many hair-breadth escapes from the danger of being ‘nipped’ in the ice.
Her sides bulged outwards like a barrel; or, as sailors put it, they
‘tumbled home’ to the deck.
One of the saddest events in the Hull whaling industry was the return
home of the _Diana_ in 1867. This was the first steamship to go to the
whaling-grounds, and in her voyage of 1866 she had the misfortune to
become locked in the ice for six months. The sufferings of her crew can
be imagined. Captain Gravill died in December, one of her crew died in
February, five died in March, and five more died in April.
[Illustration: THE HULL WHALER ‘TRUELOVE’.]
The _Truelove_ was sent out from the Humber as a relief ship for the
_Diana_, but the two vessels passed each other. With thirty-six men down
with the scurvy, and only seven left fit to work the ship, the
unfortunate _Diana_ eventually reached home, her dead captain’s coffin
on the ship’s bridge.
The following year this ill-fated vessel was wrecked on the treacherous
flats of Donna Nook, off the Lincolnshire coast at the mouth of the
Humber. With her loss the whaling industry of the Humber seamen came to
an end.
* * * * *
During many of the years when the whale fisheries were providing work
for East Riding seamen, France and England were at war. Men were
consequently needed to man the English navy, and such notices as the
following were frequently issued in seaport towns:—
RECRUITING FOR THE NAVY.
=WANTED.=
For the parishes of _Sculcoates_, _Cottingham_, and _Little
Weighton_, A few able-bodied SEAMEN or LANDMEN to serve in His
Majesty’s Navy during the present War ONLY.... The Families and
Friends of Volunteers will receive Monthly Pay, and the Volunteers
themselves will have a bountiful supply of Cloathing, Beef, Grog,
Flip, and Strong Beer, also a certainty of Prize Money, as the men
entered for this service will be sent to capture the rich Spanish
Galleons, and in consequence will return loaded with Dollars and
Honour, to spend their Days in Peace and Plenty.
* * * * *
May the constitution of _England_ endure for ever, and
the Parishioners of _Sculcoates_, _Cottingham_ and
_Little Weighton_ live to see it.
Hull, November 28th, 1796.
But the results of this ‘Recruiting for the Navy’ were not always
satisfactory, notwithstanding the ‘certainty of Prize Money’ and the
‘bountiful supply of ... Grog, Flip, and Strong Beer.’ So recourse was
had to the _Press Gang_, and many were the tricks practised by the
captains and crews of Hull whalers to reach home safely.
[Illustration: THE FIRST STEAMSHIP BUILT ON THE HUMBER.]
A ship of war was stationed in the Humber to board incoming whalers and
impress men for service in the navy. To escape, numbers of the men were
landed at Easington or at lonely spots farther north, and these would
make their way home as best they could by land.
Another very ingenious trick was worked successfully by the captain of a
whaler which was boarded by a revenue cutter off Flamborough Head. This
is how Captain Barron in his _Old Whaling Days_ tells the story:—
A revenue cutter hove in sight off Flambro’ Head when Captain
Scoresby was returning home with a full ship. When he saw it in the
distance, he let four or five feet of water into the hold through a
large brass tap which some whalers had in their counters on purpose
to fill their casks for ballast. This was kept running, so that the
pumps could not gain upon it, and when the officer boarded the ship
he was told she made so much water that the crew would not be able
to keep her afloat if he took any away. The officer sounded the
pumps, and was satisfied in finding when they stopped pumping the
water rose in the hold. He took his departure. The tap was at once
turned off, and the water pumped out. This clever trick saved his
men from being forced on board His Majesty’s ships.
On another occasion—in 1798—the _Blenheim_ was boarded in the Humber by
_H.M.S. Nonsuch_, and a free fight followed, in which two of the
warship’s crew were slain. For this the captain of the whaler was
brought to trial at York. But he was acquitted on the charge of murder
laid against him; and when the York coach brought him safely home to
Hull, ‘the crowd took out the horses, dragged it to the Market Place,
and ran it three times round the statue of King William’ by way of
showing their joy.
