Poetry > Ballads in the Cumberland dialect

NOTES.
177
“That will nowther pay brewer,
Nor get bits o’ sarks to yen’s back.”—p. 141.
The wedding is always accompanied with music and
dancing; and the fiddler, when the contributions
begin, takes care to remind the assembly of their
duties, by notes imitative of the following couplet:—
“ Come, my friends, and freely offer,
Here’s the bride who has no tocher.”
A Bridewain or Infair is also a festive meeting
called together for the same purpose, and is held at
the house of the bridegroom, when the bride and her
furniture are brought home in a wain or waggon, and,
from this circumstance, is called the bride-wain
The inhabitants, for several miles round, are invited
to it, and various diversions are exhibited for their
entertainment. A plate or dish is placed upon a
table, and every one of the company contributes
according to inclination and circumstances. The
contributions sometimes amount to a considerable
sum, enabling a young couple to begin the world with
advantage, and are also a convincing testimony of the
high estimation in which they are held by their
neighbours.
Note 7, p. 23.—De’il bin!
A common mode of swearing among the Cumber¬
land clowns.—It is certainly a testimony of the
refined manners, if not of the improved morals of the
age, that oaths are banished from all polite circles,
and are only to be found among the dregs of the
commonalty.
Note 8, p. 28.
I was seebenteen last Collop-Monday.
The first Monday before Lent is provincially called
Collop-Monday; and the first Tuesday, Pancake-
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