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diff --git a/3232-h/3232-h.htm b/3232-h/3232-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..16d419c --- /dev/null +++ b/3232-h/3232-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3440 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg EBook of Songs of the Ridings by F. W. Moorman</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +p.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: 90%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +p.center {text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.footnote {font-size: 90%; + text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +sup { vertical-align: top; font-size: 0.6em; } + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Songs of the Ridings by F. W. Moorman + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: Songs of the Ridings + +Author: F. W. Moorman + +Release Date: April 2, 2001 [EBook #3232] +[Most recently updated: November 16, 2020] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SONGS OF THE RIDINGS *** + + + + +Produced by Dave Fawthrop + + + + + + +</pre> + +<h1>Songs of the Ridings</h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">by F. W. Moorman</h2> + +<hr /> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p class="center"> +I DEDICATE<br/> +THIS VOLUME TO THE<br/> +YORKSHIRE MEMBERS OF THE<br/> +WORKERS’ EDUCATIONAL<br/> +ASSOCIATION +</p> + +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#pref01">Preface</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap01">A Dalesman’s Litany</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap02">Cambodunum</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap03">Telling the Bees</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap04">The Two Lamplighters</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap05">Our Beck</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap06">Lord George</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap07">Jenny Storm</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap08">The New Englishman</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap09">The Bells of Kirkby Overblow</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap10">The gardener and the Robin</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap11">Lile Doad</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap12">His last Sail</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap13">One Year older</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap14">The Hungry Forties</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap15">The Flowers of Knaresborough Forest</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap16">The Miller by the Shore</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap17">The Bride’s Homecoming</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap18">The Artist</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap19">Marra to Bonney</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap20">Mary Mecca</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap21">The Local Preacher</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap22">The Courting Gate</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap23">Fieldfares</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap24">A Song of the Yorkshire Dales</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap25">The Flower of Wensleydale</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="pref01"></a>Preface</h2> + +<p> +Abut two years ago I published a collection of Yorkshire dialect poems, chosen +from many authors and extending over a period of two hundred and fifty +years<a href="#fn-1" name="fnref-1" id="fnref-1"><sup>[1]</sup></a>. The volume +was well received, and there are abundant signs that the interest in dialect +literature is steadily growing in all parts of the county and beyond its +borders. What is most encouraging is to find that the book has found an +entrance into the homes of Yorkshire peasants and artisans where the works of +our great national poets are unknown. I now essay the more venturesome task of +publishing dialect verses of my own. Most of the poems contained in this little +volume have appeared, anonymously, in the Yorkshire press, and I have now +decided to reissue them in book form and with my name on the title-page. +</p> + +<p> +A generation ago the minor poet was, in the eyes of most Englishmen, an object +of ridicule. Dickens and Thackeray had done their worst with him: we knew +him—or her—as Augustus Snodgrass or Blanche Amory—an amiable +fool or an unamiable minx. The twentieth century has already, in its short +course, done much to remove this prejudice, and the minor poet is no longer +expected to be apologetic; his circle of readers, though small, is sympathetic, +and the outside public is learning to tolerate him and to recognise that it is +as natural and wholesome for him to write and publish his verses as it is for +the minor painter to depict and exhibit in public his interpretation of the +beauty and power which he sees in human life and in nature. All this is clear +gain, and the time may not be far distant when England will again become what +it was in Elizabethan days - a nest of singing birds, where te minor poets will +be able to take their share in the chorus of song, leaving the chief parts in +the oratorio to the Shakespeares and Spensers of tomorrow. +</p> + +<p> +The twenty-five poems of which this volume consists are meant to serve a double +purpose. Most of them are character-sketches or dramatic studies, and my wish +is to bring before the notice of my readers the habits of mind of certain +Yorkshire men and women whose acquaintance I have made. For ten years I have +gone up hill and down dale in the three Ridings, intent on the study of the +sounds, words and idioms of the local folk-speech. At first my object was +purely philological, but soon I came to realise that men and women were more +interesting than words and phrases, and my attention was attracted from dialect +speech to dialect speakers. Among Yorkshire farmers, farm labourers, fishermen, +miners and mill workers I discovered a vitality and an outlook upon life of +which I, a bourgeois professor, had no previous knowledge. Not, only had I +never met such men before, but I had not read about them in literature, or seen +their portraits painted on canvas. The wish to give a literary interpretation +of the world into which I had been privileged to enter grew every day more +insistent, and this volume is the fulfilment of that wish. +</p> + +<p> +Of all forms of literature, whether in Verse or prose, the dramatic monologue +seemed to me the aptest for the exposition of character and habits of mind. It +is the creation—or recreation—of Robert Browning, the most +illuminating interpreter of the workings of the human mind that England has +produced since Shakespeare died. My first endeavour was therefore +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +to watch<br/> +The Master work, and catch<br/> +Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool’s true play. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I have been, I fear, a clumsy botcher in applying the lessons that Browning was +able to teach, but the dramatic monologues of which this volume is largely +composed owe whatever art they may possess to his example. My dramatic studies +are drawn from life. For example, the local preacher who expresses his views on +the rival merits of Church and Chapel is a Wharfedale acquaintance, and the +farmer in <i>Cambodunum</i> who declares that “eddication’s nowt +but muckment” actually expressed this view to a Chief Inspector of +Schools, a member of the West Riding Education Committee, and myself, when we +visited him on his farm. I do not claim that I have furnished literal +transcripts of what I heard in my conversations with my heroes and heroines, +but my purpose throughout has been to hold a mirror up to Nature, to give a +faithful interpretation of thought and character, and to show my readers some +of the ply of mind and habits of life that still prevail among Yorkshiremen +whose individuality has not been blunted by convention and who have the courage +to express their reasoned or instinctive views of life and society. +</p> + +<p> +But the interpretation of the minds of Yorkshire peasants and artisans for the +benefit of the so-called general reader is only the secondary object which I +have in view. My primary appeal is not to those who have the full chorus of +English song, from Chaucer to Masefield, at their beck and call, but to a still +larger class of men and women who are not general readers of literature at all, +and for whom most English poetry is a closed book. In my dialect wanderings +through Yorkshire I discovered that while there was a hunger for poetry in the +hearts of the people, the great masterpieces of our national song made little +or no appeal to them. They were bidden to a feast of rarest quality and +profusion, but it consisted of food that they could not assimilate. Spenser, +Milton, Pope, Keats, Tennyson, all spoke to them in a language which they could +not understand, and presented to them a world of thought and life in which they +had no inheritance. But the Yorkshire dialect verse which circulated through +the dales in chap-book or Christmas almanac was welcomed everywhere. Two +memories come before my mind as I write. One is that of a North Riding farm +labourer who knew by heart many of the dialect poems of the Eskdale poet, John +Castillo, and was in the habit of reciting them to himself as he followed the +plough. The other is that of a blind girl in a West Riding village who had +committed to memory scores of the poems of John Hartley, and, gathering her +neighbours round her kitchen fire of a winter evening, regaled them with +<i>Bite Bigger</i>, <i>Nelly o’ Bob’s</i> and other verses of the +Halifax poet. My object is to add something to this chorus of local song. It +was the aim of Addison in his <i>Spectator</i> essays to bring +“philosophy out of closets and libraries, schools and colleges, to dwell +in clubs and assemblies, at tea-tables and in coffeehouses”; and, in like +manner, it should be the aim of the writer of dialect verse to bring poetry out +of the coteries of the people of leisure and to make it dwell in +artisans’ tenements and in cottagers’ kitchens. +“Poetry,” declared Shelley, “is the record of the best and +happiest moments of the happiest and best minds,” and it is time that the +working men and women of England were made partakers in this inheritance of +wealth and joy. +</p> + +<p> +It maybe argued that it should be the aim of our schools and universities to +educate the working classes to appreciate what is best in standard English +poetry. I do not deny that much maybe done in this way, but let us not forget +that something more will be needed than a course of instruction in poetic +diction and metrical rhythm. Our great poets depict a world which is only to a +very small extent that of the working man. It is a world of courts and +drawingrooms and General Headquarters, a world of clubs and academies. The +working man or woman finds a place in this charmed world only if his occupation +is that of a shepherd, and even then he must be a shepherd of the Golden Age +and answer to the name of Corydon. Poets, we are solemnly assured by Pope, must +not describe shepherds as they really are, “but as they may be conceived +to have been when the best of men followed the employment of shepherd.” +Class-consciousness—a word often on the lips of our democratic leaders of +today—has held far too much sway over the minds of poets from the +Elizabethan age onwards. Spenser writes his <i>Faerie Queene</i> “to +fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline,” +and Milton’s audience, fit but few, is composed of scholars whose ears +have been attuned to the harmonies of epic verse from their first lisping of +Virgilian hexameters, or of latter-day Puritans, like John Bright, who overhear +in <i>Paradise Lost</i> the echoes of a faith that once was stalwart. +</p> + +<p> +But what, it may be asked, of Crabbe, and what of Wordsworth? The former by his +own confession, paints +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +the cot,<br/> +As truth will paint it and as bards will not; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +but as we listen to his verse tales we can never forget that it is the Rev. +George Crabbe who is instructing us, or that his pedestal is the topmost story +of his three-decker pulpit at Aldborough. Wordsworth’s sympathy with the +lives of the Cumberland peasantry is profound, and the time is surely not +distant when such a poem as ‘Michael’ will win a place in the +hearts of working men; but it is to be feared that in his own generation +“Mr Wudsworth” served rather—as a warning than an +encouragement to his peasant neighbours. “Many’s the time,” +an old Cumberland innkeeper told Canon Rawnsley, “I’ve seed him +a-takin’ his family out in a string, and niver geein’ the deariest +bit of notice to ’em; standin’ by hissel’ an’ +stoppin’ behind a-gapin’, wi’ his jaws workin’ the +whoal time; but niver no crackin’ wi’ ’em, nor no pleasure in +’em—a desolate-minded man, ye kna... It was potry as did +it.”