The warships of this period, were, of course, vastly different from the
battleships of which English seamen are so proud to-day. Many were built
in the Humber; the largest being the _Humber_, an eighty-gun ship,
launched at Hessle Cliff in 1693. _H.M.S. Hector_ was built by Hugh
Blaydes fifty years later. During the years 1739–1774 three warships
were built at Paull, six at Hessle, and fifteen at Hull. A memento of
the _Hyperion_, built at Hull in 1806, still exists in the name of a
small street running off Great Union Street, and a neighbouring street
bears the name of a very popular whaler, the _Aurora_.
[Illustration: A HUMBER PILOT BOAT.]
* * * * *
The first steamship used on the Humber was one built in Scotland, and
hence appropriately named the _Caledonia_.[66] This steam packet ran
between Hull and Selby in 1815. Five years later the _Rockingham_ was
built at Thorne, and the following year the _Kingston_ began the
‘expeditious and easy conveyance’ of passengers from Hull to London.
Footnote 66:
The first steamboat built in England was constructed in a yard off
Wincolmlee, Hull, and was launched in the river Hull. This was in the
year 1787, and the engine was patented the next year. The makers,
Messrs. Furness & Ashton, afterwards built a larger steam-boat, which
was put together in London and bought by the Prince Regent, who
rewarded them with a pension of £70 each.
The _Kingston_ was, of course, looked upon as a wonderful vessel. Its
owners proudly announced to the public:—
In the construction of this elegant vessel, which will be propelled
by an engine of sixty horse power every attention has been paid to
render the conveyance expeditious, commodious, and safe.
‘Expeditious’, however, it did not prove to be—at any rate on its first
voyage. For when twenty miles from the Humber, the axis of the paddles
broke; and instead of reaching London in thirty hours, as the passengers
had expected, the _Kingston_ found its way back to Hull some forty-eight
hours after its triumphant start.
These early steam packets were somewhat different from the ocean liners
of our own day. Compare the portrait of the _Rockingham_ on page 295
with that of the _Bayardo_ on page 299. Launched in 1910 from Earle’s
Shipbuilding Yard, at a cost of £67,000, the latter was for its short
life the ‘Queen of the Wilson Line.’
The fate of the _Diana_ and the _Bayardo_ illustrates the dangers of the
Humber. The latter vessel left Gothenburg on a Friday evening in
January, 1912, with a cargo worth £30,000 and a small number of
passengers. On the Saturday evening she was making her way up the Humber
in a dense fog when she ran hard aground on a sandbank almost opposite
the dock which was her destination. By the following evening her back
was broken, and the ‘Queen of the Wilson Line’ was a hopeless wreck.
[Illustration: The ‘Southampton.’]
[Illustration:
The ‘Bayardo.’
SHIPS OLD AND NEW.
]
* * * * *
[Illustration:
_Photo by_] [_C.W. Mason_
The Entrance to the ‘Old Harbour.’
]
Stand on the Victoria Pier at Hull on a clear day, and watch the ships
of the Humber. Of all sizes and shapes and speeds they are. There we see
the keel, with its one square sail, making its way slowly along, the
peaceful descendant of the square-sailed long-ship of Viking days. There
are the schooners and barques that are survivals from the days when all
ships depended on the wind for their motive power. There is a tug-boat
taking out to its moorings the light-ship on which the safety of many
other ships will depend.
There also are the ‘fast-sailing’ steam trawlers and carriers coming
from, or going to, the fishing-grounds off Iceland and north of the
White Sea—the representatives of the whalers of a hundred years
ago—there the scurrying pilot boats and revenue cutters. And there is a
great ocean liner riding at anchor and waiting the turn of the tide to
allow it to enter the dock and discharge the cargo it has brought from
the other side of the world.
XXVIII.
FOLK-SPEECH OF THE EAST RIDING.
There is a tale told of a Yorkshireman on a visit to London that he fell
into argument with a bus conductor over the correct way of pronouncing
the simple word ‘road.’ The cockney bus-conductor had, in his usual way,
called out ‘’Toria Rowd; ’Toria Rowd!’ and the Yorkshireman was highly
displeased with this obvious murder of the King’s English. ‘Rowd!’ said
he in his disgust; ‘whah dooant ya speeak English? R-o-a-d—that’s hoo
it’s spelt, beeant it? Whah dooant ya ca’ it Roo-ad?’
