Works

From Hull, Halifax, and Hell, good Lord deliver us.
A Yorkshire Proverb.


It's hard when fowks can't finnd their wark
Wheer they've bin bred an' born;
When I were young I awlus thowt...

A song I sing o' t' Yorkshire dales,
That winnd frae t' moors to t' sea;
Frae t' breast o' t' fells, wheer t' cloud-rack sails,
Their becks flow merrily.
Their banks are breet wi' moss an' broom,...

Cambodunum is the name of a Roman station, situated on a farm at Slack, on the hills above Huddersfield.


Cambodunum, Cambodunum,
how I love the sound o' t' name!
Roman sowdiers belt a fort here,...

Fieldfares, bonny fieldfares, feedin' 'mang the bent,
Wheer the sun is shinin' through yon cloud's wide rent,
Welcoom back to t' moorlands,
Frae Norway's fells an' shorelands,...

GRANDFATHER
T' watter is blue i' t' offin',
An' blue is t' sky aboon;
Swallows are settin' sou'ard,
An' wanin' is t' harvist moon.
Ower lang I've bin cowerin' idle
I' my neuk by t' fire-side;...

The Lord's bin hard on me, Sir,
He's stown my barn away.
O dowly, dowly was that neet
He stole lile Doad away!

'Twas Whissuntide we wedded,
Next Easter he was born,...

These verses were written soon after the Old Age Pensions Bill came into operation.


I'd walk frae here to Skipton,
Ten mile o' clarty(1) lanes,
If I might see him face to face...

What would you do wi' a doughter--
Pray wi' her, bensil(1) her, flout her?--
Say, what would you do wi' a daughter
That's marra to Bonney(2) hissen?

I prayed wi' her first, of a Sunday,...

Mary Mecca,(1) Mary Mecca,
I'm fain to see thee here,
A Devon lass to fill my glass
O' home-brewed Yorkshire beer.
I awlus said that foreigners
Sud niver mel on me;
But sike a viewly face as thine...

One yeer owder, one yeer dearer:
That's what I sal awlus say.
Draw thy chair a little nearer,
Put yon stockin's reight away.
Thou hast done enough i' thy time,
Tewed i' t' house an' wrowt at loom;...

I niver heerd its name; we call it just "Our beck."
Mebbe, there's bigger streams down Ripon way;
But if thou wants clean watter, by my neck!
Thou'll travel far for cleaner, ony day.
...

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...

Lang-haired gauvies(1) coom my way, drawin' t' owd abbey an' brig,
All their crack is o' Art-staities an' picturs an' paints;
Want to put me on their canvas, donned i' my farmer's rig,...

Draw back my curtains, Mary,
An' oppen t' windey wide;
Ay, ay, I know I'm deein',
While to-morn I'll hardlins bide.
But yit afore all's ovver,
An' I lig cowd as snow,...

A weddin', a woo,
A clog an' a shoe,
A pot full o' porridge; away we go!
A Yorkshire Wedding-Rhyme.


Thoo mun hod on tight, my darlin',
We've mony a beck to cross;...

There's dew upon the meadows,
An' bats are wheelin' high;
The sun has set an hour sin',
An' evenin' leet's i' t' sky.
Swalows i' t' thack are sleepin ,
Neet-hawks are swift on t' wing,...

She leaned o'er her latticed casement,
The Flower of Wensleydale;
'Twas St Agnes Eve at midnight,
Through the mist the stars burnt pale.

In her hand she held twelve sage-leaves,...

But now they are moaning, on ilka green loaning
The Flowers of the Forest are a' wede away.
Jane Elliot (1727-1805).


O! day-time is weary, an' dark o' dusk dreary...

Why! Bobbie, so thou's coom agean!
I'm fain to see thee here;
It's lang sin I've set een on thee,
It's ommost hauf a yeer.
What's that thou says? Thou's taen a wife
An' raised a family....

Thou wants my vote, young man wi' t' carpet-bags,
Weel, sit thee down, an' hark what I've to say.
It's noan so varry oft wer kitchen flags
Are mucked by real live lords down Yelland(1) way.
...