<a href="#fn-2" name="fnref-2" id="fnref-2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p> +Our English non-dramatic poetry from the Renaissance onwards is second to none +in richness of thought and beauty of diction, but it lacks the highest quality +of all—universality of interest and appeal. Our poets have turned a cold +shoulder to the activities and aims of the working man, and the working man +has, in consequence, turned a cold shoulder to the great English classic poets. +The loss on either side has been great, though it is only now beginning to be +realised. “A literature which leaves large areas of the national activity +and aspiration unexpressed is in danger of becoming narrow, esoteric, +unhealthy. Areas of activity and aspiration unlit by the cleansing sun of art, +untended by the loving consideration of the poet, will be dungeons for the +national spirit, mildewed cellars in which rats fight, misers hoard their gold, +and Guy Fawkes lays his train to blow the superstructure +sky-high.”<a href="#fn-3" name="fnref-3" id="fnref-3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p> +There was a time when poetry meant much more to the working men of England. In +the later Middle Ages, above all in that fifteenth century which literary +historians are fond of describing as the darkest period in English literature, +the working man had won for himself what seemed a secure place in poetry. +Narrative, lyric and dramatic poetry had all opened their portals to him, and +made his life and aims their theme. Side by side with the courtly verse +romances, which were read in the bowers of highborn ladies, were the terse and +popular ballads, which were chanted by minstrels, wandering from town to town +and from village to village. Among the heroes of these ballads we find that +“wight yeoman,” Robin Hood, who wages war against mediaeval +capitalism, as embodied in the persons of the abbot-landholders, and against +the class legislation of Norman game laws which is enforced by the King’s +sheriff. The lyric poetry of the century is not the courtly Troubadour song or +the Petrarchian sonnet, but the folk-song that sings from the heart to the +heart of the beauty of Alysoun, “seemliest of all things,” or, in +more convivial mood, accounts good ale of more worth than a table set with many +dishes: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Bring us in no capon’s flesh, for that is often dear,<br/> +Nor bring us in no duck’s flesh, for they slobber in the mere,<br/> +But bring us in good ale!<br/> +Bring us in good ale, and bring us in good ale;<br/> +For our blessed Lady sake bring us in good ale. +</p> + +<p> +Most remarkable of all is the history of the drama in the fourteenth and +fifteenth centuries. The drama was clerical and not popular in its origin, and +when, in course of time, it passed out of the hands of the clergy it is natural +to suppose that it would find a new home at the King’s court or the +baron’s castle. It did nothing of the kind. It passed from the Church to +the people, and it was the artisan craftsmen of the English towns, organised in +their trade-guilds, to whom we owe the great cycles of our miracle plays. The +authors of these plays were restricted to Bible story for their themes, but the +popular character of their work is everywhere apparent in the manner in which +the material is handled and the characters conceived. The Noah of the Deluge +plays is an English master joiner with a shrewish wife, and three sons who are +his apprentices. When the divine command to build an ark comes to him, he sets +to work with an energy that drives away “the weariness of five hundred +winters” and, “ligging on his line,” measures his planks, +“clenches them with noble new nails”, and takes a craftsman’s +delight in the finished work: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +This work I warant both good and true.<a href="#fn-4" name="fnref-4" id="fnref-4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p> +In like manner, the Shepherds of the Nativity plays are conceived and fashioned +by men who, fortunate in that they knew nothing of the seductions of Arcadian +pastoralism, have studied at first hand the habits and thoughts of English +fifteenth-century shepherds, and paint these to the life. +</p> + +<p> +Thus, at the close of the Middle Ages, narrative, lyric and dramatic poetry +seemed firmly established among the people. Not unmindful of romance, it was +grounded in realism and sought to interpret the life of the peasant and the +artisan of fifteenth-century England. The Renaissance follows, and a profound +change comes over poetry. The popular note grows fainter and fainter, till at +last it becomes inaudible. Poetry leaves the farmyard and the craftsman’s +bench for the court. The folk-song, fashioned in to a thing of wondrous beauty +by the creator of Amiens, Feste and Autolycus, is driven from the stage by Ben +Jonson, and its place is taken by a lyric of classic extraction. The popular +drama, ennobled and made shapely through contact with Latin drama, passes from +the provincial market-place to Bankside, and the rude mechanicals of the +trade-guilds yield place to the Lord Chamberlain’s players. In the dramas +of Shakespeare the popular note is still audible, but only as an undertone, +furnishing comic relief to the romantic amours of courtly lovers or the tragic +fall of Princes; with Beaumont and Fletcher, and still more with Dryden and the +Restoration dramatists, the popular element in the drama passes away, and the +triumph of the court is complete. The Elizabethan court could find no use for +the popular ballad, but, like other forms of literature, it was attracted from +the country-side to the city. Forgetful of the greenwood, it now battened on +the garbage of Newgate, and <i>Robin Hood and Guy of Gisburn</i> yields place +to <i>The Wofull Lamentation of William Purchas, who for murthering his Mother +at Thaxted, was executed at Chelmsford</i>. +</p> + +<p> +We are justly proud of the Renaissance and of the glories of our Elizabethan +literature, but let us frankly own that in the annals of poetry there was loss +as well as gain. The gain was for the courtier and the scholar, and for all +those who, in the centuries that followed the Renaissance, have been able, by +means of education, to enter into the courtier’s and scholar’s +inheritance. The loss has been for the people. The opposition between courtly +taste and popular taste is hard to analyse, but we have only to turn our eyes +from England to Scotland, which lost its royal court in 1603, in order to +appreciate the reality of the opposition. In Scotland the courtly poetry of the +fifteenth and sixteenth centuries soon disappeared when James I exchanged +Holyrood for Whitehall, but popular poetry continued to live and grow. The +folk-song gathered power and sweetness all through the seventeenth and +eighteenth centuries, till it culminated at last in the lyric of Burns. Popular +drama, never firmly rooted in Scotland, was stamped out by the Reformation, but +the popular ballad outlived the mediaeval minstrel, was kept alive in the homes +of Lowland farmers and shepherds, and called into being the great ballad +revival of the nineteenth century. +</p> + +<p> +It is idle to speculate what would have been the progress of poetry in England +if the Renaissance had not come and the Elizabethan courtier had not enriched +himself at the expense of the people. What we have to bear in mind is that all +through the centuries that followed the Renaissance the working men and women +of England looked almost in vain to their poets for a faithful interpretation +of their life and aims. The wonder is that the instinct for poetry did not +perish in their hearts for lack of sustenance. +</p> + +<p> +There are at the present time clear signs of a revival of popular poetry and +popular drama. The verse tales of Masefield and Gibson, the lyrics of Patrick +MacGill, the peasant or artisan plays which have been produced at the Abbey +Theatre, Dublin, and the Gaiety Theatre, Manchester, may well be the beginning +of a great democratic literary movement. Democracy, in its striving after a +richer and fuller life for the people of England, is at last turning its +attention to literature and art. It is slowly realising two great truths. The +first is that literature may be used as a mighty weapon in the furtherance of +political justice and social reform, and that the pied pipers of folk-song have +the power to rouse the nation and charm the ears of even the Mother of +Parliaments. The second is that the working man needs something more to sustain +him than bread and the franchise and a fair day’s wage for a fair +day’s work. Democracy, having obtained for the working man a place in the +government of the nation, is now asserting his claim to a place in the temples +of poetry. The Arthurian knight, the Renaissance courtier, the scholar and the +wit must admit the twentieth-century artisan to their circle. Piers the +ploughman must once more become the hero of song, and Saul Kane, the poacher, +must find a place, alongside of Tiresias and Merlin, among the seers and +mystics. Let democracy look to William Morris, poet, artist and social +democrat, for inspiration and guidance, and take to heart the message of +prophecy which he has left us: “If art, which is now sick, is to live and +not die, it must in the future be of the people, for the people, by the +people.” +</p> + +<p> +In the creation of this poetry “of the people, by the people” +dialect may well be called upon to play a part. Dialect is of the people, +though in a varying degree in the different parts of the wide areas of the +globe where the English language is spoken; it possesses, moreover, qualities, +and is fraught with associations, which are of the utmost value to the poet and +to which the standard speech can lay no claim. It may be that for some of the +more elaborate kinds of poetry, such as the formal epic, dialect is useless; +let it be reserved, therefore, for those kinds which appeal most directly to +the hearts of the people. The poetry of the people includes the ballad and the +verse tale, lyric in all its forms, and some kinds of satire; and for all these +dialect is a fitting instrument. It possesses in the highest degree directness +of utterance and racy vigour. How much of their force would the “Biglow +Papers” of J. R. Lowell lose if they were transcribed from the Yankee +dialect into standard English! +</p> + +<p> +But the highest quality of dialect speech, and that which renders it +pre-eminently fitted for poetic use, is its intimate association with all that +lies nearest to the heart of the working man. It is the language of his hearth +and home; many of the most cherished memories of his life are bound up with it; +it is for him the language of freedom, whereas standard English is that of +constraint. In other words, dialect is the working man’s poetic +diction—a poetic diction as full of savour as that of the +eighteenth-century poets was flat and insipid. +</p> + +<p> +It is sometimes said that the use of dialect makes the appeal of poetry +provincial instead of national or universal. This is only true when the dialect +poet is a pedant and obscures his meaning by fantastic spellings. The Lowland +Scots element in <i>Auld Lang Syne</i> has not prevented it from becoming the +song of friendship of the Anglo-Saxon race all the world over. Moreover, the +provincial note in poetry or prose is far from being a bad thing. In the +<i>Idylls</i> of Theocritus it gave new life to Greek poetry in the third +century before Christ, and it may render the same high service to English +poetry to-day or to-morow. The rise of Provincial schools of literature, +interpreting local life in local idiom, in all parts of the British Isles and +in the Britain beyond the seas, is a goal worth striving for; such a +literature, so far from impeding the progress of the literature in the standard +tongue, would serve only to enrich it in spirit, substance and form. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-1" id="fn-1"></a> <a href="#fnref-1">[1]</a> +<i>Yorkshire Dialect Poems</i>, 1673-1915 (Sedgwick and Jackson 1916) +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-2" id="fn-2"></a> <a href="#fnref-2">[2]</a> +<i>Reminiscences.</i> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-3" id="fn-3"></a> <a href="#fnref-3">[3]</a> +J. Dover Wilson, Writing in the <i>Athenæum</i> under the pseudonym +“Muezzin,” February, 1917. The quotation is from one of four +articles, entitled “Prospects in English Literature,” to which the +ideas set forth in this Preface owe much. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-4" id="fn-4"></a> <a href="#fnref-4">[4]</a> +“York Plays”: <i>The Building of the Ark</i>. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap01"></a>A Dalesman’s Litany</h2> + +<p class="letter"> +From Hull, Halifax, and Hell, good Lord deliver us.<br/> + <i>A Yorkshire Proverb</i>. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +It’s hard when fowks can’t finnd their wark<br/> + Wheer they’ve bin bred an’ born;<br/> +When I were young I awlus thowt<br/> + I’d bide ’mong t’ roots an’ corn.<br/> +But I’ve bin forced to work i’ towns,<br/> + So here’s my litany:<br/> +Frae Hull, an’ Halifax, an’ Hell,<br/> + Gooid Lord, deliver me!<br/> +<br/> +When I were courtin’ Mary Ann,<br/> + T’ owd squire, he says one day:<br/> +“I’ve got no bield<a href="#fn-5" name="fnref-5" id="fnref-5"><sup>[1]</sup></a> for wedded fowks;<br/> + Choose, wilt ta wed or stay?”