looan (looern), loan; solitary.
Loise, lose.
Loisin, apprentice's attainment of
manhood.
Loppards, sour curds ; curdled milk.
Lopper, curdle.
Loss, pres., lose.
Losses, pres., loses.
Lot, a many ; large quantity.
Loup, Lowp, spring, leap.
Low (Yorkshire ow), light ; blaze.
Lundy, heavy, lumbering.
MA (may, maaer), make.
Ma (mer), may ; me.
Maaster, Maister, master.
Mad, annoyed ; angry.
Maerlerk, Mahlerk, horse-play ;
fiasco.
Maes, makes.
Maet (maaert), mate ; to company.
Mah (mar), my.
Mahnt (Yorkshire long a), mount ;
steed.
Mahth (Yorkshire long a), mouth.
Mahthin, in full cry.
Maidnin-pot, large pot ; washing
pot. H.
Ma'in, making.
Mair, more. N.
Mak, make.
Mak, s., mate ; match. E.
Makky, proud ; obstinate.
Malgham, Malham. C. Obsolete.
Malghum, Malham. C. Obsolete.
Malgum dael, Malhamdale. C.
Obsolete.
Manders, kinds. N.
Mankin, busying ; meddling.
Mard, spoil ; pet ; humour.
Mardy, spoiled; pampered; carping.
Mare, more. E
Marrer, match ; tally.
Mash, brew tea.
Marrish, marshy. N.
Mast, acorns, etc.
Meead, made. E.
Mebbe, may be.
Med, Mod, might; could.
Mei (mey), me.
Mell, interfere ; meddle.
Mence, decency ; newness.
Merl, crumble ; mingle.
Meyl, feast ; a meal ; meal.
Meyt, food ; victuals.
Mi (short / as in it), my ; me.
Mich (short z), much.
Mickle, much. N.
Mill, thrash ; beat ; overcome.
Miln, mill.
Mind, watch ; remember ; care.
Missen (rhymes with 't is when,
but iss has not the sound of a),
myself.
Mista, cowhouse ; barn. C.
Mistal, cowhouse ; barn.
Moant, must not.
Moggy, plain kind of parkin or
tharf-cake.
Moil, burrow; dig; work hard.
Monny, many.
Mooin, or Moon-pennies, wild
marguerites. H.
Moor (mooer), more ; heath.
Moss, peat-bog.
Mother mother, grandmother.
Moucher, a hanger about ; disre-
putable character.
Moudiwarp, mole.
Mowt, Mought, might. E.
Muck, earth ; sludge.
Mucky, dirty ; muddy.
Mud, might ; must.
Mull, spoil ; ruin ; defeat.
Mummel, mumble.
Mun, must.
Murn, mourn.
Murther, murder.
Mush, squash.
Mut, might. H.
7 N, OF ; than ; nor ; one ; body.
Nae, not ; no ; none. N.
Nah, now ; at that time.
Naigerin, gnawing.
Nather, Nawther, Nother (see Ather
and Awther), neither.
Natter, worry ; fret ; cavil.
Ne, nay ; never ; not.
Necklet, necklace.
Neeave, fist. E.
Neet, night.
Neigh (ney), nigh.
Neive, fist.
Nesh, very sensitive ; easily fright-
ened.
Niffle-naffle, trifle.
Nit, not.
GLOSSARY OF WORDS
163
Nivver, never.
Noa (nooer), no.
Noan, Nooan, not ; none.
Nobbud, only ; simply.
Non ! what ! N.
Noo, now. E. ; N.
Nooik, corner ; nook.
Nope, blow ; rap.
Nor (nerr), than ; rather than ;
nor; not (norr) page 75, bis.
Now (Yorkshire ow see chapter on
pronunciation), no.
Nowt (Yorkshire ow), nothing.
Nut, not.
Nut-steeaned, stained with green
walnuts.
O (ER), of; on.
Oan, Ooan, own.
Of (erv, short), on ; for ; at ; of.
Offens, often.
Ollin, holly.
Om (omm), I am.