The story will serve to illustrate the fact that a man born and bred in
the heart of England’s biggest shire, and one born and bred in the heart
of England’s biggest city, do not sound all their words in the same
manner, though they may at the same time spell them alike. Moreover,
neither of the two will perhaps sound his words in the way in which
custom says it is correct to sound them.
Such differences are to be found in many parts of the country. The
Northumberland miner, the Sheffield steel-worker, the Nottingham
lace-worker, the Norfolk grazier, and the ‘Zummerzet’ farm-labourer all
speak ‘English’; but yet they would have no little difficulty in making
one another understand what their respective English words meant. In
other words, the districts to which they belong have each a DIALECT or
FOLK-SPEECH of their own.
* * * * *
Let us see what are some of the peculiarities of the Folk-Speech of our
East Riding:—
(1) An East Yorkshireman sounds his vowels in his own peculiar way. With
him I is pronounced as _ah_, warm as _wahrm_, night as _neet_, road as
_rooad_, cow as _coo_, know as _knaw_, pound as _pund_, come as _coom_,
and ought as _owt_. He is, moreover, very fond of the EEA sound; for he
makes cake into _keeak_, meat into _meeat_, home into _heeam_, sure into
_seear_, school into _skeeal_, look into _leeak_, enough into _eneeaf_,
and plough into _pleeaf_.
(2) He finds it too much of an effort to sound the whole word ‘the,’ and
therefore clips it into _t’_; so that with him ‘the cow is in the close’
becomes _t’ coo is i’ t’ clooase_. If he is a Holderness man even that
effort will probably be too great for him, and what he will say is _coo
is i’ clooase_.
(3) In the same way he finds it much easier to drop the final G of words
ending in ING and to drop an initial H. To make up for the latter,
however, he may very possibly put in an occasional H somewhere where it
would not be expected. Thus he may tell us, speaking of his companions,
that _hivvry yan on em is gannin t’ ’Ool t’ morn_.
(4) He has a very simple method of dealing with the inflections of the
verb. I am, thou art, he is; and I do, thou dost, he does, are levelled
into:—
_Ah is_ _Ah diz_
_Thoo is_ _Thoo diz_
_He is_ _He diz_
—while, in speaking of his sheep, he may even tell us that _Them’s good
uns_.
(5) The plural words cows, eyes, children, are not at all to his liking.
He much prefers to speak of such things as _ky_, _een_, and _childer_.
Nor does he take kindly to the ‘apostrophe s’ as a sign of the
possessive case; but will tell his boy to _stan bi t’ hoss heead_.
(6) He is very fond of doubling his negatives, and occasionally he is
not even satisfied with the doubling process. It is said of an East
Yorkshireman whose apple trees were the aim of many a schoolboy’s stone,
that his lamentation took the form of _neeabody’s neea bisniss ti thraw
nowt inti neeabody’s gardin_.
(7) He is also very fond of ‘strong’ past tenses and of past participles
ending in EN. The past tenses beat, crept, snowed, are with him _bet_,
_crop_, and _snew_; while the past participles burst, fought, got, held,
let, put, become _brussen_, _fowten_, _gotten_, _ho’dden_, _letten_, and
_putten_. So firmly fixed in popular favour are these forms in EN that
it is told of a small boy who had been receiving a lesson on their
incorrectness, that in a state of momentary excitement he informed his
mistress: _Pleease, miss, Billy Jooanes ha’ putten ‘putten’ wheer he owt
ti ha’ putten ‘put.’_
(8) The East Yorkshireman has a host of words that are all his own. Thus
he will tell us that _theer war nobbut yah coo i’ t’ helm at t’ far-end
o’ t’ pastur_; and that he _doots t’ awd meer’s boon ti dee, but happen
she mud live whahl Moon da_.[67]
Footnote 67:
_nobbut_=only. _boon_=ready.
