Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Yorkshire - christiansquoting.org.uk

You can always tell a Yorkshire man...... but you can't tell him much

More than any other county in England, Yorkshire retained a sort of social independence of London. Scotland itself was hardly more distinct... To a certain degree, evident enough to Yorkshiremen, Yorkshire was not English--or was all England, as they might choose to express it. --Henry Adams, 1906

I lingered round them [tombstones], under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth. --Emily Bronte (1818-1848) _Wuthering Heights_ [1847], "Conclusion"

Ah's Yorkshire! bi mi truly!
Ah is, Ah'm proud ti say;
Just try ya ti get ower mah,
Ye'll heve eneaf ti deah.
Ah's oppen-gobbed an's soft-life;
Ah knaw mare than ah tell;
The fellah that wad bite mah
All seaf get bit his sel. Ah's Yorkshire.

Ah's Yorkshire! Ah's a plain stick,
What's that? It's been mi luck
Ti bi like monny a diamond,
Covered at top wi muck.
Some fooaks weear t'muck at insard
Seeah deep its scarcely seen
Nooah's flood a pure soft watter
Wad scarcely wesh em clean. Ah's Yorkshire.

Ah's Yorkshire ti the back beean
Out-spokken, frank and free,
Ah hat a leear as Ah hat
Awd Nick, that tell'd first lee.
Ance Ah may be catch'd nappin,
We all may slip sum day
But twice if ye get ower mah,
Ah nivvr mair al say, Ah's Yorkshire.
William Hall Burnett, _Ah's Yorkshire_, 19C

He is Yorkshire--said of a shrewd man.-- quoted in John Ray, _A Compleat Collection of English Proverbs_, 1670

My living in Yorkshire was so far out of the way, that it was eleven miles away from a lemon. - Sydney SMITH

Topcliffe formerly denominated the Jordan of England, because in the year 620, Agustin and Paul baptized in this river Swale 10,000 men in one day, besides women and children. This took place somewhere between Topcliffe and Helperby. -- Langdale's Yorkshire Topographical Dictionary
(I have no corroborative source for this and suspect it may result from a confusion with Swale in Kent)

I rode over the mountains to Huddersfield. A wilder people I never saw in England. The men, women and children filled the streets and seemed just ready to devour us. John Wesley June 1757

The Court here stopt him, and the Prince did say,
Where may we find this Nectar, I thee pray,
The Boon Fellow answer'd, I can tell,
North-Allerton, in Yorkshire doth excell
ASll England, nay all Europe for strong Ale,
If thither we adjourn, we shall not fail
To taste such humming Stuff, as, I dare say,
Your Highness never tasted to this day.
They hearing this, the House Agreed upon
All for Adjournment to North-Allerton.
George Meriton The Praise of Yorkshire Ale, Wherein is enumerated several Sorts of Drinks, with a Discription of the Humors of most sorts of Drunkards.1685

No comments: