THE TWENTY-NINTH OF MAY. 



Is it not singular ? Among the lowest classes, however, there 

 are many words used that puzzle us ; others are pronounced curi- 

 ously, and many of our common words are used in new combina- 

 tions. There is an old-fashioned, quaint set of words in common 

 use that we only understand from having met with them in old 

 books in the Bible, for instance. The words Master and Mistress 

 (instead of Mister and Misses, as we have got to pronounce 

 them), and lad and lass, are usual. "Here, lad!" "Wull, 

 Maister?" I first heard in the Liverpool market. I passed a 

 man, there, too, leading a dray-horse, with a heavy load, up one 

 of the steep streets. He was encouraging him in this way: 

 " Coom on, my lad ! coom on, my good lad ! " When he had 

 reached the brow, he stopped and went before the noble beast, 

 who, with glistening eyes, and ears playing beautifully, bowed his 

 head to be patted : " Good lad! good lad! Well, thee's done it!"* 



We had noticed yesterday, in Liverpool, that the omnibuses 

 were decorated with branches of trees, ribbons, and flags ; the 

 union-jack (British ensign) was hoisted in several places, the 

 children seemed to be enjoying a half-holiday in the afternoon, 

 and once we saw them going together in an irregular procession, 

 carrying a little one dressed with leaves and crowned with a gilt 

 paper cap, and singing together in shrill chorus some verses, of 

 which we only understood the frequent repetition of the words : 

 "The twenty-ninth of May! the twenty-ninth of May!" It 

 occurred to C. to ask whether all this was intended to celebrate 

 any thing. " Oh, surely," our hostess said, " it was the twenty- 

 ninth of May King Charles-and-the-Oak day." In her hus- 



* A gentleman, riding towards Chowbet, and seeing a boy in the road, shouted out to 

 him, " My lad, am I half-way to Chowbet ? " Young Lancashire looked up at the querist, 

 and said, "Hah con aw tell, tha' foo', when I doon't know wheear ta' coom fra?" 

 Liverpool Paper. 



