262 ANGLO-SAXONS AND DANES. 



They arc still more frequent in Nottinghamshire and Leicester- 

 shire, and may be said to abound amidst the true Anglians of 

 Norfolk and Suffolk. The physical characters here traced 

 cannot be, as Dr. Prichard conjectures in a parallel case in Ger- 

 many, the effect of some centuries of residence in towns, for 

 they are spread like an epidemic among the rural and secluded 

 population as much as among the dwellers in towns. Unless 

 we suppose such varieties of appearance to spring up among the 

 blue-eyed races, we must regard them as a legacy from the 

 Roman colonists and the older Britons, amongst whom, as already 

 stated, the Iberian element was conjecturally admitted. 



Adopting this latter view, there is no difficulty in regard to 

 the other groups. They are of North German and Scandinavian 

 origin, and the men of Yorkshire inherit the physical organiza- 

 tion, and retain many of the peculiarities of language of their 

 adventurous sires. In the words employed, in the vowel sounds, 

 the elisions, and the construction of sentences, the Yorkshire 

 dialects offer interesting analogies to the old English of Shak- 

 speare and Chaucer, the Anglo-Saxon of the Chronicle, and the 

 Norse, as it is preserved to us by the Icelanders. 



I subjoin a few descriptive words common in East Yorkshire, 

 with the English meaning : 



Beck A brook. 



Bank A hill. 



Brant Applied to a steep bill. 



Brig . . , A prominent ledge of rocks on the coast. (In its 



ordinary sense it is a bridge.) 



Breea Bank of a river. (Brae.) 



Barf Detached low ridge or hill. 



Birk The birch tree. 



Bugh* (pron. Buf) A bough. 



Clarty Dirty. 



Cliff Perpendicular rock. 



Coble A boat. 



Cobbles Pebbles. 



Croft Enclosed field. 



* This mode of pronouncing the terminal yh is employed in many 

 words. 