<br/> +I couldn’t gie up t’ lass I loved,<br/> + To t’ town we had to flee:<br/> +Frae Hull, an’ Halifax, an’ Hell,<br/> + Gooid Lord, deliver me!<br/> +<br/> +I’ve wrowt i’ Leeds an’ Huthersfel’,<br/> + An’ addled<a href="#fn-6" name="fnref-6" id="fnref-6"><sup>[2]</sup></a> honest brass;<br/> +I’ Bradforth, Keighley, Rotherham,<br/> + I’ve kept my barns an’ lass.<br/> +I’ve travelled all three Ridin’s round,<br/> + And once I went to sea:<br/> +Frae forges, mills, an’ coalin’ boats,<br/> + Gooid Lord, deliver me!<br/> +<br/> +I’ve walked at neet through Sheffield loans,<a href="#fn-7" name="fnref-7" id="fnref-7"><sup>[3]</sup></a><br/> + ’T were same as bein’ i’ Hell:<br/> +Furnaces thrast out tongues o’ fire,<br/> + An’ roared like t’ wind on t’ fell.<br/> +I’ve sammed up coals i’ Barnsley pits,<br/> + Wi’ muck up to my knee:<br/> +Frae Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham,<br/> + Gooid Lord, deliver me!<br/> +<br/> +I’ve seen grey fog creep ower Leeds Brig<br/> + As thick as bastile<a href="#fn-8" name="fnref-8" id="fnref-8"><sup>[4]</sup></a> soup;<br/> +I’ve lived wheer fowks were stowed away<br/> + Like rabbits in a coop.<br/> +I’ve watched snow float down Bradforth Beck<br/> + As black as ebiny:<br/> +Frae Hunslet, Holbeck, Wibsey Slack,<br/> + Gooid Lord, deliver me!<br/> +<br/> +But now, when all wer childer’s fligged,<a href="#fn-9" name="fnref-9" id="fnref-9"><sup>[5]</sup></a><br/> + To t’ coontry we’ve coom back.<br/> +There’s fotty mile o’ heathery moor<br/> + Twix’ us an’ t’ coal-pit slack.<br/> +And when I sit ower t’ fire at neet,<br/> + I laugh an’ shout wi’ glee:<br/> +Frae Bradforth, Leeds, an Huthersfel’,<br/> +Frae Hull, an’ Halifax, an’ Hell,<br/> + T’ gooid Lord’s delivered me! +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-5" id="fn-5"></a> <a href="#fnref-5">[1]</a> +Shelter. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-6" id="fn-6"></a> <a href="#fnref-6">[2]</a> +Earned. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-7" id="fn-7"></a> <a href="#fnref-7">[3]</a> +Lanes. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-8" id="fn-8"></a> <a href="#fnref-8">[4]</a> +Workhouse. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-9" id="fn-9"></a> <a href="#fnref-9">[5]</a> +Fledged. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap02"></a>Cambodunum</h2> + +<p class="center"> +Cambodunum is the name of a Roman station, situated on a farm at Slack, on the +hills above Huddersfield. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Cambodunum, Cambodunum,<br/> + how I love the sound o’ t’ name!<br/> +Roman sowdiers belt a fort here,<br/> + gave th’ owd place its lastin’ fame.<br/> +<br/> +We’ve bin lords o’ Cambodunum<br/> + for well-nigh eight hunderd yeer;<br/> +Fowk say our fore-elders<br/> + bowt it of a Roman charioteer.<br/> +<br/> +Ay, I know we’re nobbut farmers,<br/> + mowin’ gerse an’ tentin’ kye,<br/> +But we’re proud of all we’ve stood for<br/> + i’ yon ages that’s gone by;<br/> +<br/> +Proud of all the slacks we’ve drained,<br/> + an’ proud of all the walls we’ve belt,<br/> +Proud to think we’ve bred our childer<br/> + on the ground wheer Romans dwelt.<br/> +<br/> +“Niver pairt wi’ Cambodunum,”<br/> + that’s what father used to say;<br/> +“If thou does, thou’ll coom to ruin,<br/> + beg thy breead thro’ day to day.”<br/> +<br/> +I’ll noan pairt wi’ Cambodunum,<br/> + though its roof lets in the rains,<br/> +An’ its walls wi’ age are totterin’;<br/> + Cambodunum’s i’ my veins.<br/> +<br/> +Ivery stone about the buildin’<br/> + has bin dressed by Roman hands,<br/> +An’ red blooid o’ Roman sowdiers<br/> + has bin temmed<a href="#fn-10" name="fnref-10" id="fnref-10"><sup>[1]</sup></a> out on its lands.<br/> +<br/> +Often, when I ploo i’ springtime,<br/> + I leet on their buried hoard—<br/> +Coins an’ pottery, combs an’ glasses;<br/> + once I fan’ a rusty sword.<br/> +<br/> +Whisht! I’ll tell thee what I saw here<br/> + of a moon-lit winter neet—<br/> +Ghosts o’ Romans i’ their war-gear,<br/> + wheelin’ slow wi’ silent feet;<br/> +<br/> +Pale their faces, proud their bearin’,<br/> + an’ a strange gloor i’ their een,<br/> +As they marched past an’ saluted,<br/> + while th’ east wind blew snell an’ keen.<br/> +<br/> +Dalewards, dalewards, iver dalewards,<br/> + th’ hill-fowk wander yeer by yeer,<br/> +An’ they toss their heeads an’ flout me,<br/> + when they see me bidin’ here.<br/> +<br/> +I’ve one answer to their fleerin’:<br/> + “I’ll noan be a fact’ry slave,<br/> +Breathin’ poison i’ yon wark-shops,<br/> + diggin’ ivery day my grave.”<br/> +<br/> +“You may addle brass i’ plenty,<br/> + you’ll noan addle peace o’ mind;<br/> +That sal bide amang us farmers<br/> + on th’ owd hills you’ve left behind.”<br/> +<br/> +See that place down theer i’ t’ valley,<br/> + wheer yon chimleys spit out smoke?<br/> +Huthersfield is what they call it,<br/> + wheer fowk live like pigs i’ t’ poke;<br/> +<br/> +Wheer men grind their hearts to guineas,<br/> + an’ their mills are awlus thrang,<br/> +Turnin’ neet-time into day-time,<br/> + niver stoppin’ th’ whole yeer lang.<br/> +<br/> +Cambodunum up on th’ hill-tops,<br/> + Huthersfield down i’ yon dale;<br/> +One’s a place for free-born Britons,<br/> + t’other’s ommost like a jail.<br/> +<br/> +Here we live i’ t’ leet an’ sunshine,<br/> + free as larks i’ t’ sky aboon;<br/> +Theer men tew<a href="#fn-11" name="fnref-11" id="fnref-11"><sup>[2]</sup></a> like mowdiwarps<a href="#fn-12" name="fnref-12" id="fnref-12"><sup>[3]</sup></a><br/> + that grub up muck by t’ glent o’ t’ moon.<br/> +<br/> +See yon motor whizzin’ past us,<br/> + ower th’ owd brig that spans our beck;<br/> +That’s what fowk call modern progress,<br/> + march o’ human intelleck.<br/> +<br/> +Modern progress, modern ruin!<br/> + March o’ int’leck, march o’ fooils!<br/> +All that cooms o’ larnin’ childer<br/> + i’ their colleges an’ schooils.<br/> +<br/> +Eddication! Sanitation!!—<br/> + teeming brass reight down a sink;<br/> +Eddication’s nowt but muckment,<br/> + sanitation’s just a stink.<br/> +<br/> +Childer mun have books an’ picturs,<br/> + bowt at t’ most expensive shops,<br/> +Teliscowps to go star-gazin’,<br/> + michaelscowps to look at lops.<a href="#fn-13" name="fnref-13" id="fnref-13"><sup>[4]</sup></a><br/> +<br/> +Farmers munnot put their midden<br/> + straight afoor their kitchen door;<br/> +Once a week they’re set spring-cleanin’,<br/> + fettlin’ up their shippen<a href="#fn-14" name="fnref-14" id="fnref-14"><sup>[5]</sup></a> floor.<br/> +<br/> +Women-fowk have taen to knackin’,<a href="#fn-15" name="fnref-15" id="fnref-15"><sup>[6]</sup></a><br/> + wilent speyk their mother-tongue,<br/> +Try to talk like chaps i’ t’ powpit,<br/> + chicken-chisted, wake i’ t’ lung.<br/> +<br/> +Some fowk say I’m too owd-feshioned;<br/> + mebbe, they are tellin’ true:<br/> +When you’ve lived wi’ ghosts o’ Romans,<br/> + you’ve no call for owt that’s new.<br/> +<br/> +Weel I know I san’t win t’ vict’ry:<br/> + son’s agean me, dowters, wife;<br/> +Yit I’ll hold my ground bout flinchin’,<br/> + feight so long as I have life.<br/> +<br/> +An’ if t’ wick uns are agean me,<br/> + I sal feight for them that’s deead—<br/> +Roman sowdiers i’ their trenches,<br/> + lapped i’ mail thro’ foot to heead.<br/> +<br/> +Here I stand for Cambodunum,<br/> + eagle’s nest on t’ Pennine hills,<br/> +Wagin’ war wi’ modern notions,<br/> + carin’ nowt for forges, mills.<br/> +<br/> +Deeath alone sal call surrender,<br/> + stealin’ on me wi’ his hosts,<br/> +And when Deeath has won his battle,<br/> + I’ll go seek my Roman ghosts.<br/> +<br/> +Then I’ll hear their shout o’ welcome<br/> + “Here cooms Bob ’o Dick ’o Joe’s,<br/> +Bred an’ born at Cambodunum,<br/> + held th’owd fort agean his foes;<br/> +<br/> +“Fowt for ancient ways an’ customs,<br/> + ne’er to feshion bent his knee;<br/> +Oppen t’ ranks, lads, let him enter;<br/> + he’s a Roman same as we.”<br/> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10" id="fn-10"></a> <a href="#fnref-10">[1]</a> +Poured. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-11" id="fn-11"></a> <a href="#fnref-11">[2]</a> +Slave. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-12" id="fn-12"></a> <a href="#fnref-12">[3]</a> +Moles. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-13" id="fn-13"></a> <a href="#fnref-13">[4]</a> +Fleas. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-14" id="fn-14"></a> <a href="#fnref-14">[5]</a> +Cow-house. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-15" id="fn-15"></a> <a href="#fnref-15">[6]</a> +Affected pronunciation. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap03"></a>Telling the Bees</h2> + +<p class="letter"> +On many Yorkshire farms it was—perhaps still is—the custom to tell +the bees when a death had taken place in the family. The hive had to be put +into mourning, and when the arval, or funeral feast, was held, after the return +from the grave, small portions of everything eaten or drunk had to be given to +the bees in a saucer. Failure to do this meant either the death or departure of +the bees. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Whisht! laatle bees, sad tidings I bear,<br/> + Bees, bees, murmurin’ low ;<br/> +Cauld i’ his grave ligs your maister dear,<br/> + Bees, bees, murmurin’ low.<br/> +Nea mair he’ll ride to t’ soond o’ t’ horn,<br/> +Nea mair he’ll fettle his sickle for t’ corn.<br/> +Nea mair he’ll coom to your skep of a morn,<br/> + Bees, bees, murmurin’ low.<br/> +<br/> +Muther sits cryin’ i’ t’ ingle nook,<br/> + Bees, bees, murmurin’ low ;<br/> +Parson’s anent her wi’ t’ Holy Book,<br/> + Bees, bees, murmurin’ low.<br/> +T’ mourners are coom, an’ t’ arval is spread,<br/> +Cakes fresh frae t’ yoon,<a href="#fn-16" name="fnref-16" id="fnref-16"><sup>[1]</sup></a> an’ fine havver-bread.<br/> +But toom’<a href="#fn-17" name="fnref-17" id="fnref-17"><sup>[2]</sup></a> is t’ seat at t’ table-head,<br/> + Bees, bees, murmurin’ low.<br/> +<br/> +Look, conny<a href="#fn-18" name="fnref-18" id="fnref-18"><sup>[3]</sup></a> bees, I’s winndin’ black crape,<br/> + Bees, bees, murmurin’ low ;<br/> +Slowly an’ sadly your skep I mun drape,<br/> + Bees, bees, murmurin’ low.<br/> +Else you will sicken an’ dwine<a href="#fn-19" name="fnref-19" id="fnref-19"><sup>[4]</sup></a> reet away,<br/> +Heart-brokken bees, now your maister is clay ;<br/> +Or, mebbe, you’l leave us wi’ t’ dawn o’ t’ +day,<br/> + Bees, bees, murmurin’ low.<br/> +<br/> +Sitha ! I bring you your share o’ our feast,<br/> + Bees, bees, murmurin’ low;<br/> +Cakes an’ yal<a href="#fn-20" name="fnref-20" id="fnref-20"><sup>[5]</sup></a> an’ wine you mun taste,<br/> + Bees, bees, murmurin’ low.<br/> +Gie some to t’ queen on her gowlden throne,<br/> +There’s foison to feed both worker an’ drone ;<br/> +Oh ! dean’t let us fend for oursels alone ;<br/> + Bees, bees, murmurin’ low.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-16" id="fn-16"></a> <a href="#fnref-16">[1]</a> +Oven. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-17" id="fn-17"></a> <a href="#fnref-17">[2]</a> +Empty. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-18" id="fn-18"></a> <a href="#fnref-18">[3]</a> +Darling. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-19" id="fn-19"></a> <a href="#fnref-19">[4]</a> +Waste. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-20" id="fn-20"></a> <a href="#fnref-20">[5]</a> +Ale. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap04"></a>The Two Lamplighters</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +I niver thowt when I grew owd<br/> + I’d tak to leetin’ lamps;<br/> +I sud have said, I’d rayther pad<br/> + My hoof on t’ road wi’ tramps.<br/> +But sin I gate that skelp<a href="#fn-21" name="fnref-21" id="fnref-21"><sup>[1]</sup></a> i’ t’ mine,<br/> + I’m wankle<a href="#fn-22" name="fnref-22" id="fnref-22"><sup>[2]</sup></a> i’ my heead;<br/> +So gaffer said, I’d give ower wark<br/> + An’ leet town lamps atsteead.<br/> +<br/> +At first, when I were liggin’ snug<br/> + I’ bed, warm as a bee,<br/> +’T were hard to rise and get agate<br/> + As sooin as t’ clock strake three.<br/> +An’ I were flaid to hear my steps<br/> + Echoin’ on ivery wall;<br/> +An’ flaider yet when down by t’ church<br/> + Ullets would skreek and call.<br/> +<br/> +But now I’m flaid o’ nowt; I love<br/> + All unkerd<a href="#fn-23" name="fnref-23" id="fnref-23"><sup>[3]</sup></a> sounds o’ t’ neet,<br/> +Frae childer talkin’ i’ their dreams<br/> + To t’ tramp o’ p’licemen’ feet.<br/> +But most of all I love to hark<br/> + To t’ song o’ t’ birds at dawn;<br/> +They wakken up afore it gloams,<br/> + When t’ dew ligs thick on t’ lawn.<br/> +<br/> +If I feel lonesome, up I look<br/> + To t’ sky aboon my heead;<br/> +An’ theer’s yon stars all glestrin’ breet,<br/> + Like daisies in a mead.<br/> +But sometimes, when I’m glowerin’ up,<br/> + I see the Lord hissen;<br/> +He’s doutin’ all yon lamps o’ Heaven<br/> + That shines on mortal men.<br/> +<br/> +He lowps alang frae star to star,<br/> + As cobby<a href="#fn-24" name="fnref-24" id="fnref-24"><sup>[4]</sup></a> as can be;<br/> +Mebbe He reckons fowk’s asleep,<br/> + Wi’ niver an eye to see.<br/> +But I hae catched Him at his wark,<br/> + For all He maks no din;<br/> +He leaves a track o’ powder’d gowd<a href="#fn-25" name="fnref-25" id="fnref-25"><sup>[5]</sup></a><br/> + To show where He has bin.