_helm_=shed. _happen_=possibly.
_far-end_=opposite side. _mud_=might.
_doots_=fears. _whahl_=until.
(9) He has likewise his own way of expressing his thoughts, and no other
will serve his purpose so well. ‘Well, my boy, who are you?’ a country
parson freshly arrived from the South is said to have asked a village
boy. _Ah’s weel, hoo’s yersen?_ was the unexpected reply that the parson
received. But, of course, he should have known that in East Yorkshire
the correct way of asking his question is ‘What do they call you?’
There are very many of these special modes of expression. To spread a
report is _to set it aboot_, to scold a person is _to call_ him, to call
a person is _to call of_ him, to pour hot water on tea-leaves is _to
mash t’ tay_, to be going to the bad is _to be at a loose end_, to leave
off doing a thing is _to give ower_, and to give good promise of success
is _to fraame middlin_.
If an East Yorkshireman wishes to make known that he saw his brother
Sam, he will say _Ah seed oor Sam_. Of one who cannot look after himself
he will say that _t’ awd chap canna fend for hissen_, and of one who is
not getting better from an illness it will be said that _he dizn’t mend
onny_.
Sometimes the result of the change of expression becomes ludicrous, as
it was in the case of the cottager who, telling of a lodger that he
prepared his own food and she did his washing for him, explained: _He
meeats hissen an’ ah weshes him_.
The East Yorkshireman, like many other people, likes making comparisons;
but he has his own idea of what forms a fit and proper comparison. Thus,
in speaking of the steepness of a cliff he will tell us that it is _as
brant as a hoose sahd_, or he will explain that his grandfather is _as
deeaf as a yat-stowp_.[68] Concerning a person of whose capabilities he
does not think highly, he will tell us that he is _as fond as a
billy-gooat_, or _as green as a yalla cabbish_, or even _as soft as a
boiled tonnap_.
Footnote 68:
_Yat-stowp_=gate-post.
* * * * *
Many other examples of the peculiarities of the East Yorkshire
Folk-Speech might be given. What shall we say about them? Shall we smile
at what we are pleased to consider mis-pronunciations and awkward
attempts to speak the English language? When the farm-labourer, who had
been beguiled into buying a ‘solid gold-plated keyless watch jewelled in
seven holes’ from a cheap-jack in Beverley Market Place, was told by his
companion to _ax_ where the key was, and proceeded to bawl out _Wheer’s
t’ kay?_ was he to be laughed at for murdering the King’s English?
If we wish to laugh at those who thus speak ‘broad Yorkshire’ let us do
so. But at the same time let us remember that what we are pleased to
call ‘broad Yorkshire’ is often much truer English than what we
ourselves customarily use.
A thousand years ago our ancestors called a key _cæg_ (pronounced
_kaig_), and used the verb _acsian_ where we should use ‘ask.’ They also
used the word _cy_ (pronounced _kee_) for the plural of _cu_ (pronounced
_koo_), and the word _cilder_ (pronounced _kilder_) for the plural of
_cild_.
So really the East Yorkshire farm-labourers are speaking the language of
their ancestors much more truly than we who mis-pronounce words and make
them into _cows_ and _ask_, and who manufacture such a double plural as
the word _child(e)r-en_.
In numerous instances is the East Yorkshire Folk-Speech nearer to the
true English than is the commonly accepted ‘English’ of to-day. The
following examples might be multiplied indefinitely:—
OLD ENGLISH WORDS. STANDARD ENGLISH WORDS. EAST YORKSHIRE
WORDS.
(IN USE A.D. 912). (IN USE A.D. 1912).
