In a pure specimen of the Southern dialect, we never find the Northumbrian _-es_. We do occasionally meet with the Midland _-en_, but only in those works written in localities where, from their geographical position, Southern and Midland forms would be intelligible.[28] We might look in vain for the Southern plural _-eth_ in a pure Northumbrian production, but might be more successful in finding the Midland _-en_ in the third person plural; as, “thay _arn_” for “they _ar_”, or “thay _er_.” In a work composed in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, or Lancashire, we should be sure to find the occasional use of the Northumbrian plural _-es_.[29] The inflexions of the verb in the singular are of value in enabling us to discriminate between the several varieties of the Midland dialect.[30] The Southern and Midland idioms (with the exception of the West-Midland of Lancashire, Cheshire, etc.) conjugated the verb in the singular present indicative, as follows:-- 1st pers. hope (I) hope. 2nd „ hop-_est_ (thou) hopest. 3rd „ hop-_eth_ (he) hopes. The West-Midland, corresponding to Garnett’s Mercian, instead of _-est_ and _-eth_ employs the inflexions that are so common in the so-called Northumbrian documents of the ninth and tenth centuries:-- 1st pers. hope (I) hope. 2nd „ hop-_es_ (thou) hopest. 3rd „ hop-_es_ (he) hopes. The Northumbrian dialect takes _-es_ in all three persons; but mostly drops it in the first person. The peasantry of Cheshire and Lancashire still preserve the verbal inflexions which prevailed in the fourteenth century, and conjugate their verbs in the present indicative according to the following model:-- Singular. Plural. 1st pers. hope hopen. 2nd „ hopes hopen. 3rd „ hopes hopen. Inasmuch as the poems in the present volume exhibit the systematic use of these forms, we cannot but believe that they were originally composed in one of those counties where these verbal inflexions were well known and extensively used. We have to choose between several localities, but if we assign the poems to Lancashire we are enabled to account for the large number of Norse terms employed. It is true that the ancient examples of the Lancashire dialect contained in Mr. Robson’s Metrical Romances,[31] the Boke of Curtasye,[32] and Liber Cure Cocorum,[33] present us with much broader forms, as _-us_ for _-es_ in the plural number and possessive case of nouns, _-un_ for _-en_ in the plural present indicative mood, in passive participles of irregular (or strong) verbs, _-ud_ (_-ut_) for _-ed_ in the past tense and passive participle of regular (or weak) verbs, and the pronominal forms _hor_ (their), _hom_ (them), for _her_ and _hem_.[34]