58 



have enjoyed a large amount of local popularity. The first who attempted 

 to rhyme in the vernacular (of whom we have any authentic record) was 

 the Rev. Josiah Relph, of Sebergham, who died in 1743. He was fol- 

 lowed in succession by Evan Clark, of Wigton ; Miss Gilpin, of Scaleby 

 Castle ; Miss Blamire, of Thackwood ; Blind Stagg, of Burgh-by-Sands ; 

 and Robert Anderson, of Carlisle. The last has been commonly styled 

 the Cumberland Bard, and has been the most popular of all the dialect 

 writers. Then, there were Mark Lonsdale, John Rayson, and Woodcock 

 Graves ; and there was Alexander Craig Gibson, who, I have no doubt, 

 was personally known to some here present. There are still living Mr. 

 William Dickinson and Miss Powley ; so ' that we have a continuous 

 chain, or succession, of dialect writers, stretching from Relph to the 

 present time. 



It may be that but few educated persons take much interest in the 

 dialect, nevertheless, if entered into without prejudice, or affectation, the 

 study of it, as the study of most other things, may become very interest- 

 ing. I have in my possession a letter which I received from the late Dr. 

 Gibson, two or three years before his death, in which he styles it our 

 " Grand old dialect ; " and when we reflect that, to the people of Cum- 

 berland, it has for hundreds of years served every purpose for the inter- 

 change of their ideas ; that they have ever found in it words and jjhrases 

 which were amply sufficient to express every emotion of their minds ; that 

 in it they have told their joys and their griefs ; their hopes and their 

 fears ; and that in it thay have sung their loves and their sorrows, their 

 sports and their rejoicings, — I think that if we do not go so far as Dr. 

 Gibson, to style it our " Grand old dialect," we may, at least, respect and 

 value it as an old and faithful servant. 



(The Chairman afterwards observed that the author had alluded to 

 writers in the Cumberland dialect past and present, but his modesty had 

 not permitted him to tell them that he himself was one of the foremost 

 dialect writers of the day. Mr. Richardson's book was one of the very 

 best that had been issued, and was remarkably free from the errors that 

 some of the writers in the dialect had fallen into. They were very much 

 indebted to Mr. Richardson for his paper.) 



