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dialect he is undoubtedly at the head of the Cumbrian fraternity. 

 He carries us into their homes and domestic scenes, and lets us 

 hear their quiet fireside chat. He brings us to their fairs and 

 merry-makings, their marriages, hakes, and dances. He depicts 

 their wrestlers and other athletes as the greatest heroes ; and, 

 endowed with all their partialities and prejudices, he lets us know 

 pretty plainly that he looks upon Cumberland as a county that 

 holds very decidedly the very front rank. 



His "Burgh Races" is a very truthful sketch of an athletic 

 gathering that takes place at Burgh-by-San ds, near Carlisle, upon 

 the succession of the Earls of Lonsdale. His "Kit Craffet" 

 sketches a character which for learning, for athletic prowess, and 

 for virtue, was not, and is not yet, uncommon in the Cumbrian 

 dales. Dr. Gibson says of Anderson's " Worton Wedding," : — 

 "As a description of a long, rapid, and varied succession of scenes, 

 every one a photograph, occurring at a gathering of country people 

 intent upon enjoying themselves in their own uncouth roystering 

 fashion, given in rattling, jingling, regularly irregular rhyme, with 

 a chorus that is of itself a concentration of uproarious fun and 

 revelry, we have never read or heard anything like Anderson's 

 ' Worton Wedding.' "* 



In point of time Sanderson is the next Cumberland poet. 

 He withdrew himself in some measure from all society. I 

 have heard much of him, for I lived for some years in the 

 same parish in which he lived and died. His tragic fate, in 

 the year 1829, has, however, been well told by Wordsworth. I 

 shall make no apology therefore for quoting it from Wordsworth's 

 account. It is as follows : — " Shirley's death reminded me of the 

 sad close of the life of a literary person, Sanderson by name, in 

 the neighbouring county of Cumberland. He lived in a cottage 

 by himself, which, from want of care on his part, took fire in the 

 night. The neighbours were alarmed ; they ran to the rescue ; he 

 escaped dreadfully burned from the flames, and lay down (he was 



* For this, and for other extracts, I am indebted to the Songs and Ballads of 

 Cumberland and the Lake Country. By Sidney Gilpin. 3 vols. Published by 

 G. & T. Coward, Carlisle. 1874. 



