Poetry > Ballads in the Cumberland dialect

204
NOTES.
formed for virtue and happiness, has it filled •with
guilt and misery! In the time of King Edgar, the
vice of drunkenness so much prevailed, that he en¬
deavoured to check it by limiting the number of ale¬
houses, and ordering nails orpins to be fixed, at stated
distances, in the drinking cups and horns, by which
marks the drinkers were to regulate their draughts,
or suffer punishment. What effect these regulations
produced at that time I do not know; but I’m afraid
chat pins and penalties would be feeble barriers against
the vigorous draughts of a modem toper.
Note 60, p. 102.
We went owre to Deavie’s Clay Daubin.
In the eastern and northern parts of Cumberland,
the walls of houses are in general composed of clay,
and in their erection take seldom more than the space
of a day. When a young rustic marries, the highest
ambition of his heart is to be the master of an humble
clay-built cottage, that might afford shelter to him
and his family. As soon as he has selected a proper
site, which usually borders on some moor that affords
turf and peat for fuel, he signifies his intentions to his
neighbours, who, on the appointed day, punctually
muster on the spot where the intended building is to
be raised, each individual bringing a spade and one
day’s provisions along with him.
That every thing might be done in order, and
without confusion, a particular piece of work is as¬
signed to each labourer. Some dig the clay, some
fetch it in wheelbarrows, some water it and mix it
with straw, and some heave it upon the walls. The
rustic girls (a great many of whom attend on the oc¬
casion) fetch the water, with which the clay is
softened, from some neighbouring ditch or pond.
When the walls are raised to their proper height, the
company have plenty to eat and drink; after which
the lads and the lasses, with faces incrusted with clay