Page:Barnes (1879) Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (combined).djvu/319

Rh An’ smilèn husbands went in quest O’ what their wives did like the best; &emsp;An’ you’d ha’ zeed a happy zight, &emsp;Thik merry night, at Herrenston.

An’ then the band, wi’ each his leaf &emsp;O’ notes, above us at the zide, Plaÿ’d up the praïse ov England’s beef &emsp;An’ vill’d our hearts wi’ English pride; An’ leafy chains o’ garlands hung, Wi’ dazzlèn stripes o’ flags, that swung &emsp;Above us, in a bleäze o’ light, &emsp;Thik happy night, at Herrenston.

An’ then the clerk, avore the vier, &emsp;Begun to lead, wi’ smilèn feäce, A carol, wi’ the Monkton quire. &emsp;That rung drough all the crowded pleäce. An’ dins’ o’ words an’ laughter broke In merry peals drough clouds o’ smoke; &emsp;Vor hardly wer there woone that spoke, &emsp;But pass’d a joke, at Herrenston.

Then man an’ maïd stood up by twos, &emsp;In rows, drough passage, out to door, An’ gaïly beät, wi’ nimble shoes, &emsp;A dance upon the stwonèn floor. But who is worthy vor to tell, If she that then did bear the bell, &emsp;Wer woone o’ Monkton, or o’ Ceäme, &emsp;Or zome sweet neäme ov Herrenston.

Zoo peace betide the girt vo’k’s land, &emsp;When they can stoop, wi’ kindly smile, An’ teäke a poor man by the hand, &emsp;An’ cheer en in his daily tweil.