Poetry > Ballads in the Cumberland dialect

194
NOTES.
always with spirit and expedition to his kail and | -
crowdy, unintimidated by the length of the road, or] |
the tempestuousness of the weather. And he never j
finds any reason to regret this mode of dining by
rotation at the tables of his pupils, as every good
housewife always provides, against his whittle-day,t
a cow’d-lword, and a piece of beef or mutton.
Note 37, i>. 78.
Our pa/rson says, We bang'd them still.
Nothing tends more to inspire valour than a know¬
ledge of the achievements of our ancestors. A British
soldier does not calculate the number of his enemies
when he recalls to mind the battles of Cressy, Poic-j
tiers, and Agincourt. The study of history, particu-*
larly that of our own country, should therefore form
an important part in the system of education. It
will be the means of making us better patriots and
better men; for he must be lost to every honourable
feeling, whose loyalty and patriotism do not kindle ;
at the names of a Falkland and a Montrose.
The witch weyfe begg’d in our backseyde.
In Cumberland the word backside implies that
space of ground which lies immediately behind the
house ; but in its common acceptation, it conveys an
idea less refined, and is particularly apt, in the mouth
of a rustic, to wound the delicate ear of a fine lady,
unacquainted with its provincial signification.
“ A plain Cumberland farmer, being called to Lon¬
don on some law business, took the opportunity to
visit his landlord, whose residence was in f
Garden; but not finding him at home, he enters
a chat with his daughter, a fashionable fine lady, who
very civilly showed him all the house, and was highly
diverted with his remarks on everything he saw. In
Note 38, p. 79.