Transcriber’s Notes Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. The footnotes are located at the end of the sections that refer to them. Italics are represented thus _italic_. In the original, many of the chapters have decorative borders above the title. These have not been indicated. THE Folk-Speech of Cumberland AND SOME DISTRICTS ADJACENT; BEING SHORT STORIES AND RHYMES IN THE DIALECTS OF THE WEST BORDER COUNTIES. BY ALEXANDER CRAIG GIBSON, F.S.A. What hempen Home-spuns have we swaggering here. _A Midsummer Night’s Dream._ Speech, manners, morals, all without disguise. _The Excursion._ LONDON: JOHN RUSSELL SMITH; CARLISLE: GEO. COWARD. MDCCCLXIX. TO WILLIAM DICKINSON, OF NORTH MOSSES AND THORNCROFT, F. L. S., Author of “A Glossary of Cumberland Words and Phrases,” “Lamplugh Club,” “A Prize Essay on the Agriculture of West Cumberland,” “The Botany of Cumberland,” &c., &c., &c., THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED, IN CORDIAL RECOGNITION OF THE PRE-EMINENT INDUSTRY AND SKILL DISPLAYED IN HIS ELUCIDATIONS OF THE HOMELY SPEECH OF OUR NATIVE COUNTY, AND IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE UNFAILING SYMPATHY AND THE KINDLY HELP WITH WHICH HE HAS BRIGHTENED A FRIENDSHIP OF MANY YEARS. PREFACE. 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 Their reappearance, along with many hitherto unpublished additions, in this aggregated form, is due mainly to the popularity attained by them separately.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.