DIALECT

['The Laureate of Lancashire': Edwin Waugh, dialect poet associated with Manchester.] Two Autograph Letters Signed to the Blackburn poet J. T. Baron

Author: 
Edwin Waugh (1817-1890), 'Lancashire Burns' and 'Laureate of Lancashire', dialect poet associated with Manchester [J. T. Baron [Joseph Baron, 'Tom o' Dick o' Bobs'] (1859-1924), Blackburn poet]
Publication details: 
14 and 24 February 1889. Each on letterhead of The Hollies, New Brighton, Cheshire.
£100.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Both in fair condition, worn and aged. The first item with one fold. Both signed ‘Edwin Waugh’ and addressed to ‘Mr. J. T. Baron’. ONE (14 February 1889): 2pp, 12mo. On the rectos of a bifolium. He would have answered Baron sooner, had he not been ‘tossing to and fro a good deal lately’. He thanks him ‘very heartily for the kind feeling expressed in your lines addressed to me on the 73rd [the 3 underlined three times] anniversary of my birth, in the Blackburn Times’.

[Dorset dialect poetry.] Three pamphlets of poems by ‘Two Darset Maids’: one titled ‘Ye Olde Dorset Fayre’, and two (different) titled ‘Wole Darset Vayre’.

Author: 
‘Two Darset Maids’ [Arthur Nicholls; Dorset dialect poetry; Borough and Town of Weymouth Melcombe Regis; H. D. Warwick and W. J. Squibb, Weymouth printers]
Publication details: 
‘Ye Olde Dorset Fayre’, 22 and 23 August 1923; H. D. Warwick, printer, Weymouth. The two titled ‘Wole Darset Vayre’, 24 and 25 August 1927 and 21, 22 and 23 August 1929. The first printed by Warwick and the second by W. J. Squibb of Weymouth.
£220.00

Three scarce items: no other copy traced. The three pamphlets are uniform in design, each consisting of 4pp, 12mo, stapled into card wraps with title and date beneath the Borough crest. Presumably produced for distribution at the annual town fair. The text of each poem covers all four pages. The first two are in good condition, lightly aged; the last is in fair condition, slightly ruckled and spotted. ONE: ‘Ye Olde Dorset Fayre’. At the Royal Palm Court, Weymouth, 22 and 23 August 1923. Poem ‘By Two Darset Maids’ beginning: ‘Come in, me vriends, and look around, / We got all zarts to zell:’.

[Georgina F. Jackson; Shropshire Dialect] Autograph Note Signed Georgina F. Jackson to Florence (salutation at end)

Author: 
Georgina F. Jackson [Georgina Frederica Jackson (1824–1895), writer and schoolteacher who compiled a glossary of Shropshire dialect].
Publication details: 
4 Blackfriars, Chester, 30 April 1894.
£56.00

Oned page, 12mo, fold mark, good condition. You will recollect what a gratifying Review my 'Shropshire Word-Book' received from your Father's pen in the Athenaeum - That brought about a friendship with him, with your dear Mother and with yourself, which has been a happiness in my life - I am, My dear Florence [...]. Review in The Athnaeum, 1879, p.72 (Anon.).

['The tarn is metres above the level my legs would take me': Norman Nicholson, Cumbrian poet.] Typed Letter Signed to ‘Eric’, commenting wistfully on two correspondents pointing out a ‘simple slip’ in Hunter Davies’ ‘Walk Around the Lakes’.

Author: 
Norman Nicholson [Norman Cornthwaite Nicholson] (1914-1987), Cumbrian poet [Millom, Cumbria; Lake District; Hunter Davies]
Nicholson
Publication details: 
25 September 1981; Millom, Cumbria.
£56.00
Nicholson

1p, landscape 8vo. In fair condition; a little creased. Folded twice. Nicholson’s signature is a stylized squiggle, and there are a few minor autograph corrections to the typescript. The letter begins: ‘Dear Eric / I think the correspondent is probably right and that it is Windermere and not Coniston Water which can be seen from near Stickle Tarn.’ Nicholson cannot speak from experience, ‘as the tarn is metres above the level my legs would take me, but the map does seem to confirm what the two correspondents say’.

[Ben Brierley of Failsworth, writer in Lancashire dialect.] Autograph Note Signed ('B Brierley'), offering some of his poems for a reading.

Author: 
Ben Brierley [Benjamin Brierley] (1825-1896) of Failsworth, writer in Lancashire dialect and weaver
Publication details: 
'The 16th March' [no year, but after 1886].
£45.00

1p, on the reverse of an advertisement, with engraving, for his 1886 book 'Tales and Sketches of Lancashire Life', cut down to 16 x 13 cm. On aged paper, with horizontal cut repaired with archival tape. Reads: '[Sent?] me very well. | The poems I propose reading will be | "The New Shirt." | and "The Gravelgate Flood." | You can take your choice betwixt "The New Shirt," and "The Bradley's Visit to Thisle Ho." Please send me a programme as soon as printed.'

