Page:Barnes (1879) Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (combined).djvu/201



primrwose in the sheäde do blow, The cowslip in the zun, The thyme upon the down do grow, The clote where streams do run; An’ where do pretty maïdens grow An’ blow, but where the tow’r Do rise among the bricken tuns, In Blackmwore by the Stour.

If you could zee their comely gaït, An’ pretty feäces’ smiles, A-trippèn on so light o’ waïght, An’ steppèn off the stiles; A-gwaïn to church, as bells do swing An’ ring ’ithin the tow’r, You’d own the pretty maidens’ pleäce Is Blackmwore by the Stour.

If you vrom Wimborne took your road, To Stower or Paladore, An’ all the farmers’ housen show’d Their daughters at the door; You’d cry to bachelors at hwome— “Here, come: ’ithin an hour You’ll vind ten maïdens to your mind, In Blackmwore by the Stour.”

An’ if you look’d ’ithin their door, To zee em in their pleäce,