of love you have for all people—and for life itself—is

'Hee'd a horse, too, 'twor war than ond Tommy's, ye see.'

(58) Famished. The line in which this word occurs exhibits one of the most striking peculiarities of the Lancashire dialect, which is, that in words ending in ING, the termination is changed into INK. EX. GR., for starving, STARVINK, farthing, FARDINK.

(59) In one version this line has been altered, probably by some printer who had a wholesome fear of the 'Bench of Justices,' into -

'Success to every gentleman That lives in Lincolnsheer.'

(60) Dr. Whitaker gives a traditional version of part of this song as follows:-

'The gardener standing by proferred to chuse for me, The pink, the primrose, and the rose, but I refused the three; The primrose I forsook because it came too soon, The violet I o'erlooked, and vowed to wait till June.

In June, the red rose sprung, bat was no flower for me, I plucked it up, lo! by the stalk, and planted the willow-tree. The willow I must wear with sorrow twined among, That all the world may know I falshood loved too long.'

(61) The following account of Billy Bolton may, with propriety, be inserted here:- It was a lovely September day, and the scene was Arncliffe, a retired village in Littondale, one of the most secluded of the Yorkshire dales. While sitting at the open window of the humble hostelrie, we heard what we, at first, thought was a RANTER parson, but, on inquiry, were told it was old Billy Bolton reading to a crowd of villagers. Curious to ascertain what the minstrel was reading, we joined the crowd, and found the text-book was a volume of Hume's ENGLAND, which contained the reign of Elizabeth. Billy read in a clear voice, with proper emphasis, and correct pronunciation, interlarding his reading with numerous comments, the nature of some of which may be readily inferred from the fact that the minstrel belonged to what he called 'the ancient church.' It was a scene for a painter; the village situate in one of the deepest parts of the dale, the twilight hour, the attentive listeners, and the old man, leaning on his knife-grinding machine, and conveying popular information to a simple peasantry. Bolton is in the constant habit of so doing, and is really an extraordinary man, uniting, as he does, the opposite occupations of minstrel, conjuror, knife-grinder, and schoolmaster. Such a labourer (though an humble one) in the great cause of human improvement is well deserving of this brief notice, which it would be unjust to conclude without stating that whenever the itinerant teacher takes occasion to speak of his own creed, and contrast it with others, he does so in a spirit of charity; and he never performs any of his sleight-of-hand tricks without a few introductory remarks on the evil of superstition, and the folly of supposing that in the present age any mortal is endowed with supernatural attainments.