Poetry > Ballads in the Cumberland dialect

NOTES.
195
the course of his survey, honest Hodge, casually
resting his hand upon a certain be-corked part of her
dress,exclaimed with much simplicity,whilehe popped
his head out of the window,—‘ The leevin sure, Miss !
what a muckle backside you ha’e gotten! It cannot
seerly be aw your awnV i. e., Wonderful, Miss ! what
a spacious backside you have gotten! It cannot surely
be all your own ? To this plain question a blush was
the only answer which the lady returned.”
Note 39, p. 79.
Auld Orizzy the witch, &c.
Those of the Cumbrian peasantry whose ideas have
not been enlarged by education, have a firm belief in
witchcraft and necromancy; and discover, in the per¬
son of every deformed old woman, a witch and a ma¬
gician, whose favour they are anxious to conciliate,
and whose vengeance they are solicitous to avert. If
poor Hodge fall from his cart and dislocate his neck;
if he be bewildered on some dreary moor; if some
contagious disease destroy his cattle, or some pesti¬
lential sickness afflict his family; in short, all the
calamities and misfortunes that visit him or his
neighbours are imputed to her infernal incantations.
Note 40, p. 80.
Whea was'l that brak our lanlword garth t
To pillage a garden or an orchard is generally con¬
sidered as a venial fault in a schoolboy,and even praise
is bestowed on the spirit with which the enterprise is
executed. But certainly every tendency to vice can¬
not be too soon corrected, as a disposition to virtue
cannot be too soon formed.
Note 41, p. 81.
My Owordie’s whussle weel 1 ken.
A life of severe labour does not depress the spirits
of a peasant. On his return to his cottage, after the