One or two of the Cumberland stories included in this volume, as well
as some of the pieces in rhyme, have already been circulated very
largely in newspapers, pamphlets, and collections. Their reappearance,
along with many hitherto unpublished additions, in this aggregated
form, is due mainly to the popularity attained by them separately.
Whether they may be as popular in this more pretentious guise as in
their humbler, and perhaps, more appropriate form, remains to be tried.
I claim superiority over most of the earlier workers in the same
philological ground in respect of the greater purity of my dialect. The
Cumberland speech as written herein is pure Cumbrian, as the speech of
the Scottish pieces, introduced for variety’s sake, is pure Scotch.
Miss Blamire, Stagg, Anderson, Rayson, and others, have all written
their dialect pieces, more or less, in the _Scoto_-Cumbrian which
prevails along the southern side of the west Border. In other respects
my inferiority to those deservedly popular writers is sufficiently
evident. But, as expositions of the folk-speech of those parts of
the County where, and where only, the unadulterated old Norse-rooted
Cumbrian vernacular is spoken, I claim for these Tales and Rhymes the
distinction of surpassing all similar productions, excepting only
the dialect writings of my friend Mr. Dickinson, and perhaps the
_Borrowdale Letter_ of Isaac Ritson, and the _Gwordie and Will_ of
Charles Graham. I should not omit to state, however, that Mr. John
Christian of London, and a writer who assumed the _nom de plume_ of
Jack Todd, have evinced in their contributions to the local press, a
mastery over the dialect of Whitehaven and its vicinity which makes us
wish that their pens had been more prolific.
For the illustrations I have attempted of the speech of High Furness
and its Westmorland border, I ask no such distinction. The dialect
there, as in the adjacent parts of Cumberland, is vitiated by an
intermixture of that of the County Palatine, of which Furness forms
a portion; and as it is spoken, so, if written at all, should it be
written. These appear here for the reason already assigned for the
introduction of the Rhymes given in the dialect of Dumfriesshire.
The work rests its claims to favourable consideration entirely on its
value as a faithfully rendered contribution to the dialect literature
of the country. No higher estimate is sought for it. The production
of its various contents has been an occasional amusement indulged in
during some of the intervals of leisure and repose afforded by pursuits
of a more important, more engrossing, and it is hoped, a more useful
character, with which, had it in any wise interfered, it had not been
proceeded with. Its composition has been a relaxation, not a task; a
divertisement, not an occupation; and had its success when published
been deemed incompatible with these conditions, it had not appeared.
BEBINGTON,
_December 18th, 1868_.