AFYRHT (pron. afraid AFEEARD
_afeert_)
GIF if GIF
GRAFAN (pron. to dig GRAAVE
_grahvan_)
HAGOL hail HAGGLE
HRYCG (pron. _hrig_) back or ridge RIG
LICGAN (pron. to lie LIG
_liggan_)
SETL seat SETTLE
SWELAN to gutter (of a candle) SWEEL
THAEC (pron. _thak_) thatch THAK
WANCOL unsteady WANKLE
At Beverley there are three very interesting examples of the survival of
old English words, which have elsewhere dropped entirely out of use. The
Beverley _Frith-Stool_ has preserved its name unchanged from the days
when the word which meant peace was _frith_. The street known to-day as
_Toll Gavel_ preserves memories of the time when _gafol_ meant a tax or
toll, and it is clear that tolls continued to be paid in it long after
the original meaning of this word had become forgotten. Similarly the
_Hurn_, or freemen’s pasture which was once a corner of Beverley
Westwood, has kept its name from the days when _hyrne_ meant a corner.
Another example of how the original meaning of a word may be kept in one
instance only occurs in the descriptive name which is so commonly
applied to England’s largest shire. Yorkshire is known far and wide as
the ‘Land of the Broad Acres.’ But to how many who use this expression
does it convey any meaning? Are the acres in Yorkshire ‘broader’ than
they are elsewhere in Britain? If they are not, what sense is there in
the expression?
As a matter of fact, the expression is a most suitable one. But it is so
only if we know that the word _aecer_ (pronounced _akker_)[69]
originally meant not a certain area of land, but merely a ploughed
field. Yorkshire is still the ‘Broad-acred Shire,’ for in no other part
of our country shall we find _fields_ of waving corn that measure as
much as a hundred acres in extent.
Footnote 69:
The local pronunciation of ‘acre’ in the East Riding is _yakker_; so
that the old sound of the word has been here kept, even though its
meaning has universally changed.
* * * * *
In Chapter VIII. we read how the fierce Northmen settled in our land,
and on pages 59–61 it was shown how numerous are Danish place-names in
the East Riding of Yorkshire. But it is not only in the place-names of
the district that we find proofs of the presence of the Northmen. There
are in common use among the inhabitants of the East Riding scores of
words that are purely Danish words, handed down from father to son,
almost or quite unchanged during more than a thousand years. Some are as
follows:—
WORDS USED BY THE MODERN STANDARD WORDS USED IN EAST
NORSEMEN 1000 YEARS ENGLISH. YORKSHIRE TO-DAY.
AGO.[70]
AT that (conjunction) AT
BAND string, cord BAND
BARN child BA’AN or BARN
BELJA to cry, shout out BEEAL
BUINN ready BOON
DALIGR dismal, lonely DOWLY
DENGJA to strike DING, DENG
FLYTJA to change one’s abode FLIT
FRA from FRA
GARTHR yard GARTH
GATA road, way GATE
GAUKR cuckoo GOWK
GYMBR female lamb GIMMER
HLAUPA to leap LOWP
HNEFI fist NEEAF
KETLINGR kitten KITLIN
KJARR low-lying land CARR
KLEGGI horse-fly KLEG
LEIKA to play LAIK
MEGIN very MAIN
MOLDVARPA mole MOODIEWARP
MUNU must MUN
REYKR smoke REEK
SKAELA to overturn SKEL UP
SKJAPPA basket SKEP
SLAKKI hollow SLACK
SLEIPR slippery SLAAPE
STIGI ladder STEE
THETTR watertight THEET
THRONGR busy THRONG
Footnote 70:
In reading these, it should be remembered that the Norse J=_y_,
AU=_ow_, EI or EY=_ai_, and V=_w_.
Other proofs of the great influence of the Old Norse tongue on the
language of East Riding folk are seen in their liking for the sound of K
where modern standard English demands that of CH. The words _benk_ (or
_bink_), _birk_, _breeks_, _caff_, _kirk_, _kist_, _pickfork_, and
_thack_, are commonly heard used in place of the Southern English forms
bench, birch, breeches, chaff, church, chest, pitchfork, and thatch. So
also _hask_ or _’ask_ is the East Riding pronunciation of harsh, and
_brig_ is universally used for the different meanings of the word
bridge.
* * * * *
In the Rev. M. C. F. Morris’s history of Nunburnholme the author gives
an amusing example of the East Riding Folk-Speech. But it is really
something more than this. For we can see from it very clearly how much
truer English is spoken by the East Yorkshire farm-labourer than by the
fine fellow who prides himself on his knowledge of the English language.
