Front matter
Reading edition
Produced by Miranda van de Heijning, David Starner,
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
"Goo little Reed! Aforn tha vawk, an vor me plead: Thy wild nawtes, mâ-be, thâ ool hire Zooner than zâter vrom a lâre. Zâ that thy Maester's pleas'd ta blaw 'em, An haups in time thâ'll come ta knaw 'em An nif za be thâ'll please ta hear, A'll gee zum moor another year."—The Farewell.
THE Dialect of the West of England
PARTICULARLY SOMERSETSHIRE;
WITH A GLOSSARY OF WORDS NOW IN USE THERE; ALSO WITH POEMS AND OTHER PIECES EXEMPLIFYING THE DIALECT.
BY JAMES JENNINGS,
HONORARY SECRETARY OF THE METROPOLITAN LITERARY INSTITUTION, LONDON.
BASED ON THE SECOND EDITION,
THE WHOLE REVISED, CORRECTED, AND ENLARGED, WITH TWO DISSERTATIONS ON THE ANGLO-SAXON PRONOUNS, AND OTHER PIECES,
BY JAMES KNIGHT JENNINGS, M.A.,
Late Scholar and Librarian, Queens' College, Cambridge; Vicar of Hagbourn, Berkshire; and Minister of Calcott Donative, Somersetshire.
TO THA DWELLERS O' THA WEST,
Tha Fruit o' longvul labour, years, In theäze veo leaves at last appears. Ta you, tha dwellers o' tha West, I'm pleas'd that thâ shood be addresst: Vor thaw I now in Lunnan dwell, I mine ye still—I love ye well; And niver, niver sholl vorget I vust drâw'd breath in Zummerzet; Amangst ye liv'd, and left ye zorry, As you'll knaw when you hire my storry. Theäze little book than take o' me; 'Tis âll I hâ just now ta gee An when you rade o' Tommy Gool, Or Tommy Came, or Pal at school, Or Mr. Guy, or Fanny Fear,— I thenk you'll shod vor her a tear) Tha Rookery, or Mary's Crutch, Tha cap o' which I love ta touch, You'll vine that I do not vorget My naatal swile—dear Zummerzet.