<br/> +<br/> +He’s got big lamps an’ laatle lamps,<br/> + An’ lamps that twinkles red;<br/> +Im capped to see Him dout ’em all<br/> + Afore I’m back i’ bed.<br/> +But He don’t laik about His wark,<br/> + Or stop to hark to t’ birds;<br/> +He minds His business, does the Lord,<br/> + An’ wastes no gaumless words.<br/> +<br/> +I grow more like Him ivery day,<br/> + For all I walk so lame;<br/> +An’, happen, there will coom a time<br/> + I’ll beat Him at His game.<br/> +Thrang as Throp’s wife, I’ll dout my lamps<br/> + Afore He’s gotten so far;<br/> +An’ then I’ll shout—“I’ve won my race,<br/> + I’ve bet Him by a star.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-21" id="fn-21"></a> <a href="#fnref-21">[1]</a> +Blow. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-22" id="fn-22"></a> <a href="#fnref-22">[2]</a> +Unsteady. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-23" id="fn-23"></a> <a href="#fnref-23">[3]</a> +Strange, eerie. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-24" id="fn-24"></a> <a href="#fnref-24">[4]</a> +Active. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-25" id="fn-25"></a> <a href="#fnref-25">[5]</a> +The Milky Way. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap05"></a>Our Beck</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +I niver heerd its name; we call it just “Our beck.”<br/> + Mebbe, there’s bigger streams down Ripon way;<br/> +But if thou wants clean watter, by my neck!<br/> + Thou’ll travel far for cleaner, ony day.<br/> +<br/> +Clear watter! Why, when t’ sun is up i’ t’ sky,<br/> + I’ve seen yon flickerin’ shadows o’ lile trout<br/> +Glidin’ ower t’ shingly boddom. Step thou nigh,<br/> + An’ gloor at t’ minnows dartin’ in an’ out.<br/> +<br/> +Our beck flows straight frae slacks o’ moorland peat,<br/> + An’ gethers sweetness out o’ t’ ling an’ +gorse;<br/> +At first its voice sounds weantly<a href="#fn-26" name="fnref-26" id="fnref-26"><sup>[1]</sup></a> saft an’ leet,<br/> + But graws i’ strength wi’ lowpin ower yon force.<br/> +<br/> +Then thou sud see the birds alang its banks—<br/> + Grey heronsews, that coom to fish at dawn;<br/> +Dippers, that under t’ watter play sike pranks,<br/> + An’ lang-nebbed curlews, swaimish<a href="#fn-27" name="fnref-27" id="fnref-27"><sup>[2]</sup></a> as a fawn.<br/> +<br/> +Soomtimes I’ve seen young otters leave their holes,<br/> + An’ laik like kitlins ower the silver dew;<br/> +An’ I’ve watched squirrels climmin’ up the boles<br/> + O’ beech trees, lowpin’ leet frae beugh to beugh.<br/> +<br/> +Fowers! Why, thou’d fill thy skep,<a href="#fn-28" name="fnref-28" id="fnref-28"><sup>[3]</sup></a> lass, in an hour,<br/> + Wi’ gowlands, paigles, blobs,<a href="#fn-29" name="fnref-29" id="fnref-29"><sup>[4]</sup></a> an’ sike-like things;<br/> +We’ve daffydills to deck a bridal bower,<br/> + Pansies, wheer lady-cows<a href="#fn-30" name="fnref-30" id="fnref-30"><sup>[5]</sup></a> can dry their wings.<br/> +<br/> +Young childer often bathe, when t’weather’s fine,<br/> + Up yonder, wheer t’ owd miller’s bigged his weir;<br/> +I like to see their lish,<a href="#fn-31" name="fnref-31" id="fnref-31"><sup>[6]</sup></a> nakt bodies shine,<br/> + An’ watch ’em dive i’ t’ watter widoot fear.<br/> +<br/> +Ay, yon’s our brig, bent like an archer’s bow,<br/> + It’s t’ meetin’ place o’ folk frae near an’ +far;<br/> +Young ’uns coom theer wi’ lasses laughin’ low,<br/> + Owd ’uns to talk o’ politics an’ t’ war.<br/> +<br/> +It’s daft when chaps that sit i’ Parliament<br/> + Weant tak advice frae lads that talk farm-twang;<br/> +If t’ coontry goes to t’ dogs, it’s ’cause +they’ve sent<br/> + Ower mony city folk to mend what’s wrang.<br/> +<br/> +They’ve taen our day-tale men<a href="#fn-32" name="fnref-32" id="fnref-32"><sup>[7]</sup></a> to feight for t’ land,<br/> + Then tell us we mun keep our staggarths<a href="#fn-33" name="fnref-33" id="fnref-33"><sup>[8]</sup></a> full.<br/> +What’s lasses, gauvies,<a href="#fn-34" name="fnref-34" id="fnref-34"><sup>[9]</sup></a> greybeards stark<a href="#fn-35" name="fnref-35" id="fnref-35"><sup>[10]</sup></a> i’ t’ +hand,<br/> + To strip wer kye, an’ ploo, an’ tew wi’ t’ +shool?<a href="#fn-36" name="fnref-36" id="fnref-36"><sup>[11]</sup></a><br/> +<br/> +But theer, I’ll nurse my threapin’ while it rains,<br/> + An’ while my rheumatiz is bad to bide;<br/> +I mun step heamwards now, through t’ yatts<a href="#fn-37" name="fnref-37" id="fnref-37"><sup>[12]</sup></a> an’ lanes,<br/> + Wheer t’ owd lass waits for me by t’ fireside.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-26" id="fn-26"></a> <a href="#fnref-26">[1]</a> +Strangely. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-27" id="fn-27"></a> <a href="#fnref-27">[2]</a> +Timid. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-28" id="fn-28"></a> <a href="#fnref-28">[3]</a> +Basket. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-29" id="fn-29"></a> <a href="#fnref-29">[4]</a> +Kingcups, cowslips, globe-flowers. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-30" id="fn-30"></a> <a href="#fnref-30">[5]</a> +Ladybirds. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-31" id="fn-31"></a> <a href="#fnref-31">[6]</a> +Smooth. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-32" id="fn-32"></a> <a href="#fnref-32">[7]</a> +Day Labourers. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-33" id="fn-33"></a> <a href="#fnref-33">[8]</a> +Stock Yards. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-34" id="fn-34"></a> <a href="#fnref-34">[9]</a> +Simpletons. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-35" id="fn-35"></a> <a href="#fnref-35">[10]</a> +Stiff. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-36" id="fn-36"></a> <a href="#fnref-36">[11]</a> +Shovel. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-37" id="fn-37"></a> <a href="#fnref-37">[12]</a> +Gates. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap06"></a>Lord George</h2> + +<p class="letter"> +These verses were written soon after the Old Age Pensions Bill came into +operation. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I’d walk frae here to Skipton,<br/> + Ten mile o’ clarty<a href="#fn-38" name="fnref-38" id="fnref-38"><sup>[1]</sup></a> lanes,<br/> +If I might see him face to face<br/> + An’ thank him for his pains.<br/> +He’s ta’en me out o’ t’ Bastile,<a href="#fn-39" name="fnref-39" id="fnref-39"><sup>[2]</sup></a><br/> + He’s gi’en me life that’s free:<br/> +Five shill’n a week for fuglin’<a href="#fn-40" name="fnref-40" id="fnref-40"><sup>[3]</sup></a> Death<br/> + Is what Lord George gives me.<br/> +<br/> +He gives me leet an’ firin’,<br/> + An’ flour to bak i’ t’ yoon.<a href="#fn-41" name="fnref-41" id="fnref-41"><sup>[4]</sup></a><br/> +I’ve tea to mesh for ivery meal<br/> + An’ sup all t’ afternoon.<br/> +I’ve nowt to do but thank him,<br/> + An’ mak’ a cross wi’ t’ pen;<br/> +Five shillin’ a week for nobbut that!<br/> + Gow! he’s the jewel o’ men.<br/> +<br/> +I niver mell on pol’tics,<br/> + But I do love a lord;<br/> +He spends his savin’s like a king,<br/> + Wheer other fowks ’ll hoard.<br/> +I know a vast o’ widdies<br/> + That’s seen their seventieth year;<br/> +Lord George, he addles brass for all,<br/> + Though lots on ’t goes for beer.<br/> +<br/> +If my owd man were livin’,<br/> + He’d say as I spak true;<br/> +He couldn’t thole them yallow Rads,<br/> + But awlus voted blue.<br/> +An’ parson’s wife, shoo telled me<br/> + That we’ll sooin go to t’ poll;<br/> +I hope shoo’s reight; I’ll vote for George,<br/> + Wi’ all my heart an’ soul.<br/> +<br/> +I don’t know wheer he springs frae,<br/> + Happen it’s down Leeds way;<br/> +But ivery neet an’ mornin’<br/> + For his lang life I pray.<br/> +He’s ta’en me out o’ t’ Bastile,<br/> + He’s gi’en me life that’s free:<br/> +Five shill’n a week for fuglin’ Death<br/> + Is what Lord George gives me. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-38" id="fn-38"></a> <a href="#fnref-38">[1]</a> +Muddy. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-39" id="fn-39"></a> <a href="#fnref-39">[2]</a> +Workhouse. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-40" id="fn-40"></a> <a href="#fnref-40">[3]</a> +Cheating. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-41" id="fn-41"></a> <a href="#fnref-41">[4]</a> +Oven. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap07"></a>Jenny Storm</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +Young Jenny, she walked ower t’ ribbed sea-sand,<br/> + (T’ lairocks sing sae sweetly, O!)<br/> +Wheer she met a fisher-lad, net i’ t’ hand,<br/> + As t’ tide cam hoamin’<a href="#fn-42" name="fnref-42" id="fnref-42"><sup>[1]</sup></a> in.<br /> +<br /> +“Jenny, thy farm is twee mile away;<br/> + (T’ wing-mouse flits sae featly, O!)<br/> +Say, what is thou latin’<a href="#fn-43" name="fnref-43" id="fnref-43"><sup>[2]</sup></a> at dusk ’o day,<br/> + When t’ tide cooms hoamin’ in.”<br /> +<br /> +“I’s latin’ waif an’ straif<a href="#fn-44" name="fnref-44" id="fnref-44"><sup>[3]</sup></a> by the feam,<br/> + (O! esh an’ yak are good for bield)<br/> +I’s latin’ timmer to big me a heam,<br/> + As t’ tide cooms hoamin’ in.”<br /> +<br /> +“What for is thou latin’ waif an’ straif?<br/> + (T’ summer-gauze<a href="#fn-45" name="fnref-45" id="fnref-45"><sup>[4]</sup></a> floats ower hedge an’ field)<br/> +What for is thou biggin’ a heam an’ a hafe,<a href="#fn-46" name="fnref-46" id="fnref-46"><sup>[5]</sup></a><br/> + When t’ tide cooms hoamin’ in?”<br /> +<br /> +“To-morn is t’ day when I sal be wed,<br/> + (T’ bride-wain’s plenished wi’ serge an’ silk)<br/> +Jock’s anchored his boat i’ t’ lang road-stead,<br/> + An’ t’ tide cooms hoamin’ in.<br /> +<br /> +To-morn we gan to t’ kirk on t’ brow,<br/> + (Nesh satin shoon as white as milk)<br/> +Fisher-folk wi’ me, an’ ploo-lads enow,<br/> + When t’ tide cooms hoamin’ in.”<br /> +<br /> +“Frae thy jilted lad what gift mun thou get?<br/> + (T’ lairocks sing sae sweetly, O!))<br/> +Twee lucky-steanes, or fine ear-rings o’ jet,<br/> + When t’ tide cooms hoamin’ in?”<br /> +<br /> +“I’ll tak nayther rings nor steanes frae thee,<br/> + (T’ wing-mouse flits sae featly, O!)<br/> +But yon token I gave thee gie back to me,<br/> + Noo t’ tide cooms hoamin’ in.”<br/><br /> +<br /> +“Thy token is safe i’ t’ Boggle Nook<br/> + (T’ sea-mew plains when t’ sun clims doon)<br/> +Thou can finnd it thisel, if thou’ll gan an’ look,<br/> + When t’ tide cooms hoamin’ in.”<br /> +<br /> +Young Jenny, she tripped ower t’ yallow strand,<br/> + (White ullets<a href="#fn-47" name="fnref-47" id="fnref-47"><sup>[6]</sup></a> dance i’ t’ glent o’ t’ moon)<br/> +Her step was ower leet to dimple t’ sand,<br/> + As t’ tide cam hoamin’ in.<br /> +<br /> +I’ t’ Boggle Nook lay t’ lad she sud wed;<br/> + T’ neet-hags skreek sae dowly, O!)<br/> +Foul sea-weed cluthered<a href="#fn-48" name="fnref-48" id="fnref-48"><sup>[7]</sup></a> aboon his head,<br/> + An’ t’ mouth she had kissed wi’ blood was red,<br/> +As t’ tide cam hoamin’ in.<br /> +<br /> +Nea tear she shed, nea word she spak,<br/> + (T’ witches gloor sae foully, O!)<br/> +But an awfish<a href="#fn-49" name="fnref-49" id="fnref-49"><sup>[8]</sup></a> laugh flew ower t’ sea-wrack,<a href="#fn-50" name="fnref-50" id="fnref-50"><sup>[9]</sup></a><br/> + As t’ tide cam hoamin’ in.<br /> +<br /> +They carried them heam by t’ leet o’ t’ moon,<br/> + (T’ neet-hags skreek sae dowly, O!)<br/> +Him to his grave on t’ brow aboon,<br/> +Her to yon mad-house i’ Scarbro’ toon,<br/> + Wheer t’ tide cooms hoamin’ in.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-42" id="fn-42"></a> <a href="#fnref-42">[1]</a> +Murmuring. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-43" id="fn-43"></a> <a href="#fnref-43">[2]</a> +Searching for. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-44" id="fn-44"></a> <a href="#fnref-44">[3]</a> +Flotsam and jetsam. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-45" id="fn-45"></a> <a href="#fnref-45">[4]</a> +Gossamer. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-46" id="fn-46"></a> <a href="#fnref-46">[5]</a> +Shelter. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-47" id="fn-47"></a> <a href="#fnref-47">[6]</a> +Owls. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-48" id="fn-48"></a> <a href="#fnref-48">[7]</a> +Tangled. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-49" id="fn-49"></a> <a href="#fnref-49">[8]</a> +Eldritch / hideous. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-50" id="fn-50"></a> <a href="#fnref-50">[9]</a> +Drifts of sea-weed. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap08"></a>The New Englishman</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +I’ve lived all my life i’ Keighley,<br/> + I’m a Yorkshire artisan;<br/> +An’ when I were just turned seventy<br/> + I became an Englishman.<br /> +<br /> +Nat’ralised German! nay, deng it!<br/> + I’m British-born, same as thee!<br/> +But I niver thowt mich to my country,<br/> + While<a href="#fn-51" name="fnref-51" id="fnref-51"><sup>[1]</sup></a> my country thowt mich to me.<br /> +<br /> +I were proud o’ my lodge an’ my union,<br/> + An’ proud o’ my town an’ my shire;<br/> +But all t’ consans o’ t’ nation,<br/> + I left to t’ parson an’ t’ squire.<br /> +<br /> +Class-war were t’ faith that I Iived for,<br/> + I call’d all capit’lists sharks;<br/> +An’ “T’ workin’ man has no country,”<br/> + Were my Gospel accordin’ to Marx.