So big, as took my widest strides
To straddle halfway down her zides;
An’ champèn Vi’let, sprack an’ light,
That foam’d an’ pull’d wi’ all her might:
An’ Whitevoot, leäzy in the treäce,
Wi’ cunnèn looks an’ show-white feäce;
Bezides a baÿ woone, short-taïl Jack,
That wer a treäce-hoss or a hack.
How many lwoads o’ vuzz, to scald
The milk, thik waggon have a-haul’d!
An’ wood vrom copse, an’ poles vor raïls,
An’ bavèns wi’ their bushy taïls;
An’ loose-ear’d barley, hangèn down
Outzide the wheels a’móst to groun’,
An’ lwoads o’ haÿ so sweet an’ dry,
A-builded straïght, an’ long, an’ high;
An’ haÿ-meäkers, a-zittèn roun’
The reäves, a-ridèn hwome vrom groun’,
When Jim gi’ed Jenny’s lips a-smack,
An’ jealous Dicky whipp’d his back,
An’ maïdens scream’d to veel the thumps
A-gi’ed by trenches an’ by humps.
But he, an’ all his hosses too,
’V a-ben a-done vor years agoo.
THE DRÈVEN O’ THE COMMON.[1]
In the common by our hwome
There wer freely-open room,
Vor our litty veet to roam
By the vuzzen out in bloom.
That wi’ prickles kept our lags
Vrom the skylark’s nest ov aggs;
- ↑ The Driving of the Common was by the Hayward who, whenever he thought fit, would drive all the cattle into a corner and impound all heads belonging to owners without a right of commonage for them, so that they had to ransom them by a fine.