[James Lumsden ('Samuel Mucklebackit'), Scottish author.] Autograph Letter Signed to Edinburgh surgeon Alexander Miles, describing how his family is 'totally ruined' and appealing for help. With copy of his 'Lays and Letters from Linton'.

Author: 
James Lumsden ['Samuel Mucklebackit'] (1839-1909), Scottish dialect poet and author [Alexander Miles (1865-1953), Scottish surgeon, President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh]
Publication details: 
Letter: 13 July 1897. Book: Haddington: William Sinclair, 63 Market Street. Edinburgh: John Menzies & Co. [1889].
£50.00

LETTER: ALS 'To Dr Alexander Miles F.R.C.S.E.' 13 July 1897. 1p, 4to. Signed 'James Lumsden (late of Nether Hailes) | now – 34 Royal Park Terrace | Edinburgh', with postscript signed in initials. Written on the blank reverse of the second leaf of a bifolium advertisement for Lumsden's 'The Battles of Dunbar and Prestonpans, and other selected poems' (1896), on which Lumsden's address is given as 34 Royal Park Terrace, Edinburgh. Aged and worn, with closed tears along fold line. A long letter, one of many similar which Lumsden wrote in his distress.

[Sir Robert Thorburn, Premier of Newfoundland.] Poem 'Dedicated to Samuel Mucklebackit, Esq., (Otherwise James Lumsden, of 34 Royal Park Terrace, Edinburgh)'.

Author: 
'Sir Robert Thorburn, K.C.M.G., Ex-Premier of Newfoundland' [James Lumsden ['Samuel Mucklebackit'] (1839-1909) of Nether Hailes, Scottish dialect poet and author]
Publication details: 
Printer not stated. Dated from 'St John's, | Newfoundland, | January 1897.'
£180.00

Printed on one side of a 21 x 9 cm slip of watermarked laid paper. Aged and creased. Headed: 'Dedicated | to | Samuel Mucklebackit, Esq., | (Otherwise James Lumsden, of 34 Royal Park Terrace, Edinburgh), | by | Sir Robert Thorburn, K.C.M.G., | Ex-Premier of Newfoundland, | From | “Somewhere far abroad, where sailors gang to fish for cod.”' Place and date at bottom left.

[ Orlando Greenwood, Lancashire artist. ] Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'Greenwood') to J. Cuming Walters, describing his background (having been born 'between Pendle and Boulsworth'), reminiscing on his childhood, and commenting on dialect.

Author: 
Orlando Greenwood (1892-1989), Lancashire artist and creator of London Underground posters [ J. Cuming Walters [ John Cuming Walters ] (1863-1933), editor of the Manchester City News ]
Publication details: 
Both on letterhead of 9 Hillmarton Road, Camden Road, N.7. 8 December 1929 and 31 October 1930.
£200.00

Both items in fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. ONE: 8 December 1929. 4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. He begins by stating that he has read Walters' 'Charm of Lancashire' with great enjoyment, and considers it one 'of which every Lancashire family and lover of the county should possess a copy'. He continues: 'I myself was born between Pendle and Boulsworth. My Father's stock farmed around Trawden and the Boulsworth side, and my mother's around Blacko and the Pendle slopes, so your section devoted to this locality has an especial attraction for me.

[ Graziado Isaia Ascoli, politician and linguist. ] Page of Autograph Corrected Manuscript, with presentation inscription signed 'Graziado Ascoli'.

Author: 
Graziadio Ascoli [ Graziadio Isaia Ascoli ] (1829-1907), politician and linguist
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£180.00

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and with central vertical crease. Consisting of a page bearing eleven lines of corrected manuscript, laid down onto an 8vo leaf, with the following presentation inscription at the foot: 'Vogliate sempre bene | al divotisso. vostro | Graziado Ascoli'. The manuscript begins: '[...] essi mettono in opera per chiarire diversamente il loro nazionalismo, [...]' and ends '[...] consequenti presenzoni delle cancellerie europee.' Ascoli was the first linguist to first to classify systematically the Italian dialects.

[John Nicholson, 'The Airedale Poet'.] Original unpublished holograph poem, signed 'John Nicholson', and titled 'An acrostic Written for Mr Lupton Esqre'. With engraved portrait by John Rhodes from John Lucas.