<br /> +<br /> +When I’d lossen my job back i’ t’ eighties,<br/> + An were laikin’ for well-nigh two year,<br/> +Who said that an out-o’-wark fettler<br/> + Were costin’ his country dear?<br /> +<br /> +Owd England cared nowt about me,<br/> + I could clem<a href="#fn-52" name="fnref-52" id="fnref-52"><sup>[2]</sup></a> wi’ my barns an’ my wife;<br/> +Shoo were ower thrang wi’ buildin’ up t’ empire<br/> + To build up a brokken life.<br /> +<br /> +“Ivery man for hissen,” shoo said,<br/> + “An’ t’ dule can catch what he can;<br/> +Labour’s cheap an’ trade’s worth more<br/> + Nor t’ life of a workin’ man.”<br /> +<br /> +When t’ country were chuff,<a href="#fn-53" name="fnref-53" id="fnref-53"><sup>[3]</sup></a> an’ boasted<br/> + That t’ sun niver set on her flags,<br/> +I thowt o’ wer back-to-back houses,<br/> + Wer childer i’ spetches<a href="#fn-54" name="fnref-54" id="fnref-54"><sup>[4]</sup></a> an’ rags,<br /> +<br /> +When t’ country drave by i’ her carriage,<br/> + Wi’ flunkies afore an’ behind,<br/> +I left her to bettermy bodies,<br/> + An’ I gav her a taste o’ my mind.<br /> +<br /> +But when shoo were liggin’ i’ t’ gutter,<br/> + Wi’ a milit’rist mob at her throit,<br/> +“Hands off her!” I cried, “shoo’s my +mother:”<br/> + An’ I doffed my cap an’ my coit.<br /> +<br /> +I’d gien ower wark at seventy,<br/> + But I gat agate once more;<br/> +“I’ll live for my country, not on her”<br/> + Were my words on t’ fettlers’ floor.<br /> +<br /> +Shoo’s putten her trust i’ us workers,<br/> + We’ll save her, niver fear;<br/> +Feight for her, live for her, dee for her,<br/> + Her childer that loves her dear.<br /> +<br /> +Eight o’ my grandsons has fallen,<br/> + My youngest lad’s crippled i’ t’ arm;<br/> +But I’ll give her choose-what<a href="#fn-55" name="fnref-55" id="fnref-55"><sup>[5]</sup></a> shoo axes,<br/> + Afore I’ll see her tak harm.<br /> +<br /> +T’ war is a curse an’ a blessin’,<br/> + If fowks could understan’;<br/> +It’s brokken my home an’ my childer,<br/> + But it’s made me an Englishman. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-51" id="fn-51"></a> <a href="#fnref-51">[1]</a> +Until. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-52" id="fn-52"></a> <a href="#fnref-52">[2]</a> +Starve. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-53" id="fn-53"></a> <a href="#fnref-53">[3]</a> +Arrogant. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-54" id="fn-54"></a> <a href="#fnref-54">[4]</a> +Patches. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-55" id="fn-55"></a> <a href="#fnref-55">[5]</a> +Whatever. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap09"></a>The Bells of Kirkby Overblow</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +Draw back my curtains, Mary,<br/> + An’ oppen t’ windey wide;<br/> +Ay, ay, I know I’m deein’,<br/> + While to-morn I’ll hardlins bide.<br/> +But yit afore all’s ovver,<br/> + An’ I lig cowd as snow,<br/> +I’ll hear once more them owd church bells<br/> + O’ Kirkby Overblow.<br /> +<br /> +Mony a neet an’ mornin’<br/> + I’ve heerd yon church bells peal;<br/> +An’ how I’ve threaped an’ cursed ’em<br/> + When I was strong an’ weel!<br/> +Gert, skelpin’, chunterin’ taistrils,<a href="#fn-56" name="fnref-56" id="fnref-56"><sup>[1]</sup></a><br/> + All janglin’ in a row!<br/> +Ay, mony a time I’ve cursed yon bells<br/> + O’ Kirkby Overblow.<br /> +<br /> +When you hear yon church bells ringin’,<br/> + You can’t enjoy your sin;<br/> +T’ bells clutches at your heart-strings<br/> + I’ t’ ale-house ower your gin.<br/> +At pitch-an’-toss you’re laikin’,<br/> + Down theer i’ t’ wood below;<br/> +An’ then you damn them rowpy<a href="#fn-57" name="fnref-57" id="fnref-57"><sup>[2]</sup></a> bells<br/> + O’ Kirkby Overblow.<br /> +<br /> +An’ when I’ve set off poachin’<br/> + At back-end o’ the year,<br/> +Wi’ ferret, bag an’ snickle,<a href="#fn-58" name="fnref-58" id="fnref-58"><sup>[3]</sup></a><br/> + Church bells have catched my ear.<br/> +“Thou’s takken t’ road to Hell, lad,<br/> + Wheer t’ pit-fire’s bumin’ slow;”<br/> +That’s what yon bells kept shoutin’ out<br/> + At Kirkby Overblow.<br /> +<br /> +But now I’m owd an’ bed-fast,<br/> + I ommost like their sound,<br/> +Ringin’ so clear i’ t’ star-leet<br/> + Across the frozzen ground.<br/> +I niver mell on<a href="#fn-59" name="fnref-59" id="fnref-59"><sup>[4]</sup></a> parsons,<br/> + There ain’t a prayer I know;<br/> +But prayer an’ sarmon’s i’ yon bells<br/> + O’ Kirkby Overblow.<br /> +<br /> +Six boards o’ gooid stout ellum<br/> + Is what I’ll want to-morn;<br/> +Then lay me low i’ t’ church-yard<br/> + Aneath t’ owd crooked thorn.<br/> +I’ll have no funeral sarvice<br/> + When I’m browt down below,<br/> +But let ’em touzle t’ bells like mad<br/> + At Kirkby Overblow.<br /> +<br /> +I don’t know wheer I’m boun’ for,<br/> + It hardlins can be Heaven;<br/> +I’ve sinned more sins nor most men<br/> + ’Twixt one an’ seven-seven.<br/> +But this I’ll tak my oath on:<br/> + Wheeriver I mun go,<br/> +I’ll hark to t’ echoes o’ yon bells<br/> + O’ Kirkby Overblow.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-56" id="fn-56"></a> <a href="#fnref-56">[1]</a> +Unwieldy, grumbling rascals. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-57" id="fn-57"></a> <a href="#fnref-57">[2]</a> +Hoarse. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-58" id="fn-58"></a> <a href="#fnref-58">[3]</a> +Snare. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-59" id="fn-59"></a> <a href="#fnref-59">[4]</a> +Meddle with. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap10"></a>The Gardener and the Robin</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +Why! Bobbie, so thou’s coom agean!<br/> + I’m fain to see thee here;<br/> +It’s lang sin I’ve set een on thee,<br/> + It’s ommost hauf a yeer.<br/> +What’s that thou says? Thou’s taen a wife<br/> + An’ raised a family.<br/> +It seems thou’s gien ’em all the slip<br/> + Now back-end’s drawin’ nigh.<br /> +<br /> +I mun forgi’e thee; we’re owd friends,<br/> + An’ fratchin’s not for us;<br/> +Blackbirds an’ spinks<a href="#fn-60" name="fnref-60" id="fnref-60"><sup>[1]</sup></a> I can’t abide,<br/> + At doves an’ crows I cuss.<br/> +But thou’ll noan steal my strawberries,<br/> + Or nip my buds o’ plum;<br/> +Most feather-fowl I drive away,<br/> + But thou can awlus coom.<br /> +<br /> +Ay, that’s thy place, at top o’ t’ clod,<br/> + Thy heead cocked o’ one side,<br/> +Lookin’ as far-learnt as a judge.<br/> + Is that a worrm thou’s spied?<br/> +By t’ Megs! he’s well-nigh six inch lang,<br/> + An’ reed as t’ gate i’ t’ park;<br/> +If thou don’t mesh him up a bit,<br/> + He’ll gie thee belly-wark.<br /> +<br /> +My missus awlus lets me know<br/> + I’m noan so despert thin;<br/> +If I ate sausages as thou<br/> + Eats worrms, I’d brust my skin!<br/> +Howd on! leave soom for t’ mowdiwarps<a href="#fn-61" name="fnref-61" id="fnref-61"><sup>[2]</sup></a><br/> + That scrats down under t’ grund ;<br/> +Of worrms, an’ mawks,<a href="#fn-62" name="fnref-62" id="fnref-62"><sup>[3]</sup></a> an’ bummel-clocks<a href="#fn-63" name="fnref-63" id="fnref-63"><sup>[4]</sup></a><br/> + Thou’s etten hauf a pund.<br /> +<br /> +So now thou’ll clear thy pipes an’ sing:<br/> + Grace after meat, I s’pose.<br/> +Thou looks as holy as t’ owd saint<br/> + I’ church wi’ t’ brokken nose.<br/> +Thou’s plannin’ marlocks<a href="#fn-64" name="fnref-64" id="fnref-64"><sup>[5]</sup></a> all the time,<br/> + Donned i’ thy sowdier coat;<br/> +An’ what we tak for hymns o’ praise<br/> + Is just thy fratchin’ note.<br /> +<br /> +I’ve seen thee feightin’ theer on t’ lawn,<br/> + Beneath yon laurel tree;<br/> +Thy neb was reed wi’ blooid, thou looked<br/> + As chuffy<a href="#fn-65" name="fnref-65" id="fnref-65"><sup>[6]</sup></a> as could be.<br/> +Thou’s got no mense nor morals, Bob,<br/> + But weel I know thy charm.<br/> +Ay, thou can stand upon my spade.<br/> + I’ll niver do thee harm. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-60" id="fn-60"></a> <a href="#fnref-60">[1]</a> +Chaffinches. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-61" id="fn-61"></a> <a href="#fnref-61">[2]</a> +Moles. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-62" id="fn-62"></a> <a href="#fnref-62">[3]</a> +Maggots. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-63" id="fn-63"></a> <a href="#fnref-63">[4]</a> +Beetles. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-64" id="fn-64"></a> <a href="#fnref-64">[5]</a> +Tricks. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-65" id="fn-65"></a> <a href="#fnref-65">[6]</a> +Haughty. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap11"></a>Lile Doad</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +The Lord’s bin hard on me, Sir,<br/> + He’s stown my barn away.<br/> +O dowly, dowly was that neet<br/> + He stole lile Doad away!<br /> +<br /> +’Twas Whissuntide we wedded,<br/> + Next Easter he was born,<br/> +Just as t’ last star i’ t’ April sky<br/> + Had faded into t’ morn.<br/> +Throstles were singin, canty,<a href="#fn-66" name="fnref-66" id="fnref-66"><sup>[1]</sup></a><br/> + For they’d their young i’ t’ nest;<br/> +But birds don’t know a mother’s love<br/> + That howds her barn to t’ breast.<br /> +<br /> +When wark was ower i’ summer,<br/> + I nussed him on my knees;<br/> +An’ Mike browt home at lowsin’-time<br/> + Wild rasps an’ strawberries.<br/> +We used to sit on t’ door-sill<br/> + I’ t’ leet o’ t’ harvist-moon,<br/> +While our lile Doad would clench his fists<br/> + An’ suck his toes an’ croon.<br /> +<br /> +But when t’ mell-sheaf<a href="#fn-67" name="fnref-67" id="fnref-67"><sup>[2]</sup></a> was gotten,<br/> + An’ back-end days set in,<br/> +Wi’ frost at neet an’ roke<a href="#fn-68" name="fnref-68" id="fnref-68"><sup>[3]</sup></a> by day,<br/> + His face gate pinched an’ thin.<br/> +We niver knew what ailed him,<br/> + He faded like a floor,<br/> +He faded same as skies’ll fade<br/> + When t’ sun dips into t’ moor.<br /> +<br /> +Church bells on Kersmas mornin’<br/> + Rang out so merrily,<br/> +But cowd an’ dreesome were our hearts:<br/> + We knew lile Doad must dee.<br/> +He lay so still in his creddle,<br/> + An’ slowly he dwined away,<br/> +While<a href="#fn-69" name="fnref-69" id="fnref-69"><sup>[4]</sup></a> I laid two pennies on his een<br/> + On Holy Innocents’ Day.<br /> +<br /> +The Lord’s bin hard on me, Sir,<br/> + He’s stown my barn away.<br/> +O, dowly, dowly was that neet<br/> + He stole lile Doad away! +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-66" id="fn-66"></a> <a href="#fnref-66">[1]</a> +Briskly. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-67" id="fn-67"></a> <a href="#fnref-67">[2]</a> +The last sheaf of the harvest. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-68" id="fn-68"></a> <a href="#fnref-68">[3]</a> +Mist. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-69" id="fn-69"></a> <a href="#fnref-69">[4]</a> +Until. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap12"></a>His Last Sail</h2> + +<p class="center"> +GRANDFATHER +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +T’ watter is blue i’ t’ offin’,<br/> + An’ blue is t’ sky aboon;<br/> +Swallows are settin’ sou’ard,<br/> + An’ wanin’ is t’ harvist moon.<br/> +Ower lang I’ve bin cowerin’ idle<br/> + I’ my neuk by t’ fire-side;<br/> +I’ll away yance mair i’ my coble,<br/> + I’ll away wi’ t’ ebbin’ tide. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +MALLY +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Nay, Gransir, thoo moant gan sailin’,<br/> + Thoo mun bide at yam to-neet;<br/> +At eighty-two thoo sudn’t think<br/> + O’ t’ Whitby fishin’ fleet.<br/> +North cone’s up on t’ flagstaff,<br/> + There’s a cap-full o’ wind i’ t’ bay;<br/> +T’ waves wap loud on t’ harbour bar,<br/> + Thoo can hardlins fish to-day. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +GRANDFATHER +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +It’s leansome here i’ t’ hoose, lass,<br/> + When t’ fisher-folk’s at sea,<br/> +Watchin’ yon eldin<a href="#fn-70" name="fnref-70" id="fnref-70"><sup>[1]</sup></a> set i’ t’ fire<br/> + Bleeze up, dwine doon, an’ dee.<br/> +An’ t’ sea-gulls they coom flyin’<br/> + Aboon our red roof-tiles;<br/> +They call me doon the chimley,<br/> + An’ laugh at other whiles.<br/> +<br/> +“There’s mack’rel oot at sea, lad,”<br/> + Is what I hear ’em say;<br/> +“Their silver scales are glestrin’ breet,<br/> + Look oot across the bay;<br/> +But mack’rel’s not for thee, lad,<br/> + For thoo’s ower weak to sail.”<br/> +My een wi’ saut tears daggle<a href="#fn-71" name="fnref-71" id="fnref-71"><sup>[2]</sup></a><br/> + When I hear their mockin’ tale. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +MALLY +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Dean’t mind their awfish<a href="#fn-72" name="fnref-72" id="fnref-72"><sup>[3]</sup></a> skreekin’,<br/> + They ’tice folk to their death;<br/> +Then ride aboon yon billows<br/> + An’ gloor at them beneath.<br/> +They gloor at eenless corpses<br/> + Slow driftin’ wi’ the tide,<br/> +Deep doon amang the weedy wrack,<br/> + Wheer t’ scaly fishes glide. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +GRANDFATHER +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I’d fain lig wi’ my kinsfolk,<br/> + Fore-elders, brothers, sons,<br/> +Wheer t’ star-fish shine like twinklin’ leets,<br/> + An’ t’ spring-tide watter runs.