Poetry > Ballads in the Cumberland dialect

NOTES.
199
however, when he pays his nocturnal visit to his
dulcinea, peeps through the glass with no other view
than of gratifying his sight with the looks and
motions of the fair object of his affections, happy if
he find no rival participating in her smiles and
conversation.
Note 49, p. 92.—Peer Dinah Dufton, <fcc.
It must be an insensible heart that does not feel
for the fate of those unfortunate females who have
been seduced from the paths of virtue and innocence
by the artifices of a set of men who are the disgrace
of their country, and the pests of society.—The crime
of seduction has spread general misery. It has even
filled rural life (from which the poets of all ages have
drawn their finest images of felicity) with complaint,
disease, and wretchedness; and if such be its effects,
he is no friend to his country who does not wish that
some effectual check were put to it.
Note 50, p. 94.
Says Ned, says he, The thimmel gi'e me.
A village swain endeavours to ingratiate himself
into the favour of his sweetheart by making her such
presents as are within the reach of his humble cir¬
cumstances, such as handkerchiefs, ribbons, gloves,
thimbles, beads, &c.—In all ranks of life the cold
virtue of savingness gives way to the warmth of love.
Note 51, p. 95.
There was ill gusty Jemmy, the Cocker o' Codbeck.
A cocker is a character that a humane mind will
always contemplate with disgust. The diversion
which he is fond of can only gratify a heart lost to
virtue and divested of feeling, or attract an under¬
standing feeble, and barren of ideas. When we see
the profligate and squalid crowds that attend a country