Excerpt from The Songs and Ballads of Cumberland: To Which Are Added Dialect and Other Poems; With Biographical Sketches, Notes, and Glossary This work was undertaken with the object of laying before the public a general collection of the Songs and Ballads of Cumberland, beginning with Relph of Sebergham - the first writer in the dialect - and endeavouring to gather up everything worthy of note down to the present time. The want of such a collection has been long felt and acknowledged by many. That it has not been supplied before must occasion surprise to all who are acquainted with the abundant stores of lyrical poetry possessed by this county. It is not too much to say that a full collection of Cumberland songs presents such a picture of the actual life lived by our sturdy forefathers as cannot be found elsewhere. No single county within the British Isles has produced a volume of ballad literature so peculiarly its own - so illustrative of the manners and customs of its people. Let it not be understood, however, that this work consists exclusively of pieces in the dialect. On the contrary, a broader principle has been followed throughout; and due attention paid to all productions left us by Cumberland writers, whether written in a more northern Doric or in ordinary English. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.