Yorkshire Tales. Third Series: Amusing sketches of Yorkshire Life in the Yorkshire DialectHartley, John
General
Yorkshire Tales. Third Series: Amusing sketches of Yorkshire Life in the Yorkshire Dialect
Hartley, John
English language -- Dialects -- England -- Yorkshire; Yorkshire (England) -- Fiction
"She is my niece and your boy's sweetheart. They were engaged last night
with my full consent, and a nice young couple they are. If all goes
well, they are to be married when Charley comes of age, and will then
succeed me in this business."
"Laws-a-mercy on us! Well,--well. An a nice lass shoo is too," an off
shoo set to think things ovver agean.
Shoo nivver agean interfered wi his coortin. They're wed nah. Shoo lives
wi em, but shoo can't understand why they allus laff if shoo sets em
fresh eggs for ther braikfast.
What a Gallus Button did.
One Friday neet last summer, ther wor a braik daan at th' shop 'at Dick
Taylor worked at, just befoor stoppin time, soa th' ovverlukker telled
him 'at it wor noa use his comin i'th mornin, as they wodn't be able to
start th' engine agean wol Mundy.
Dick worn't sorry, for it wor fine weather, an' he thowt a day's
halliday ud be varry pleasant. When he gate hooam, he telled his missis
'at he wor baan to laik th' next day, an' shoo sed,
"Naah, Dick, ther's a chonce for yo to pleeas me--yo know aw've axed yo
all th' summer to tak me raand to see th' parks i' Bradforth, for aw've
nivver seen one on em, exceptin Lister's, an' that's becoss it's soa
near--they tell me 'at th' flaars i' Peel's park, an' up at Horton, are
reeal beautiful."
"We'll goa, Mary," Dick sed, "an' up to Bowlin Park too."
Shoo gave him a kuss, an' gate him his teah, an' let him keep a shillin
aght o' his wage, to get some cigars wi' for him to smook when they wor
aght th' next day. After braikfast i'th mornin they set off.
They lived near th' Stashun at Manningham, in a haase off Valley Road,
soa they cut across, an' ovver th' canal, an' up bi Spinkwell, into th'
main road for Peel Park. It wor varry hot, soa bi th' time they gate
into th' park, an' lukt at th' flaar beds daan bi th' lake, an' climbed
up on to th' terrace, they wor varry glad to sit daan on a seeat near to
whear th' band stand is.
Ther's a grand view thro' thear, yo can see reight ovver Bradforth as
far as Lister's Milns, an' Queensbury--th' sun wor shinin, an' Dick wor
just leetin one o'th cigars when a young man abaat two or three an'
twenty coom daan th' walk, huggin' a basket--when he seed em he stopt,
an' sed:--
"Can yo give me a match, mate?"
"Eah," Dick sed, "hear's a box, help thisen,"--when he'd leeted his
pipe, Mary sed, "This is a varry nice park, sir."
"I," he answered, "an' it's a nice place for coortin in, on a neet when
th' band isn't playin--you cannot coom here ov a evenin withaat findin
abaat hawf a scooar o' cupples--yo see it's net too near th' taan, wol
it's nice an' quiet--but it's net too lonely nawther, a decent lass can
coom here wi' her sweetheart, an' nawther her mother nor nubdy else can
say owt agean it, for ther's allus somdy awther commin or gooin."
"Yo seem to know it well?" Dick sed to th' young feller.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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