<br/> +T’ kirkyard’s good for farm-folk,<br/> + That ploo an’ milk their kye,<br/> +But I could sleep maist soondly<br/> + Wheer t’ ships gan sailin’ by.<br/> +<br/> +T’ grave is whisht<a href="#fn-73" name="fnref-73" id="fnref-73"><sup>[4]</sup></a> an’ foulsome,<br/> + But clean is t’ saut sea-bed;<br/> +Thoo can hark to t’ billows dancin’<br/> + To t’ tune o’ t’ tide owerhead.<br/> +Yon wreaths o’ floors i’ t’ kirkyard<br/> + Sean wither an’ fade away,<br/> +But t’ sea-tang wreaths round a droon’d man’s head<br/> + Will bide while Judgment Day.<br/> +<br/> +Sae fettle<a href="#fn-74" name="fnref-74" id="fnref-74"><sup>[5]</sup></a> my owd blue coble,<br/> + I kessen’d her “Mornin’ Star,”<br/> +An’ I’ll away through t’ offin’<br/> + Wheer t’ skooals o’ mack’rel are.<br/> +Thoo can look for my boat i’ t’ harbour,<br/> + When thoo’s said thy mornin’ psalm;<br/> +Mebbe I’ll fill my fish-creel full—<br/> + Mebbe I’ll nean coom yam. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-70" id="fn-70"></a> <a href="#fnref-70">[1]</a> +Kindling. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-71" id="fn-71"></a> <a href="#fnref-71">[2]</a> +Grow moist. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-72" id="fn-72"></a> <a href="#fnref-72">[3]</a> +Elfish. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-73" id="fn-73"></a> <a href="#fnref-73">[4]</a> +Silent. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-74" id="fn-74"></a> <a href="#fnref-74">[5]</a> +Get ready. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap13"></a>One Year Older</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +One yeer owder, one yeer dearer:<br/> + That’s what I sal awlus say.<br/> +Draw thy chair a little nearer,<br/> + Put yon stockin’s reight away.<br/> +Thou hast done enough i’ thy time,<br/> + Tewed i’ t’ house an’ wrowt at loom;<br/> +Just for once thou mun sit idle,<br/> + Feet on t’ hear’stone, fingers toom.<a href="#fn-75" name="fnref-75" id="fnref-75"><sup>[1]</sup></a><br/> +<br/> +One yeer owder, one yeer dearer:<br/> + So I promised when we wed.<br/> +Then thy een were glest’rin’ clearer<br/> + Nor the stars aboon us spread.<br/> +If they’re dimmer now, they’re tend’rer,<br/> + An’ yon wrinkles on thy face<br/> +Tell a lesson true as t’ Bible,<br/> + Speik o’ charity an’ grace.<br/> +<br/> +One yeer owder, one yeer dearer:<br/> + We’ve supped sorrow, tasted joy,<br/> +But our love has grown sincerer,<br/> + Gethered strength nowt can destroy.<br/> +Love is like an oak i’ t’ forest,<br/> + Ivery yeer it adds a ring;<br/> +Love is like yon ivin tendrils,<br/> + Ivery day they closer cling.<br/> +<br/> +One yeer owder, one yeer dearer:<br/> + Time’s the shuttle, life’s the yarn.<br/> +Have thy crosses seemed severer<br/> + ’Cause thou niver had a barn?<br/> +Mebbe I sud not have loved thee<br/> + Hauf so weel, if I mud share<br/> +All our secret thowts wi’ childer,<br/> + Twinin’ round my owd arm-chair.<br/> +<br/> +One yeer owder, one yeer dearer:<br/> + ’Tis our gowden weddin’ day.<br/> +There sal coom no gaumless fleerer<br/> + To break in upon our play.<br/> +Look, I’ve stecked<a href="#fn-76" name="fnref-76" id="fnref-76"><sup>[2]</sup></a> wer door and window<br/> + Let me lap thee i’ my arms;<br/> +Hushed to-neet be ivery murmur,<br/> + While my kiss thy pale face warms. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-75" id="fn-75"></a> <a href="#fnref-75">[1]</a> +Empty. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-76" id="fn-76"></a> <a href="#fnref-76">[2]</a> +Latched. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap14"></a>The Hungry Forties</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thou wants my vote, young man wi’ t’ carpet-bags,<br/> + Weel, sit thee down, an’ hark what I’ve to say.<br/> +It’s noan so varry oft wer kitchen flags<br/> + Are mucked by real live lords down Yelland<a href="#fn-77" name="fnref-77" id="fnref-77"><sup>[1]</sup></a> way.<br/> +<br/> +I’ve read thy speyks i’ t’ paper of a neet,<br/> + Thou lets a vast o’ words flow off thy tongue;<br/> +Thou’s gotten facts an’ figures, plain as t’ leet,<br/> + An’ argiments to slocken<a href="#fn-78" name="fnref-78" id="fnref-78"><sup>[2]</sup></a> owd an’ young.<br/> +<br/> +But what are facts an’ figures ’side o’ truths<br/> + We’ve bowt wi’ childer’ tears an’ brokken +lives?<br/> +An’ what are argiments o’ cockered youths<br/> + To set agean yon groans o’ caitiff<a href="#fn-79" name="fnref-79" id="fnref-79"><sup>[3]</sup></a> wives?<br/> +<br/> +’Twere “hungry forties” when I were a lad,<br/> + An’ fowks were clemmed, an’ weak i’ t’ airm +an’ brain;<br/> +We lived on demick’d<a href="#fn-80" name="fnref-80" id="fnref-80"><sup>[4]</sup></a> taties, bread gone sad,<br/> + An’ wakkened up o’ neets croodled<a href="#fn-81" name="fnref-81" id="fnref-81"><sup>[5]</sup></a> wi’ pain.<br/> +<br/> +When t’ quartern loaf were raised to one and four,<br/> + We’d watter-brewis, swedes stown out o’ t’ field;<br/> +Farmers were t’ landlords’ jackals, an’ us poor<br/> + Tewed in Egyptian bondage unrepealed.<br/> +<br/> +I mind them times when lads marched down our street<br/> + Wi’ penny loaves on pikes all steeped i’ blooid;<br/> +“It’s breead or blooid,” they cried. “We’ve nowt +to eat;<br/> + To Hell wi’ all that taxes t’ people’s fooid.”<br/> +<br/> +There was a papist duke<a href="#fn-82" name="fnref-82" id="fnref-82"><sup>[6]</sup></a> that com aleng<br/> + Wi’ curry powders, an’ he telled our boss<br/> +That when fowk’s bellies felt pination’s teng,<a href="#fn-83" name="fnref-83" id="fnref-83"><sup>[7]</sup></a><br/> + For breead, yon stinkin’ powders they mun soss.<a href="#fn-84" name="fnref-84" id="fnref-84"><sup>[8]</sup></a><br/> +<br/> +I went to wark when I were eight yeer owd;<br/> + I tended galloways an’ sammed up coils.<br/> +’Twere warm i’ t’ pit, aboon ’t were despert cowd,<br/> + An’ clothes were nobbut spetches,<a href="#fn-85" name="fnref-85" id="fnref-85"><sup>[9]</sup></a> darns an’ hoils.<br/> +<br/> +Thro’ six to eight I worked, then two mile walk<br/> + Across yon sumpy<a href="#fn-86" name="fnref-86" id="fnref-86"><sup>[10]</sup></a> fields to t’ kitchen door.<br/> +I’ve often fainted, face as white as chalk,<br/> + Then fall’n lang-length upon wer cobble-floor.<br/> +<br/> +My mother addled seven and six a week,<br/> + Slavin’ all t’ day at Akeroyd’s weyvin’-shed:<br/> +Fayther at t’ grunstone wrowt, while he fell sick;<br/> + Steel filin’s gate intul his lungs, he said.<br/> +<br/> +I come thee then no thank for all thy speyks,<br/> + Thou might as weel have spared thisen thy pains;<br/> +I see no call to laik at ducks an’ drakes<br/> + Wi’ t’ bitter truth that’s burnt intul our brains.<br/> +<br/> +“Corn laws be damned,” said dad i’ forty-eight;<br/> + “Corn laws be damned,” say I i’ nineteen-five.<br/> +Tariff reform, choose, how, will have to wait<br/> + Down Yelland way, so lang as I’m alive.<br/> +<br/> +If thou an’ thine sud tax us workers’ fooid,<br/> + An’ thrust us back in our owd misery,<br/> +May t’ tears o’ our deead childer thin thy blooid,<br/> + An’ t’ curse o’ t’ “hungry forties” +leet on thee. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-77" id="fn-77"></a> <a href="#fnref-77">[1]</a> +Elland. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-78" id="fn-78"></a> <a href="#fnref-78">[2]</a> +Satiate. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-79" id="fn-79"></a> <a href="#fnref-79">[3]</a> +Infirm. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-80" id="fn-80"></a> <a href="#fnref-80">[4]</a> +Diseased. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-81" id="fn-81"></a> <a href="#fnref-81">[5]</a> +Bent double. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-82" id="fn-82"></a> <a href="#fnref-82">[6]</a> +Duke of Norfolk. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-83" id="fn-83"></a> <a href="#fnref-83">[7]</a> +Sting. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-84" id="fn-84"></a> <a href="#fnref-84">[8]</a> +Sip. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-85" id="fn-85"></a> <a href="#fnref-85">[9]</a> +Patches. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-86" id="fn-86"></a> <a href="#fnref-86">[10]</a> +Swampy. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap15"></a>The Flowers of Knaresborough Forest</h2> + +<p class="letter"> +But now they are moaning, on ilka green loaning<br/> +The Flowers of the Forest are a’ wede away.<br/> +<i>Jane Elliot</i> (1727-1805). +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +O! day-time is weary, an’ dark o’ dusk dreary<br/> + For t’ lasses i’ t’ mistal, or rakin’ ower t’ +hay;<br/> +When t’ kye coom for strippin’, or t’ yowes for their +clippin’,<br/> + We think on our sowdiers now gone reet away.<br/> +<br/> +The courtin’-gate’s idle, nae lad flings his bridle<br/> + Ower t’ yak-stoup,<a href="#fn-87" name="fnref-87" id="fnref-87"><sup>[1]</sup></a> an’ sleely cooms seekin’ his +may;<br/> +The trod by the river is green as a sliver,<a href="#fn-88" name="fnref-88" id="fnref-88"><sup>[2]</sup></a><br/> + For the Flowers o’ the Forest have all stown away.<br/> +<br/> +At Marti’mas hirin’s, nae ribbins, nae tirin’s,<br/> + When t’ godspenny’s<a href="#fn-89" name="fnref-89" id="fnref-89"><sup>[3]</sup></a> addled, an’ t’ time’s +coom for play;<br/> +Nae Cheap-Jacks, nae dancin’, wi’ t’ teamster’ clogs +prancin ,<br/> + The Flowers o’ the Forest are all flown a way.<br/> +<br/> +When at neet church is lowsin’, an’ t’ owd ullet is +rousin’<br/> + Hissel i’ our laithe,<a href="#fn-90" name="fnref-90" id="fnref-90"><sup>[4]</sup></a> wheer he’s slummered all t’ +day,<br/> +Wae’s t’ heart! but we misses our lads’ saftest kisses,<br/> + Now the Flowers o’ the Forest are gone reet away.<br/> +<br/> +Ploo-lads frae Pannal have crossed ower the Channel,<br/> + Shipperds frae Fewston have taen the King’s pay,<br/> +Thackrays frae Dacre have sold ivery acre;<br/> + Thou’ll finnd ne’er a delver<a href="#fn-91" name="fnref-91" id="fnref-91"><sup>[5]</sup></a> frae Haverah to Bray.<br/> +<br/> +When t’ north wind is howlin’, an’ t’ west wind is +yowlin’,<br/> + It’s for t’ farm lads at sea that us lasses mun pray;<br/> +Tassey-Will o’ t’ new biggin, keepin’ watch i’ his +riggin ,<br/> + Lile Jock i’ his fo’c’sle, torpedoed i’ t’ +bay.<br/> +<br/> +Mony a lass now is weepin’ for her marrow that’s +sleepin’,<br/> + Wi’ nae bield for his corp but the cowd Flanthers clay;<br/> +He’ll ne’er lift his limmers,<a href="#fn-92" name="fnref-92" id="fnref-92"><sup>[6]</sup></a> he’ll ne’er wean his +gimmers<a href="#fn-93" name="fnref-93" id="fnref-93"><sup>[7]</sup></a>:<br/> + Ay, there’s Flowers o’ the Forest are withered away. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-87" id="fn-87"></a> <a href="#fnref-87">[1]</a> +Oak-post. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-88" id="fn-88"></a> <a href="#fnref-88">[2]</a> +Branch of a leafing tree. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-89" id="fn-89"></a> <a href="#fnref-89">[3]</a> +Earnest money. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-90" id="fn-90"></a> <a href="#fnref-90">[4]</a> +Barn. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-91" id="fn-91"></a> <a href="#fnref-91">[5]</a> +Quarryman. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-92" id="fn-92"></a> <a href="#fnref-92">[6]</a> +Wagon-shafts. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-93" id="fn-93"></a> <a href="#fnref-93">[7]</a> +Ewe lambs. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap16"></a>The Miller by the Shore<br/> +an East Coast Chanty</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +The miller by the shore am I,<br/> + A man o’ despert sense;<br/> +I’ve fotty different soorts o’ ways<br/> + O’ addlin’ honest pence.<br/> +Good wheat and wuts and barley-corns<br/> + My mill grinds all t’ day lang ;<br/> +Frae faave ’o t’ morn while seven o’ t’ neet<br/> + My days are varra thrang. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +Chorus +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I mill a bit, I till a bit,<br/> + I dee all maks ’o jobs,<br/> +Frae followin’ ploos and hollowin’ coos<br/> + To mendin’ chairs and squabs.<a href="#fn-94" name="fnref-94" id="fnref-94"><sup>[1]</sup></a><br/> +Oh! folks they laugh and girn at me,<br/> + I niver tak it ill;<br/> +If I’s the Jack ’o ivery trade,<br/> + They all bring grist to t’ mill.<br/> +<br/> +I tend my hunderd yakker farm,<br/> + An’ milk my Kyloe kye.<br/> +I’ve Lincoln yowes an’ Leicester tups<br/> + An’ twenty head ’o wye.<a href="#fn-95" name="fnref-95" id="fnref-95"><sup>[2]</sup></a><br/> +I’ve stirks to tak to Scarbro’ mart,<br/> + I’ve meers for farmers’ gigs;<br/> +And oh! I wish that you could see<br/> + My laatle sookin’ pigs.<br/> +<br/> +I mill a bit. ...<br/> +<br/> +When summer days graws lang an’ breet,<br/> + Oot cooms my “Noah’s Arks,”<br/> +Wheer city folk undriss theirsels<br/> + An’ don my bathin’ sarks.<a href="#fn-96" name="fnref-96" id="fnref-96"><sup>[3]</sup></a><br/> +An’ when they git on land agean,<br/> + I rub’ em smooth as silk;<br/> +Then bring’ em oot, to fill their weeams,<br/> + My parkin ceakes an’ milk.<br/> +<br/> +I mill a bit. ...<br/> +<br/> +I pike<a href="#fn-97" name="fnref-97" id="fnref-97"><sup>[4]</sup></a> stray timmer on the shore,<br/> + An’ cuvins<a href="#fn-98" name="fnref-98" id="fnref-98"><sup>[5]</sup></a> on the scar;<br/> +I know wheer crabs ’ll hugger up,<a href="#fn-99" name="fnref-99" id="fnref-99"><sup>[6]</sup></a><br/> + I know wheer t’ lobsters are.