151 



Blin' Stagg, the fiddler, gat a whack, 

 The bacon-fleek fell on his back ; 

 An' neist his fiddle-stick they brak, 



'Twas weel it was nea waur ; 



For he sang, VVhurry-whuin, whuddle-whum, 

 Derry-eyden dee. 



Bearing in mind that Stagg was doubtless sitting where the fiddler 

 usually did sit in the chimney corner, and that the " bacon-fleek," 

 of which some wag no doubt had cut the string, would fall upon 

 his back from the rannal boak some height above him, it is very 

 likely that Stagg would for that night, at any rate, sing no more 

 about — 



Whurry-whum, whuddle-whum, 

 Derry-eyden dee. 



And yet in spite of "bacon-fleeks," in spite of poverty, in spite 

 of blindness, he went on fiddling life away to a merry tune. His 

 songs bear evidence of good humour and contentment ; and, 

 notwithstanding the rugged and at times somewhat coarse language 

 in which they are expressed, exhibit trvithful pictures of Cumberland 

 scenes, manners, and society, as they existed one hundred years 

 ago. 



His song, "The Bridewain," or bringing home of the bride, is 

 perhaps the truest picture we possess of the keen neck-or-nothing 

 galloping and other amusements which took place at a Cumbrian 

 wedding. It took place in the Abbey Holme, where it is known 

 as the "Coat Wedding." While his "Rosley Hill Fair," which 

 describes the doings at a noted Cumbrian fair something like 

 Brough Hill Fair in Westmorland, is, from what I know myself, a 

 faithful reflex of such like scenes. 



Robert Anderson is the next Cumbrian poet. He also was 

 born shortly after 1770, in Carlisle, and died in 1833, at the same 

 place. He was a pattern drawer by trade. His life was, like more 

 lives, a hard struggle for existence; and he fell in his later years 

 into habits of intemperance, which may possibly have had some- 

 thing to do with those feelings of bitterness and misanthropy 

 which he exhibited in the decline of his life. As a poet in the 