Let us take Mr. Morris’s story—the Fable of ‘The Bear and the Bees’—in
two forms. Here is one of them:—
‘A bear happened to be stung by a bee, and the _pain_ was so _acute_
that in the madness of _revenge_ he ran into the _garden_ and
overturned the hive. This _outrage_ _provoke_d their anger to a high
_degree_, and brought the _fury_ of the whole swarm upon him. They
_attack_ed him with such _violence_ that his life was in _danger_,
and it was with the utmost _difficulty_ that he made his _escape_,
wounded from head to tail.
‘In this _desperate_ _condition_, _lament_ing his mis_fortunes_ and
licking his sores, he could not forbear _reflect_ing how much more
_advisable_ it had been to have _acquiesce_d _patient_ly under one
_injury_ than thus by an un_profitable_ _resentment_ to have
_provoke_d a thousand.’
Now this version of the fable contains just over eighty different words;
and, if we turn over the pages of a French dictionary, we shall find
that twenty-one of the twenty-five words printed in italics were not
originally English words at all, but are words introduced into our
language from the French. Some of them ‘came over with the Conqueror’
undoubtedly. Others were introduced in more recent times. The remaining
four words—_acute_, _desperate_, _reflect_ing, and _acquiesce_d—are
purely Latin words.
Let us now take the East Yorkshireman’s account of what happened:—
‘Yah daay yan o’ them girt beears gat hissen sadly tenged wi’ a bee.
He wer seea _despe’t_ly ho’tten was t’ beear at he wer wahld
ommeeast. Noo, they’re a varry _lungeous_ thing is a beear, an’ seea
ti mak ’em think on t’ next tahm, he maks nowt ti deea bud he off ti
t’ _gardin_ an’ clicks t’ beeskep ower wi sikan a bat. Noo, by that,
mun, ther was a bonny ti-deea; t’ bees was sairly putten aboot, an’
seea they all com at t’ beear, an’ leeted on him; an’ he wer that
tenged all ower, whahl it leeaked agin they wer boun ti rahve him i’
bits; an’ he wer hard set ti ger awaay frev ’em wick.
‘Varry seean he was swidgin’ an’ warkin’ awhahl he could hardlins
bahd; bud, hooivver, he set hissen doon upo’ t’ grund an’ started ti
beeal, an’ he shakk’d his heead an’ scratted his lugs an’ sike
leyke. Eftther he’d gotten sattled doon a bit, thinks he tiv hissen,
ah mebbe mud as weel ae tae’n neea _noatis_ eftther t’ fo’st bee
tenged ma, as ti a’e meead sikan a _durdam_ amang t’ others, awhahl
they were fit ti modther ma; an’ it wer all ti neea use at t’
_finish_.’
All the long French words have disappeared, and in the whole account
only five French words and one Latin word are used. The difference is
striking, and the reason for the difference is not far to seek.
The language of the former version is that which has come down to us
from the Court, and the Court language was for centuries Norman-French.
The words used by the East Yorkshire farm-labourer are those of his
humble forefathers who knew no _bewk-larning_, and who learned their
English tongue by word of mouth, picking up here and there only an
occasional French word.
In other words, the language of the farm-labourer is almost exactly the
same as that used by his ancestors four or five centuries ago. In fact,
as Mr. Morris puts it, ‘if old Tommy Smith who died in 1500, aged 80,
and old Willie Ward who died in 1900, aged 80, could come to life again
and hold converse with one another, they would understand each other
perfectly.’
XXIX.
HOW THE EAST RIDING GOVERNS ITSELF.
Every ten years a census is taken of the people inhabiting the British
Isles. The latest counting of the people took place in 1911, when it was
found that there were living in the East Riding of Yorkshire 432,804
persons. This large number of people is made up of men, women, and
children who live in groups or communities very greatly varying in size.
The number of persons living in the great city of Hull was 278,024; the
number living in the little village of Wilsthorpe was only one.
[Illustration:
ANCIENT ARMS
OF BEVERLEY.
]