Ommost (ommerst), almost.
Onny, any.
On 't, of it ; on it.
On t', of the ; on the.
Ony, only.
Ooak, oak.
Oop, up. N.
Oor, our. E.
Oppen, open.
Oss, bestir ; rouse ; offer ; begin ;
attempt ; be earnest.
O t' (ert), of the.
Other, next ; another ; the other.
Oumer, shadow; shade. C.
Ov, of.
Owd (Yorkshire cnu), old.
Ower-cussen, overcast.
Ower, Owre (like owd), over ;
too ; very.
Owerd, gone by; tided; got past;
overcome ; ended.
Ower-reiked, over-reached.
Owmly, dismal ; solitary. E.
Owt (Yorkshire oiv), anything.
PACKMAN, pedlar.
Fade, wearied out ; beaten ;
thrashed.
Panshun, baking or other large
bowl. H.
Pay, thrash; punch; strike.
Peeak (peerk), perch.
Peyl, peal.
Pick, pitch. E.
Piggan, Piggin, small pail.
Pike, perceive ; look ; peep ; select ;
go off; go out.
Plah, plough.
Plewf, plough. N.
Pock-arred, pock-marked.
Pois, thrash ; punch.
Poisin, thrashing.
Polsh, smash; pulverize; break up.
Pole, go about aimlessly; fumble.
Potter, poker.
Poyt, poke.
Prahd, proud.
Precast, Preost (preerst), priest.
Prog, food ; to work.
Puir, poor. N.
Fund, Pahnd, pound.
Punky, dirty; unwashed.
Pur (puhrr, short), put.
Puss, hare.
Puther, reek ; turmoil.
Putten, p.p. put.
QUEER, quire.
Quick-sticks [in], at once ; im-
mediately.
RADDLE, discolour.
Rael, rail ; storm at ; rave.
Raffletoppin, rascal.
Rah, din ; row.
Rahm, room ; chamber.
Rahnd, round.
Raitch, blaze on a horse.
Raiv, pret., tore.
Ramp an reeave, rave and rage.
Ran-tree, mountain ash. C.
Ratton, rat.
Reckon, pretend ; receive wages or
dues.
Reeak, Reik, smoke.
Reeam, cream. C.
Recast, cease to proceed, as of a
horse that is " a staller."
Reed, angry. C.
Reight (reyt), true; sane; proper;
much; very; thorough; extra-
ordinary; quite; extremely.
Reighten, rectify; restore.
164
TALES AND BALLADS
Rekken, iron over fire to hold
kettle, etc.
Rekkan-crook or creeak, iron hook
over fire.
Ren, pret. , ran ; flowed.
Reng, rang.
Rew, repent.
Reyt, see Reight.
Rig, roof; back; on t' rig, carous-
ing ; goin t' rig, going the fling.
Rig-tree, roof-tree.
Rile, vex; annoy.
Rin, pres., run. N.
Rive, tear ; demolish.
Roans, fish roe.
Roke, mist. N.
Ronk, Rank, intense; strong.
Rooarin, weeping.
Rood, cross.
Roster, outrageous ; rogue, used
good-humouredly.
Rout, wander away. N.
Router, a start or surprise. N.
Rowan, ash-tree.
Royd, a clearing.
Rummlin, rumbling.
S', SHALL ; should.
Sa (ser), she.
Backless, foolish; senseless.
Sad, heavy ; cloggy ; unleaven ;
very; much.
Sael, sail.
Sah, sour.
Sah-faced, hard-featured.
Sahd, side. E., N.
Sahnd, sound.
Sahthards, southwards.
Saidst, said. N.
Saig, sickle ; saw.
Saim, lard.
Sair, sore ; sadly. N.
Sal (rhymes with tal in talent), shall.
Sallow, willow.
Saln't, shall not.
Sam, pick up ; seize.
Sark, shirt.
Sarn't, shall not.
Sayne, say. C.
Scarr, high rock ; steep precipice.
Scahl, frown ; scowl.
Scether'd, scattered.