<br/> +I’ve cobles fishin’ oot i’ t’ bay,<br/> + For whitings, dabs and cods,<br/> +I’ve herrin’ trawls and salmon nets,<br/> + I’ve hooks and lines and rods.<br/> +<br/> +I mill a bit. ...<br/> +<br/> +On darksome neets, back-end ’o t’ yeer,<br/> + I like another sport;<br/> +I row my boat wheer t’ lugger lies,<br/> + Coom frae some foreign port;<br/> +A guinea in a coastguard’s poke<br/> + Will mak him steck his een ;<br/> +So he says nowt when I coom yam<br/> + Wi’ scent and saccharine.<br/> +<br/> +I mill a bit. ... +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-94" id="fn-94"></a> <a href="#fnref-94">[1]</a> +Settles. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-95" id="fn-95"></a> <a href="#fnref-95">[2]</a> +Heifers. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-96" id="fn-96"></a> <a href="#fnref-96">[3]</a> +Shirts. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-97" id="fn-97"></a> <a href="#fnref-97">[4]</a> +Pick up. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-98" id="fn-98"></a> <a href="#fnref-98">[5]</a> +Periwinkles. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-99" id="fn-99"></a> <a href="#fnref-99">[6]</a> +Crowd together. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap17"></a>The Bride’s Homecoming</h2> + +<p class="poem"> + A weddin’, a woo,<br/> + A clog an’ a shoe,<br/> +A pot full o’ porridge; away we go!<br/> + <i>A Yorkshire Wedding-Rhyme</i>. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thoo mun hod on tight, my darlin’,<br/> + We’ve mony a beck to cross;<br/> +Twix’ thy father’s hoose an’ mine, love,<br/> + There’s a vast o’ slacks an’ moss.<br/> +But t’ awd mare, shoo weant whemmle<a href="#fn-100" name="fnref-100" id="fnref-100"><sup>[1]</sup></a><br/> + Though there’s twee on her back astride;<br/> +Shoo’s as prood as me, is Snowball,<br/> + Noo I’s fetchin’ heame my bride.<br/> + A weddin’, a woo,<br/> + A clog an’ a shoe,<br/> +A pot full o’ porridge; away we go!<br/> +<br/> +Gow! but I feel sae leetsome,<br/> + Sin I’ve lived to see this day;<br/> +My heart is like a blackbod’s<br/> + Efter a shoor i’ May.<br/> +I’ t’ sky aboon nea lairock<br/> + Has sae mich reet to sing<br/> +As I have, noo I’ve wedded<br/> + T’ lile lass o’ Fulsa Ing.<br/> + A weddin’, a woo,<br/> + A clog an’ a shoe,<br/> +A pot full o’ porridge; away we go!<br/> +<br/> +Does ta hear yon watter bubblin’,<br/> + Deep doon i’ t’ moorland streams?<br/> +It soonds like childer’ voices<br/> + When they’re laughin’ i’ their dreams.<br/> +An’ look at yon lang-tailed pyots,<a href="#fn-101" name="fnref-101" id="fnref-101"><sup>[2]</sup></a><br/> + There s three on ’em, I’ll uphod!<br/> +Folks say that three’s for a weddin’,<br/> + Ay, a pyot’s a canny bod.<br/> + A weddin’, a woo,<br/> + A clog an’ a shoe,<br/> +A pot full o’ porridge; away we go!<br/> +<br/> +I love to feel thee clingin’<br/> + Wi’ thy hands aroond my breast;<br/> +Thy bosom’s leetly heavin’,<br/> + Like a ship on t’ saut waves’ crest.<br/> +An’ thy breath is sweet as t’ breezes,<br/> + That cooms ower t’ soothern hills,<br/> +When t’ violet blaws i’ t’ springtime<br/> + Wi’ t’ yollow daffydills.<br/> + A weddin’, a woo,<br/> + A clog an’ a shoe,<br/> +A pot full o’ porridge; away we go!<br/> +<br/> +Is ta gittin’ tired, my honey,<br/> + We’ll be heame i’ hafe an hour;<br/> +Thoo’ll see our hoose an’ staggarth,<br/> + Wi’ t’ birk-trees bendin’ ower.<br/> +There’s a lillilow<a href="#fn-102" name="fnref-102" id="fnref-102"><sup>[3]</sup></a> i’ our cham’er<br/> + To welcome my viewly bride ;<br/> +An’ sean we’ll be theer oorsels, lass,<br/> + Liggin’ cosy side by side.<br/> + A weddin’, a woo,<br/> + A clog an’ a shoe,<br/> +A pot full o’ porridge; away we go! +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-100" id="fn-100"></a> <a href="#fnref-100">[1]</a> +Stumble. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-101" id="fn-101"></a> <a href="#fnref-101">[2]</a> +Magpies. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-102" id="fn-102"></a> <a href="#fnref-102">[3]</a> +Light. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap18"></a>The Artist</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +Lang-haired gauvies<a href="#fn-103" name="fnref-103" id="fnref-103"><sup>[1]</sup></a> coom my way, drawin’ t’ owd abbey an’ +brig,<br/> + All their crack is o’ Art-staities an’ picturs an’ +paints;<br/> +Want to put me on their canvas, donned i’ my farmer’s rig,<br/> + Tell me I’m pairt o’ t’ scenery, stained-glass windeys +an’ saints.<br/> +<br/> +I reckon I’m artist an’ all, though I niver gave it a thowt;<br/> + Breeder o’ stock is my trade, Mike Pullan o’ t’ Abbey +Close.<br/> +What sud a farmer want wi’ picturs that brass has bowt?<br/> + All his art is i’ t’ mistal, wheer t’ heifers are ranged +i’ rows.<br/> +<br/> +Look at yon pedigree bull, wi’ an eye as breet as a star,<br/> + An’ a coat that shines like velvet, when it catches t’ glent +o’ t’ sun;<br/> +Hark to him bealin’ for t’ cows, wi’ a voice like t’ +thunner on t’ scar,<br/> + Watch them sinews i’ t’ neck, ripplin’ wi’ mischief +an’ fun.<br/> +<br/> +Three generations o’ men have lived their lives for yon bull,<br/> + Tewed at his keep all t’ day, dreamed o’ his sleekness all +t’ neet;<br/> +Moulded the bugth o’ his buttocks, fashioned the breadth o’ his +skull—<br/> + Ivery one on ’em artists, sculptors o’ butcher’s meat.<br/> +<br/> +What are your Rubens and Vandykes anent the craft that is Breed?<br/> + Anent the art that is Life, what’s figures o’ bronze or +stone?<br/> +Us farmers ’ll mould you models, better nor statties that’s +deead—<br/> + Strength that is wick i’ the flesh, Beauty that’s bred i’ +the bone.<br/> +<br/> +Bailiff’s doughter at t’ Hollins, shoo’s Breed, an’ +shoo’s Life, an shoo’s Art,<br/> + Bred frae a Westmorland statesman out o’ a Craven lass;<br/> +Carries hersen like a queen when shoo drives to markit i’ t’ +cart:<br/> + Noan o’ yon scraumy-legged<a href="#fn-104" name="fnref-104" id="fnref-104"><sup>[2]</sup></a> painters sal iver git howd o’ her +brass.<br/> +<br/> +Picturs is reight enough for fowks cluttered up i’ Leeds,<br/> + Fowks that have ne’er hannled beasts, can’t tell a tup frae a +yowe ;<br/> +But the art for coontry lads is the art that breathes an’ feeds,<br/> + An’ t’ finest gallery i’ t’ worrld is a Yorkshire +cattle-show. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-103" id="fn-103"></a> <a href="#fnref-103">[1]</a> +Simpletons. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-104" id="fn-104"></a> <a href="#fnref-104">[2]</a> +Spindle-legged. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap19"></a>Marra to Bonney</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +What would you do wi’ a doughter—<br/> + Pray wi’ her, bensil<a href="#fn-105" name="fnref-105" id="fnref-105"><sup>[1]</sup></a> her, flout her?—<br/> +Say, what would you do wi’ a daughter<br/> + That’s marra to Bonney<a href="#fn-106" name="fnref-106" id="fnref-106"><sup>[2]</sup></a> hissen?<br/> +<br/> +I prayed wi’ her first, of a Sunday,<br/> + When chapil was lowsin’ for t’ neet;<br/> +An’ I laid all her cockaloft marlocks<a href="#fn-107" name="fnref-107" id="fnref-107"><sup>[3]</sup></a><br/> + ’Fore th’ Almighty’s mercy-seat.<br/> +When I looked for her tears o’ repentance,<br/> + I jaloused<a href="#fn-108" name="fnref-108" id="fnref-108"><sup>[4]</sup></a> that I saw her laugh;<br/> +An’ she said that t’ Powers o’ Justice<br/> + Would scatter my words like chaff.<br/> +<br/> +Then I bensilled her hard in her cham’er,<br/> + As I bensils owd Neddy i’ t’ cart.<br/> +If prayers willent teach thee, my dolly,<br/> + Happen whip-stock will mak thy tears start.<br/> +But she stood there as chuff as a mawmet,<a href="#fn-109" name="fnref-109" id="fnref-109"><sup>[5]</sup></a><br/> + Not one chunt’rin<a href="#fn-110" name="fnref-110" id="fnref-110"><sup>[6]</sup></a> word did she say:<br/> +But she hoped that t’ blooid o’ t’ martyrs<br/> + Would waish all my sins away.<br/> +<br/> +Then I thought, mebbe floutin’ will mend her;<br/> + So I watched while she cam out o’ t’ mill,<br/> +And afore all yon Wyke lads an’ lasses<br/> + I fleered at her reight up our hill.<br/> +She winced when she heeard all their girnin’,<br/> + Then she whispered, a sob i’ her throat:<br/> +“I reckon I’ll noan think o’ weddin’<br/> + While women are given their vote.”<br/> +<br/> +What would you do wi’ a doughter—<br/> + Pray wi’ her, bensil her, flout her?—<br/> +Say, what would you do wi’ a daughter<br/> + That’s marra to Bonney hissen? +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-105" id="fn-105"></a> <a href="#fnref-105">[1]</a> +Beat. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-106" id="fn-106"></a> <a href="#fnref-106">[2]</a> +A match for Bonaparte. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-107" id="fn-107"></a> <a href="#fnref-107">[3]</a> +Conceited tricks. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-108" id="fn-108"></a> <a href="#fnref-108">[4]</a> +Suspected. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-109" id="fn-109"></a> <a href="#fnref-109">[5]</a> +As proud as an idol. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-110" id="fn-110"></a> <a href="#fnref-110">[6]</a> +Grumbling. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap20"></a>Mary Mecca</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +Mary Mecca,<a href="#fn-111" name="fnref-111" id="fnref-111"><sup>[1]</sup></a> Mary Mecca,<br/> + I’m fain to see thee here,<br/> +A Devon lass to fill my glass<br/> + O’ home-brewed Yorkshire beer.<br/> +I awlus said that foreigners<br/> + Sud niver mel on me;<br/> +But sike a viewly face as thine<br/> + I’d travel far to see.<br/> +<br/> +Mary Mecca, Mary Mecca,<br/> + I’m sad to see thee here,<br/> +Wheer t’ wind blaws hask<a href="#fn-112" name="fnref-112" id="fnref-112"><sup>[2]</sup></a> frae Norway<br/> + I’ t’ spring-time o’ the year.<br/> +I’d liever finnd thee sittin’,<br/> + Wi’ a bowl o’ cruds an’ cream,<br/> +Wheer t’ foxglove bells ring through the dells,<br/> + Anent a Dartmoor stream.<br/> +<br/> +Mary Mecca, Mary Mecca,<br/> + The way thou snods thy hair,<br/> +It maks my heart go dancin’<br/> + Like winnlestraws<a href="#fn-113" name="fnref-113" id="fnref-113"><sup>[3]</sup></a> i’ t’ air.<br/> +One neet I heard thee singin’,<br/> + As I cam home frae toon;<br/> +’Twas sweet as curlews makkin’ love<br/> + Agean a risin’ moon.<br/> +<br/> +Mary Mecca, Mary Mecca,<br/> + I dream o’ thy gray een;<br/> +I think on all I’ve wasted,<br/> + An’ what I might hae been.<br/> +I’m nowt but muck off t’ midden,<br/> + So all I axe is this:<br/> +Just blaw the froth from off my yal<a href="#fn-114" name="fnref-114" id="fnref-114"><sup>[4]</sup></a>;<br/> + ’Twill seem most like a kiss. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-111" id="fn-111"></a> <a href="#fnref-111">[1]</a> +Metcalfe. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-112" id="fn-112"></a> <a href="#fnref-112">[2]</a> +Keenly. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-113" id="fn-113"></a> <a href="#fnref-113">[3]</a> +Whisps of grass or straw. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-114" id="fn-114"></a> <a href="#fnref-114">[4]</a> +Ale. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap21"></a>The Local Preacher</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +Ay, I’m a ranter, so at least fowks say;<br/> + Happen they’d tell t’ same tale o’ t’ postle +Paul.<br/> +I’ve ranted fifty yeer, coom first o’ May,<br/> + An’ niver changed my gospil through ’em all.<br/> +<br/> +There’s nowt like t’ Blooid o’ t’ Lamb an’ +t’ Fire o’ Hell<br/> + To bring a hardened taistril<a href="#fn-115" name="fnref-115" id="fnref-115"><sup>[1]</sup></a> to his knees;<br/> +If fowks want more nor that, then thou can tell<br/> + ’Em straight, I’ve got no cure for their disease.<br/> +<br/> +I willent thole this New Theology<br/> + That blends up Hell wi’ Heaven, sinners wi’ saints<br/> +For black was black when I turned Methody,<br/> + An’ white was white, i’ souls as weel as paints.<br/> +<br/> +That’s awlus t’ warp an’ t’ weft o’ my +discourse,<br/> + An’ awlus will be, lang as I can teach;<br/> +If fowks won’t harken tul it, then, of course,<br/> + They go to church and hear t’ owd parson preach.<br/> +<br/> +His sarmon’s like his baccy, sweet an’ mild;<br/> + Fowk’s ommost hauf asleep at t’ second word.<br/> +By t’ Mass! they’re wick as lops,<a href="#fn-116" name="fnref-116" id="fnref-116"><sup>[2]</sup></a> ay, man an’ child,<br/> + When I stan’ up an’ wrastle wi’ the Lord.<br/> +<br/> +Nay, I’m not blamin’ parson, I’ll awant<a href="#fn-117" name="fnref-117" id="fnref-117"><sup>[3]</sup></a>;<br/> + Preachin’s his trade, same way as millin’s mine.<br/> +I’ trade you’ve got to gie fowks what they want,<br/> + An’ that is mostly sawcum<a href="#fn-118" name="fnref-118" id="fnref-118"><sup>[4]</sup></a> meshed reet fine.<br/> +<br/> +Tak squire theer; he don’t want no talk o’ Hell,<br/> + He likes to hark to t’ parable o’ t’ teares ;<br/> +He reckons church is wheat that’s gooid to sell,<br/> + But chapil’s nobbut kexes,<a href="#fn-119" name="fnref-119" id="fnref-119"><sup>[5]</sup></a> thorns, an’ brears.