A book of the west. Volume 1, Devon : $b being an introduction to Devon and CornwallBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
A book of the west. Volume 1, Devon : $b being an introduction to Devon and Cornwall
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Devon (England)
Coast are akin to the Cornish. The Cornish girl is inconsistent
without hypocrisy; she is not ashamed of work, but she is very
fond of jaunts, and on such occasions she dresses herself, it
would be rash to say with more zeal than the Anglo-Saxon maiden,
but usually with more success. She is an assiduous chapel-goer,
equally assiduous in flirtations when chapel is over. The pretty
Sunday-school teacher and leader of the local Band of Hope
cheerfully confesses as she drinks off the glass of claret you
offer her that she is but a poor teetotaller. The Cornish woman
will sometimes have a baby before she is legally married; it is
only an old custom of the county, though less deeply rooted than
the corresponding custom in Wales."[2]
[2] _The New Century Review_, April, 1897.
The Cornish are, like the Welsh, intensely religious, but according
to their idea religion is emotionalism and has hardly enough to do
with morality.
"So Mr. So-and-So is dead," in reference to a local preacher. "I
fear he led a very loose life."
"Ah! perhaps so, but he was a sweet Christian."
Here is something illustrative at once of West Country religion and
dialect. I quote from an amusing paper on the "Recollections of a
Parish Worker" in the _Cornish Magazine_ (1898):--
"'How do you like the vicar?' I asked. 'Oh, he's a lovely man,'
she answered, 'and a 'ansome praicher--and such a voice! But
did 'ee hear how he lost un to-day? Iss, I thought he would
have failed all to-wance, an' that wad have bin a gashly job.
But I prayed for un an' the Lord guv it back to un again, twice
as loud, an' dedn't 'ee holler! But 'ee dedn't convart me. I
convarted meself. Iss a ded. I was a poor wisht bad woman. Never
went to a place of worship. Not for thirty years a hadn't a
bin. One day theer came word that my brother Willum was hurted
to the mine. So I up an' went to un an' theer he was, all scat
abroad an' laid out in scritches. He was in a purty stank, sure
'nuff. But all my trouble was his poor sowl. I felt I must get
he convarted before he passed. I went where he was to, an' I
shut home the door, an' I hollered an' I rassled an' I prayed to
him, an' he nivver spoke. I got no mouth spaich out of him at
awl, but I screeched and screeched an' prayed until I convarted
myself! An' then I be to go to church. Iss, we awl have to come
to it, first an' last, though I used to say for christenings an'
marryin's an' berrin's we must go to church, but for praichin'
an' ennytheng for tha nex' wurld give me the chapel; still, I
waanted to go to church an' laive everybody knaw I wur proper
chaanged. So I pitched to put up my Senday go-to-mittun bonnet,
an' I went. An' when I got theer aw! my blessed life 'twas
Harvest Thanksgivin', an' when I saw the flowers an' the fruit
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account