Scoor, score ; a many.
Scotch, toffee.
Scrairk, crake hoarsely.
Scran, food. H.
Scraney, long and lean; attenuated.
Scrappier, a dresser of stone blocks.
Scratch, frame for killing pigs or
sheep on. H.
Scratty, scratchy.
Scrawk, write with a scratchy pen.
Scrawm, swarm up a straight tree-
trunk. H.
Scrump, rob an orchard.
Scun, flee in fear ; disappear pre-
cipitantly.
Scutch, sharp-cutting whip ; thin
branch to switch or chastise.
Scutter, flee precipitantly.
Sean, soon. E.
Seea, so. E., N.
Seea, say. N.
Seea, sea ; see.
Seear, sore. E.
Seear, sure. N.
Seeaves, rushes.
Seed, saw; seen.
Sect, sight ; spectacle.
Sei, Sey, sea ; see.
Seid, Seead, seed.
Seld, sold.
Sen, send.
Seng, sang.
Set, sat.
S'e ta (setter), shall have to ; must.
Seur, Sewer, sure.
Seyk, Seeak, seek.
S'finnd, shall find.
S'gan, shall go. N.
S'goa, shall go.
Sha (sher), she.
Shackle, wrist-bone.
Shacks, Shags, shares ; portion.
Shah, shower.
Sha'll (shell), she will.
Shaht, shout.
Shandy, bashful ; shy.
S'heed, shall heed.
Shepster, starling.
Shevvild, Sheffield. H.
Shippies, starlings.
Shippon, cow-shed. C.
Shive, slice.
S'hooam it, shall go home.
Shoo, she.
Shooin, Shoon, shoes.
Shooit, Shoit, shoot.
GLOSSARY OF WORDS
i6 5
Short shacks, penurious living ; a
curtailed share.
Shots ! interjection.
Shreea-mahse, shrew-mouse.
Shrike, shriek.
Shut, rid ; end ; exiled.
Shuttered, fell down ; dropped.
Sich (rhymes with pitch), such.
Sichan, such a one.
Siew, pret., sowed.
Sike, such. N.
Sile, rain ; downpour ; strain ; a
sieve.
Silin, pouring.
Sin (short i in it), since.
Sindin, clearing out ; scouring. C.
Sing'd him [hes], p.p., sung himself.
Sink-stooan, kitchen water-trough.
Sithi, see you I look !
Skail, strew; scatter. E.
Skare, clear the ashes to brighten
the fire.
Skeeal, pail. E.
Skeely, skilful ; full of knowledge.
N.
Skeller, warp, as of drying wood or
bark.
Skelp, blow; cuff.
Sken, squint ; glance at obliquely.
Skep, basket ; bucket.
Skerrick, vestige ; a paltry coin.
Skime, squint ; look at scornfully.
C.
Skimp, niggardly curtail; go "short
shacks."
Skirl, scream.
Skuft, nape of neck ; a blow.
Skulk, creep by stealth, as though
afraid or dishonest.
Skummer, kitchen shovel.
Slack, valley.
Slake, lick ; smear.
Slape, cake thickly; smear over.
Sleer, sarcastic remark ; sneer.
Sleet, set on dogs to kill ; incite
against.
S'leever, should rather.
Slek, small coal.
Sleng, pret., slung.
Slep, slept.
Sleuth, hound.
Slither, dart ; glide ; slip.
Slive, slip stealthily.
Sloam, caress doatingly.
Slocken, choke; suffocate.
Slug, fight out and win ; defeat ;
thrash.
Sluther, slide ignominiously.
S'mak, shall make.
S'match, shall match.
Smither-slek, iron exfoliations from
stithy or anvil ; to clean steel
with the same. H.
Smittle, transmit ; infect.
Smook, smoke.
Smoor, smother.
Smoot, hare or rabbit track. E.
Smoulther, smoulder.
Snaht, snout.
S'ne, shall not.
Sneck, latch.
Snew, pret., snowed.
Snickle, snare ; strangle a hare with
a noose.