<br/> +<br/> +Squire’s lasses, they can’t do wi’ t’ Blooid o’ +t’ Lamb<br/> + They’re all for t’ blooid o’ t’ foxes, like our +Bob.<br/> +The Lord Hissen will have to save or damn<br/> + Church fowks wid out me mellin’ on<a href="#fn-120" name="fnref-120" id="fnref-120"><sup>[6]</sup></a> His job.<br/> +<br/> +But gie me chapil lasses gone astray,<br/> + Or lads that cooms home druffen of a neet,<br/> +An’ I’ll raise Cain afore I go away,<br/> + If I don’t gie ’em t’ glent o’ t’ Gospil +leet.<br/> +<br/> +I’ll mak ’em sit on t’ penitential stooils,<br/> + An’ roar as loud as t’ buzzer down at t’ mill;<br/> +I’ll mak ’em own that they’ve bin despert fooils,<br/> + Wi’ all their pride o’ life a bitter pill.<br/> +<br/> +I’ve mony texts, but all to one point keep,<br/> + Same as all t’ becks flow down to one saut sea:<br/> +Damnation an’ salvation, goats an’ sheep—<br/> + That’s t’ Bible gospil that thou’ll get thro’ me. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-115" id="fn-115"></a> <a href="#fnref-115">[1]</a> +Reprobate. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-116" id="fn-116"></a> <a href="#fnref-116">[2]</a> +Lively as fleas. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-117" id="fn-117"></a> <a href="#fnref-117">[3]</a> +Warrrant. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-118" id="fn-118"></a> <a href="#fnref-118">[4]</a> +Sawdust. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-119" id="fn-119"></a> <a href="#fnref-119">[5]</a> +Dried stems of weeds. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-120" id="fn-120"></a> <a href="#fnref-120">[6]</a> +Meddling with. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap22"></a>The Courting Gate</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +There’s dew upon the meadows,<br/> + An’ bats are wheelin’ high;<br/> +The sun has set an hour sin’,<br/> + An’ evenin’ leet’s i’ t’ sky.<br/> +Swalows i’ t’ thack are sleepin ,<br/> + Neet-hawks are swift on t’ wing,<br/> +An’ grey moths gethers honey<br/> + Amang the purple ling .<br/> + O coom an’ meet me, Mally,<br/> + O coom an’ greet me, Mally,<br/> + Meet me, greet me, at the courtin’ gate.<br/> +<br/> +The fire-leet casts thy shadow<br/> + Owerthwart the kitchen wall;<br/> +It’s dancin’ up an’ doon, lass,<br/> + My heart does dance an’ all.<br/> +Three times I’ve gien oor love-call<br/> + To bring my bird to t’ nest.<br/> +When wilt a coom, my throstle,<br/> + An’ shelter on my breast?<br/> + O coom an’ meet me, Mally,<br/> + O coom an’ greet me, Mally,<br/> + Meet me, greet me, at the courtin’ gate.<br/> +<br/> +I’ve wrowt all t’ day at t’ harvist,<br/> + But ivery hour seemed sweet,<br/> +Acause I thowt I’d haud thee<br/> + Clasped i’ my airms to-neet.<br/> +Black Bess she raked aside me<br/> + An’ leuked at me an’ smiled;<br/> +I telled her I loved Mally,<br/> + It made her despert wild.<br/> + O coom an’ meet me, Mally,<br/> + O coom an’ greet me, Mally,<br/> + Meet me, greet me, at the courtin’ gate.<br/> +<br/> +Thy shadow’s gone frae t’ kitchen,<br/> + T’ hoose-door is oppened wide.<br/> +It’s she, my viewly Mally,<br/> + The lass I’ll mak my bride.<br/> +White lilies in her garden,<br/> + Fling oot your scent i’ t’ air,<br/> +An’ mingle breath wi’ t’ roses<br/> + I’ve gethered for her hair.<br/> + O let me haud thee, Mally,<br/> + O let me faud thee, Mally,<br/> + Haud thee, faud thee, at the courtin’ gate. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap23"></a>Fieldfares</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +Fieldfares, bonny fieldfares, feedin’ ’mang the bent,<br/> +Wheer the sun is shinin’ through yon cloud’s wide rent,<br/> + Welcoom back to t’ moorlands,<br/> + Frae Norway’s fells an’ shorelands,<br/> +Welcoom back to Whardill,<a href="#fn-121" name="fnref-121" id="fnref-121"><sup>[1]</sup></a> now October’s ommost spent.<br/> +<br/> +Noisy, chackin’ fieldfares, weel I ken your cry,<br/> +When i’ flocks you’re sweepin’ ower the hills sae high:<br/> + Oft on trees you gethers,<br/> + Preenin’ out your feathers,<br/> +An’ I’m fain to see your coats as blue as t’ summer sky.<br/> +<br/> +Curlews, larks an’ tewits,<a href="#fn-122" name="fnref-122" id="fnref-122"><sup>[2]</sup></a> all have gone frae t’ moors,<br/> +Frost has nipped i’ t’ garden all my bonny floors;<br/> + Roses, lilies, pansies,<br/> + Stocks an’ yallow tansies<br/> +Fade away, an’ soon the leaves ’ll clutter<a href="#fn-123" name="fnref-123" id="fnref-123"><sup>[3]</sup></a> doon i’ shoors.<br/> +<br/> +Here i’ bed I’m liggin’, liggin’ day by day<br/> +Hay-cart whemmled ower,<a href="#fn-124" name="fnref-124" id="fnref-124"><sup>[4]</sup></a> and underneath I lay;<br/> + I was nobbut seven,<br/> + Soon I’ll be eleven;<br/> +Fower times have I seen you fieldfares coom an’ flee away.<br/> +<br/> +You’ll be gone when t’ swallow bigs his nest o’ loam,<br/> +April winds ’ll blaw you far ower t’ saut sea foam;<br/> + You’ll not wait while May-time,<br/> + Summer dews an’ hay-time;<br/> +Lang afore our gerse is mawn your mates ’ll call you home.<br/> +<br/> +Fieldfares, liltin’<a href="#fn-125" name="fnref-125" id="fnref-125"><sup>[5]</sup></a> fieldfares, you’ll noan sing to me.<br/> +Why sud you bide silent while you’ve crossed the sea?<br/> + Are you brokken-hearted,<br/> + Sin frae home you’ve parted,<br/> +Leavin’ far frae Yorkshire moors your nests i’ t’ tall fir +tree?<br/> +<br/> +Storm-cock sings at new-yeer, swingin’ on yon esh,<br/> +Sings his loudest song when t’ winds do beat an’ lesh;<br/> + Robins, throstles follow,<br/> + An’ when cooms the swalloww,<br/> +All the birds ’ll chirm to see our woodlands green an’ nesh.<br/> +<br/> +Fieldfares, bonny fieldfares, I’ll be gone ’fore you;<br/> + I’m sae weak an’ dowly, hands are thin an’ blue.<br/> + Pain is growin’ stranger,<br/> +As the neets get langer.<br/> +Will you miss my face at whiles, when t’ owd yeer’s changed to +t’ new? +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-121" id="fn-121"></a> <a href="#fnref-121">[1]</a> +Wharfdale. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-122" id="fn-122"></a> <a href="#fnref-122">[2]</a> +Peewits. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-123" id="fn-123"></a> <a href="#fnref-123">[3]</a> +Huddle. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-124" id="fn-124"></a> <a href="#fnref-124">[4]</a> +Upset. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-125" id="fn-125"></a> <a href="#fnref-125">[5]</a> +Light-hearted. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap24"></a>A Song of the Yorkshire Dales</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +A song I sing o’ t’ Yorkshire dales,<br/> + That Winnd frae t’ moors to t’ sea;<br/> +Frae t’ breast o’ t’ fells, wheer t’ cloud-rack +sails,<br/> + Their becks flow merrily.<br/> +Their banks are breet wi’ moss an’ broom,<br/> + An’ sweet is t’ scent o’ t’ thyme;<br/> +You can hark to t’ bees’ saft, dreamy soom<a href="#fn-126" name="fnref-126" id="fnref-126"><sup>[1]</sup></a><br/> + I’ t’ foxglove bells an’ t’ lime. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +Chorus +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +O! Swawdill’s good for horses, an’ Wensladill for cheese,<br/> + An’ Airedill fowk are busy as a bee;<br/> + But wheersoe’er I wander,<br/> + My owd heart aye grows fonder<br/> +O Whardill, wheer I’ll lig me down an’ dee.<br/> +<br/> +Reet bonny are our dales i’ March,<br/> + When t’ curlews tak to t’ moors,<br/> +There’s ruddy buds on ivery larch,<br/> + Primroses don their floors.<br/> +But bonnier yet when t’ August sun<br/> + Leets up yon plats o’ ling;<br/> +An’ gert white fishes lowp an’ scun,<a href="#fn-127" name="fnref-127" id="fnref-127"><sup>[2]</sup></a><br/> + Wheer t’ weirs ower t’ watter hing.<br/> +<br/> +O! Swawdillls good...<br/> +<br/> +By ivery beck an abbey sleeps,<br/> + An’ t’ ullet is t’ owd prior.<br/> +A jackdaw thruf each windey peeps,<br/> + An’ bigs his nest i’ t’ choir.<br/> +In ivery dale a castle stands—<br/> + Sing, Clifford, Percy, Scrope!—<br/> +They threaped amang theirsels for t’ lands,<br/> + But fowt for t’ King or t’ Pope.<br/> +<br/> +O! Swawdill’s good...<br/> +<br/> +O! Eastward ho! is t’ song o’ t’ gales,<br/> + As they sweep ower fell an’ lea;<br/> +And Eastward ho! is t’ song o’ t’ dales,<br/> + That winnd frae t’ moors to t’ sea.<br/> +Coom winter frost, coom summer druft,<br/> + Their watters munnot bide;<br/> +An’ t’ rain that’s fall’n when bould winds soughed<br/> + Sal iver seawards glide.<br/> +<br/> +O! Swawdill’ s good... +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-126" id="fn-126"></a> <a href="#fnref-126">[1]</a> +Hum. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-127" id="fn-127"></a> <a href="#fnref-127">[2]</a> +Leap and dart away. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap25"></a>The Flower of Wensleydale</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +She leaned o’er her latticed casement,<br/> + The Flower of Wensleydale;<br/> +’Twas St Agnes Eve at midnight,<br/> + Through the mist the stars burnt pale.<br/> +<br/> +In her hand she held twelve sage-leaves,<br/> + Plucked in her garden at noon;<br/> +And over them she had whispered thrice<br/> + The spell of a mystic rune.<br/> +<br/> +For many had come a-wooing<br/> + The maid with the sloe-blue eyes;<br/> +Fain would she learn of St Agnes<br/> + To whom should fall the prize.<br/> +<br/> +They said she must drop a sage-leaf<br/> + At each stroke of the midnight hour;<br/> +Then should the knight of her father’s choice<br/> +Obey the summons of her voice,<br/> + And appear ’neath her oriel’d bowwer.<br/> +<br/> +To the holy virgin-martyr<br/> + She lifted her hands in prayer;<br/> +Then she watched the rooks that perched asleep<br/> + In the chestnut branches bare.<br/> +<br/> +At last on the frosty silence<br/> + There rang out the midnight chime;<br/> +And the hills gave back in echoes<br/> + The knell of the dying time.<br/> +<br/> +She held her breath as she counted<br/> + The beats of the chapel bell;<br/> +At every stroke of the hammer<br/> + A sage-leaf fluttered and fell,<br/> + Slowly fluttered and fell.<br/> +<br/> +Her heart stood still a moment,<br/> + As the last leaf touched the ground;<br/> +And her hand went swift to her maiden breast,<br/> + For she heard a far-off sound;<br/> +<br/> +’Twas the sound of a horseman spurring<br/> + His steed through the woodland glade;<br/> +And ever the sound drew nearer,<br/> +And the footfalls echoed clearer,<br/> + Till before her bower they stayed.<br/> +<br/> +She strained her eyes to discover,<br/> + By the light of a ghostly moon,<br/> +Who was the knight had heard and obeyed<br/> + The hest of the mystic rune.<br/> +<br/> +But naught could she see from her casement,<br/> + Save a man on a coal-black steed;<br/> +For his mantle was muffled about him,<br/> + His blazon she could not read.<br/> +<br/> +She crossed herself and she whispered—<br/> + Her voice was faint but clear—<br/> +“Oh! Who art thou that darest ride,<br/> +Through the aspen glade, by the river’s side,<br/> + My chamber window near?<br/> +<br/> +“Say, art thou the lord of Bainbridge,<br/> + Or Gervase of Bolton Hall,<br/> +That comest so late on St Agnes Eve<br/> + Within my manor wall?”<br/> +<br/> +“I am not the lord of Bainbridge,<br/> + Nor Gervase of Bolton Hall,<br/> +But I marked the light in thy casement,<br/> + And I saw the sage-leaves fall,<br/> + Flutter awhile and fall.”<br/> +<br/> +“Camest thou over the moorlands,<br/> + Or camest thou through the dale?<br/> +Speak no guile to a witless maid,<br/> + But tell me a soothfast tale.”<br/> +<br/> +“I came not over the moorlands,<br/> + Nor along the dale did ride;<br/> +But thou seeest thy plighted lover,<br/> + That has come to claim his bride.”<br/> +<br/> +“Say, art thou knight or yeoman,<br/> + Of noble or simple birth?<br/> +Fain would I know thy lineage,<br/> + Thy prowess and thy worth.”<br/> +<br/> +“Nor knight nor lowly yeoman,<br/> + But a mighty king am I;<br/> +Bold vassals do my bidding,<br/> + And on mine errands hie.<br/> +<br/> +“They come to court and castle,<br/> + They climb the palace stairs;<br/> +Nor pope nor king may entrance bar<br/> + To him my livery wears.”<br/> +<br/> +“But why should a king so mighty<br/> + Pay court to a simple maid?<br/> +My father’s a knight of low degree,<br/> +No princely realm he holds in fee,<br/> +No proud-foot damsels wait on me:<br/> + Thy steps have surely strayed.”<br/> +<br/> +“No step of mine hath wandered<br/> + From the goal of my desires;<br/> +’Tis on thee my hopes are centred,<br/> + ’Tis to thee my heart aspires.<br/> +<br/> +“I love thee for thy beauty,<br/> + I love thee for thy grace,<br/> +I love thee for the dancing lights<br/> + That gleam in thy moon-lit face:<br/> +And these I deem a peerless dower<br/> + To win a king’s embrace.”<br/> +<br/> +“One boon, O royal lover,<br/> + I ask on St Agnes Day;<br/> +I fain would gaze on thy visage fair<br/> + Ere with thee I steal away.<br/> +<br/> +“Unmuffle thou the mantle<br/> + That hides thee like a pall;<br/> +And let the purple trappings<br/> + From off thy shoulders fall.”<br/> +<br/> +Slowly he loosed the mantle,<br/> + And showed his face beneath.<br/> +The lights went out in the maiden’s eyes;<br/> +One swooning word she breathed to the skies:<br/> + The gaunt hills echoed “Death.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Songs of the Ridings by F. 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