Author: 
John Nicholson (1790-1843), known as 'The Airedale Poet' and 'The Yorkshire Poet' [Thomas Goff Lupton (1791-1873), engraver?] [John Rhodes, engraver; John Lucas, artist]
Publication details: 
Letter: No place. Dated 20 September 1828. Engraving: Without place or date.
£120.00

For more on Nicholson, see his entry by James Ogden in the Oxford DNB. LETTER: 1p., 12mo. In fair condition, on lightly aged and creased paper. At foot of page: 'An acrostic Written for Mr Lupton Esqre | Septr 20th 1828 | John Nicholson'. The poem, the first letter of whose lines spell out 'LUPTON' (the engraver Thomas Goff Lupton?), reads: 'Love thy father Love thy God | unto him Give honor who the seas has trod | Pray to him upon thy Knees | To him who form'd the world the seas | Order'd Creation made Eternity | Nature is but a shade compard to Thee'. PORTRAIT: Lithographic engraving.

[Printed pamphlet.] Tom Cladpole's Jurney To Lunnun; Shewing the many Difficulties he met with, and How he got safe Home at Last. Told by himself and written in pure Wessex Doggerel, By his Uncle Tim.

Author: 
'Uncle Tim' [Richard Lower (1782-1865)] ['Pure Wessex Doggerel'; Sussex dialect; Lewes]
Publication details: 
New Edition. Lewes: Printed and Published by Farncombe & Co., "East Sussex News." [Farncombe & Co., Printers, Lewes.]
£60.00

34 + [1]pp., 12mo. In fair condition, on aged paper, a little ruckled. Advertisement for 'Jan Cladpole's Trip to Merricur' ('Just published') on last page. A three-page preface is followed by the poem, in 152 four-line stanzas, with pp.33-34 carrying another poem titled 'Tom Cladpole's Return'. Surprisingly uncommon.

Manuscript account [by Rev. Richard Lyne?] headed 'Humphry May an old Man of Back in Egloshayle parish brought a parcel to Little Petherick, and the following are some of his 'xpressions [expressions]', giving a transcript in West Country dialect.

Author: 
[Rev. Richard Lyne, Rector of Little Petherick, Cornwall?; Humphry May of Back in Egloshayle Parish]
Publication details: 
Without place or date. [Little Petherick, Cornwall; 1830s?]
£120.00

2pp., 4to. 50 lines of text. On a single leaf of wove paper. Good: lightly worn on aged paper with slight damage to two words. A delightful exchange, with May's reply to the offer of a glass of rum beginning: 'Thanky Maister tis a nice dram. Ive agot the rousy cum stoundrums in my ears with the could. I pute a man to smoke perbacky in mun, and I rousted a Tryan and squeery cum squaten in till I sweat again with the hett and pain'.

Printed Victorian handbill poem in Yorkshire dialect, titled 'On the Wing. By John Lawton.', speculating in a humorous style on the effects of successful transport by air.

Author: 
John Lawton, Victorian Yorkshire dialect poet [aircraft; air transport; aeroplanes; fixed-wing flying; manned flight; ballooning]
Publication details: 
Without place or date. [Yorkshire, 1850s?]
£160.00

1p., 12mo. Fair, on aged paper, with slight wear and loss at head. The leaf has been trimmed down to 21 x 16 cm., with rounded corners, around the poem's decorative border. The poem consists of 96 lines, in twelve eight-line stanzas; it is arranged in two columns beneath the title: 'ON THE WING. | BY JOHN LAWTON.' First stanza reads: 'I wor thinkin one neet wol sit i mi cheer, | Wot thowts enter sum people's pates; | Wot useful invenshuns they'n plan'd everywheer | To benefit people un states.

Autograph Note Signed "Dorothy Una Ratcliffe", no addressee, but about the cremation of Marjory Kennedy-Fraser, Scottish singer, composer, arranger (particularly Hebridean songs)

Author: 
Dorothy Una Ratcliffe, Yorkshire Poet
Publication details: 
{Printed Heading] Yacht Sea Swallow, continuing in ms. From the Stockholm Skerries [&?] the Aland Islands, 15 July 1932.
£45.00

One page, 12mo, good condition. "With many thanks for the excellent account of the cremation of Marjory Kennedy Fraser in 'The Oban Times' June 25th 1932 | Dorothy Una Ratcliffe | Laverton Grange | Kirby Malgeard | Ripon, Yorkshire."

Autograph Manuscript Signed, an untitled holograph poem by the Scottish writer and artist James Ballantine, beginning 'Confide ye aye in Providence, for Providence is Kind'.