Snirp, shrink up ; nip ; wizen.
Snitch, break a secret ; divulge.
Snooa, snow.
S' nooan, shall not.
Snootch, nestle affectionately.
Soa, Sooa (sooer), so ; hence ; thus ;
therefore.
Soft, simple ; foolish ; foolishness.
S'omas Day, St. Thomas Day.
Sooin, Soin, soon.
Soss, force under ; souse ; subject.
S'oss, sal oss. See oss.
Sowl (Yorkshire ow), wash thor-
oughly ; swill ; wallow ; down-
pour.
Sownd, fainted.
Sowt (Yorkshire ow), sought.
Spaan, Spain, v., wean. C.
Spak, spoke.
Speyk, speak.
Speyks, tales.
Spice-cake, plum-cake ; Christmas
cake.
Spiffin, splendid ; grand.
Spluther, expostulate incoherently ;
ado.
Spole, bobbin.
Spraggy, bristling ; broken ; rocky.
Spraht, sprout.
Spreng, sprang.
Sprent, scattered ; bespread.
Sprodden, spread, p.p.
Sprotten, p.p., sprouted; germin-
ated.
1 66
TALES AND BALLADS
Sprottle, throw out the limbs;
muscular contortion.
Sprutter, spit and crackle.
Spurrins, banns ; "askings."
Stackers, staggers. E.
Stall, weary ; relinquish ; stop.
Stallin, tedious ; wearying.
Stang, shoot of pain ; pain ; a pole.
Starken, stiffen.
Stark-naked, quite nude.
Stash it ! stop it ! give up !
Stee, sty ; stile ; step.
Steead, stood ; a place.
Steyl, steal.
Stiff, strong ; thick-set ; fat.
Stoop, post.
Stoor, value ; greatly prize.
Slower, long pole. C.
Stown, stolen.
Strak, Streck, pret., struck.
Sthreea, straw. E.
Strang, strong.
Strunt, root end of horse's tail. H. ;
obstinate. E.
Sud, should.
Summat, something.
Summer-goss, summer exhalation ;
gossamer.
Sunwithards, contrariwise to the
sun.
Sup, drink.
Swankin, heavy ; improper.
S* wed, shall wed.
Sweeal, melt away.
Sweeat, sweet.
Swelt, die.
Swep, swept.
Sworn brothers, truest friends.
S* wreet, shall write.
Syke, stream.
T, the ; thou.
'T, it.
Ta (tar when beginning a sentence,
ter in the middle or finally),
thou.
Ta (ter), to.
Ta (tay or taaer), take.
Taed (tayd or taaerd), took.
Tael (taaerl), tale ; history.
Taen, taken.
Tahd, tide. E.
Tahl, fight and win ; towel.
Tahm, time. E.
Tahn, town.
Tahr, tower.
Ta is (tar is), thou art.
Taistril, rascal.
Tak, take.
T' ane, the one. N.
Tards, towards.
Tarn, lake ; mountain pool.
Tee, tie.
Teeah (teer), tea.
Teeak, take. E.
Teean, taken. E.
Teem, pour.
Tell, remember ; recall ; count ;
declare ; state ; command.
Teld, Telt, told ; counted.
Temm'd, poured.
Teng, sting.
Tenger, deceiver.
Tew, pull about ; weary.
Teych, teach.
T' gan, to go. N.
Tha (thar), thou.
Thack, thatch ; roof.
Thae'v, they have. N.
Thah (thar), thy.
Thar-cake, heavy, unleaven sweet
cake of oatmeal. C.
Tharf-cake, same as above. H.
The (ther), they.
Theas, these ; this.
Theer, there.
Ther, their ; there.
Ther's, there is.
Thersens (see missen), themselves.
They's, they are. N.
Thi (like mi), thy ; thee.
Thissen (see missen), thyself.
Thof, though. C.
Thoil, endure ; suffer ; afford.
Thoo, thou. E.; N.
Thoo'lt, thou wilt. E. ; C. ; N.
Thoo's, thou art. E.; C.; N.
Thowt (Yorkshire ow), thought.
Thrang, Threng, busy.
Threea, Threi, three.
Threp, argue out of belief; assert
strongly; contradict flatly.
Threw, through.
Thro (thru, short), from.
Thruff, from. N.
Thunner, thunder.
Thwaite, opening, or pasture cleared
of wood.
GLOSSARY OF WORDS
167
Thyble (thighble), stick to stir
porridge.
Ti, to. E.
Tide, a fair or feast ; while over ;
get over ; go by.
Tig, touch lightly; arrest attention.
Til (till), to.
Tiv (short i as in it), to.
To (ter), to.
To morn, to-morrow.
Toon, town. E.
Trael (traaerl), trail.
Tred, pret. , trod.
Trei, Treea, tree.
Trew, Trieu, Triew, true.
Trossle, bedraggle; trail raggedly.
Tul (rhymes with full), to.
Tuv (short ), to.
Tummel (tumml), tumble ; fall.
Twitch, a coarse grass.
Twoa (tooer), two.
UN (ern), one.
Unhoil, disclose ; reveal ; unearth.
Uphod, bring forward ; uphold.
Untul, Untuv, unto.
Uppa, upon.
VARRY, very.
Vast, a great deal. E.
Yens, food ; viands.
WACKKR, tremble violently.
Wad, would. E., C., N.
Wael (waaerl), wail.
Waert, wait.
Waest (waaerst), waste.
Wags, Wax, Whacks, shares.
Waint, will not.
Wakken, awaken.
Wakky-head, simpleton.
Walsh, insipid ; saltless.
Wammy, queasy ; feeling unwell or
uncomfortable.
Wanklin, wobbling.
Want, should ; ought.
War, worse, severer ; was ; were.
Wared, pret. wore ; expended.
Wark, work ; ache ; pain.
Walter, water.
Waxin, growing. E.
Wayer, way.
Way ! well !
We', we are.
Weam, belly ; stomach. E.
Wean, Weean, child ; ween.
Weant (weernt), will not.
Weea, way. E., N.
Weel, well.
Weel off, wealthy.
Weel-kenned, observant ; intelli-
gent. N.
Weet, wet.
Wellin, welding. H.
Welt, blow ; knock.
Weng, fling.
Wengy, tough.
Wer, our.
Wer, was ; were. H.
Wersens (see missen), ourselves.
Wescot, vest.
Wesh, wash.
Wessel-bobs, Christmas wassailers
used to carry holly boughs so
named.
Wheel, grinding-shed formerly al-
ways by a dam. H.
Wheel-swarf, sweel of grindstone.
WhemmPd ower, upset. N.
Whilk, which. N.
Whisin, cushion.
Whisson, Whitsun.
White-slat, white-splashed. C.
Whittle-gairt, freedom of the table.
Whoa, who
Whol, while.
Whot, oat.
Wi (like mi), with; by; we.
Wi aht, without.
Wick, living ; green ; week.
Wiggin, mountain ash. H.
Wimin, meandering. H.
Wimmin, women.
Wissen, known. N.
Wit, anything; the slightest; a
bit.
Wi 't (wit, short), with it.
Wi t' (as above), with the; wilt thou.
Witter, worry over trifles ; dissipate
slowly.
Wiv, with. E.
Wivoot, without. N.
Wod, would.
Wol, will. C.
Wold (rhymes with dolld), a down ;
weald ; forest.
Wor, War (war), was ; were.
Worf, insipid.
i68
TALES AND BALLADS
Worsist, worst.
Worsle up, become stronger or
brighter. C.
Wrassle, wrestle.
Wreyth, wreathe.
Wud, mad ; wild. N.
Wur, was ; were.
Wuther, bluster tempestuously.
YA, you. N.
Yabble, able. N.
Yah (yar), yes.
Yale, ale.
Yam, home. E., N.
Yan, one.
Yance, once.
Yar (Yorkshire long a), Yer, your.
Yarsen (see missen), yourself.
Yark, wrench.