Author: 
James Ballantine (c.1807-1877), Scottish writer and artist in stained glass
Publication details: 
Edinburgh; 16 August 1856.
£500.00

1p., landscape 8vo. On the first leaf of a bifolium. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. Well presented, with the second blank leaf neatly inserted into a windowpane border. The poem is sixteen lines long, arranged in four stanzas, neatly written out on a piece of wove paper. The first stanza reads 'Confide ye aye in Providence, for Providence is Kind | And bear ye a' lifes changes, wi a calm an' tranquil mind | Though pressed an' hemmed on every side, hae faith, an' ye'll win through | For ilka blade o grass keeps its ain drap o dew'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Edmund C. Stedman') from the American man of letters Edmund Clarence Stedman to the Blackburn poet John Thomas Baron ('Jack O'Anns')

Author: 
Edmund Clarence Stedman (1833-1908), American poet, critic and essayist [John Thomas Baron (1856-1922), Blackburn dialect poet, writing under the pseudonym 'Jack O'Anns']
Publication details: 
31 January 1883; on letterhead of 71 West 54th Street, New York.
£350.00

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Forty-eight lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on aged paper. Begins 'One must needs be a churl indeed to be a laggard in his response to a letter containing words of so sweet breath composed as yours!' He thanks Baron for his 'kind & encouraging letter', and considers that an author 'has no keener or more lawful pleasure than to find that the errors of his song or tale has [sic] lodged (as Longfellow says) in the heart of some far-off and unknown friend'.

Poems of Rural Life in Common English.

Author: 
William Barnes [Dorset dialect poetry]
Publication details: 
London: Macmillan and Co. 1868. [London: Printed by Spottiswoode and Co., New-Street Square and Parliament Street.]
£65.00

First edition. 8vo: xii + 200 + [iv] pp. (the last four pages an unpaginated publisher's catalogue). In original blue cloth, gilt. Fair, tight copy, on lightly-aged paper, with some spotting to endpapers. Binding with dulled spine and minor spotting. Bookplate of the Rev. English Crooks. Binders ticket ('BOUND BY BURN & CO.') to rear pastedown. Half-title reads 'RURAL POEMS'. The 'translation' of the three collections beginning with 'Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect' (1844).

Farmer Brown's Blunders; and the London Director's Report of Wheal Blue Bottle.

Author: 
J. T. Tregellas [John Tabois Tregellas (1792-1863)] [Cornwall; Cornish dialect poetry; the West Country]
Publication details: 
[1860] Truro: Printed by James R. Netherton, 7, Lemon Street. ['Third Edition. - Price Sixpence.']
£220.00

12mo: 26 pp paginated 101-126. Stitched. In original worn, creased and grubby green printed wraps. Internally clean, except for the first two leaves, both of which are grubby, with loss to the first leaf affecting two lines of text. 'Farmer Brown's Blunders' is a dialect poem, with explanatory footnotes; the other item is a spoof letter by 'Hannibal Hollow'. There are no records of first or second editions of this item, or of any other edition in which the two pieces are printed together. Scarce: the only copy on COPAC, dated to 1860, at the British Library.

Handbill street ballad entitled 'Mr. Sopkin's Misadventures at Blackpool. (After Ingoldsby's Misadventures at Margate.)'

Author: 
Samuel Laycock (1826-1893), Victorian Yorkshire dialect poet [nineteenth-century Blackpool]
Publication details: 
Publisher and date not stated.
£75.00

At foot: 'PRICE ONE PENNY.' On one side of a piece of wove paper, roughly 220 x 170 mm. Enclosed within decorative border. Foxed and creased, with edges trimmed to edge of border. Thin strip of card mound adhering to one edge of reverse. Text clear and entire. Printed in two columns employing characteristically Victorian typography. Twenty-six four-line stanzas (the last two being the 'MORAL.'). Begins 'When down at Blackpool last July, and walking on the Pier, | I met a pretty maiden, so I said "How do my dear?" | "What do you here, love, by yourself? How is it you're alone?

Autograph Note Signed to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Jonathan Mawson Denwood (born c.1853?; died c.1931?), English writer in the dialect of his native Cumbria
Publication details: 
72 Kirkgate, Cockermouth; 8 August 1931.
£30.00

One page, quarto. Good, on lightly aged paper. Some offsetting and smudging from Denwood's folding of letter. Reads '72 Kirkgate | Cockermouth | Aug 8 - 1931 | Jonathan. Mawson. Denwood | Dear Sir, | I send you autograph. I cannot write further At the moment I can scarcely hold a pen.'

Autograph Note in his hand (NOT signed). "Alexander Ross", written top right above the note, appears to be the addressee.

Author: 
Joseph Ritson.
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£185.00

Antiquary (DNB). Piece of paper, c. 4 x 4", discoloured byt text clear, bottom edge rough from tearing. Text: See another song by this author in Johnson's 'Scots Musical Museum'. If 'The Rock and the wee pickle tour' were written before the publication of Ramsay's 'Tea-table miscellany' (1724), there being a song to the tune in that book, the author must have been a great age in 1768. / Those poems are in the broad Buchan dialect." This is followed by the note "The above is in the hand-writing of Joseph Ritson.", an attribution confirmed by comparison with known examples in the BL.

Syndicate content