Yarmy, effeminate ; complaining,
but not really unwell.
Ya s', you shall. N.
Yate, gate.
Ye, Yei, Yi, you ; ye.
Yed, head.
Ye'd, you had or would.
Yeearnin, yearning.
Yeh (yer), yes.
Yit, yet.
Yo, you. H.
Yo'd, you would. H.
Yolla, yellow.
Yo m', you must. H.
Yope, yawn ; idle.
Yore, your. H.
Yourn, yours. H.
Yo st, you shall. H.
Yower, your. C.
Yu, you. E.
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' Wuthering Heights '], thus showing they are from the same pen. ..."
GREAT THOUGHTS.
" 'The Key to the Bronte Works' . . . ought to be read. Indeed it
must be read . . . for Mr. Malham-Dembleby has much that is new and
pertinent to say ... A passage or two can give no idea of the variety
and wealth of his evidence. ..."
The late W. T. Stead in the REVIEW OF
REVIEWS.
WHO WAS THE AUTHOR OF "WUTHERING HEIGHTS?"
"... the matter seems to have rested for about fifty years. . . .
Mr. Malham-Dembleby now sets out in parallel columns passages from
the two books ['Wuthering Heights' and 'Jane Eyre'] to show they are
the work of one writer, and one is forced to admit that in many cases
there is a startling similarity of diction, characterization, and incident.
Bronte writers will, of course, resent Mr. Malham-Dembleby's dis-
closures ; but should his conclusions eventually come to be accepted,
some sixty years of writing on the Bronte's will at once be put quite out
of date. ..."
SHEFFIELD DAILY INDEPENDENT.
BRONTES' OPEN SESAME.
"Bronte readers wUl Avelcome John Malham-Dembleby's volume,
'The Key 'to the Bronte 'Works.' ... It is a key that unlocks the
doors of the inner chambers of the Brontes, revealing much that have
been uuillumined pages. Currer Bell will be better known in the future
than in the past, and to Mr. Malham-Dembleby's research will be due
much of this widened knowledge of an outstanding figure in English
literature of the first class. . . ."
THE SPECTATOR. Special Article.
"... The author has discovered a story by Eugene Sue in which he
uses many of the incidents of 'Jane Eyre.' There seems reason to
suppose that he was acquainted with M. Heger, and that his story
reflects a good deal of what took place in Brussels. Sue's story . . .
shows knowledge of the Heger family. ..."
SUNDAY CHRONICLE." Special Article by William
Purvis.
"... 'The Key to the Bronte Works' ... is as ingenious as the
special pleading of a first-class counsel in a cause cettbre, as absorbing as
the best of the Sherlock Holmes detective yarns. . . . Thus, sixty years
afterwards, Charlotte Bronte's secret is out. ... In its defence of the
Heger portrait of Charlotte Bronte in the National Portrait Gallery,
and the romance surrounding it, and in its presentation of what ... is
one of the greatest stories of tragedy and virtue in our literary annals,
the book bears the impress of ... painstaking and intelligent research,
and an overwhelming sincerity. . . ."
THE TIMES. Special Article.
THE AUTHORSHIP OF "WUTHERING HEIGHTS."
"... The first discovery is that a forgotten novel by Eugene Sue,
and published in 1850, is founded on Charlotte's relations with M.
Heger. The identification is indisputable. . . . The second discovery
is of greater interest . . . Mr. Malham-Dembleby has found . . . the
pit whence was dug much . . . that . . . helped to build both 'Jane
Eyre' and 'Wuthering Heights.' . . . Far be it from us to assert that
Emily wrote ' Wuthenng Heights.' ..."
YORKSHIRE POST. Special Article.
"... Mr. Malham-Dembleby has made a real contribution . . .
the discoveries are very remarkable. . . . Such . . . literary work is
refreshing in these days of slipshod book-making. ..."
THE WALTER SCOTT PUBLISHING CO., LIMITED,
LONDON (PATERNOSTER SQUARE, E.G.) AND FELLING-ON-TYNE.
University of California
SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
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