358 Mr. Carr on the Northumbrian Dialect, &c. 



in Tyneside, where there is certainly much Brito-Celtic 

 blood, whilst in Allendale the mixed poiDulation is akin to 

 that of Durham and East Cumberland. 



On the other hand the dialect of Northumberland extends 

 beyond the Tyne, on the south-east, even to Wearmouth, and 

 ascends the Wear as far as Chester-le-Street, which is on the 

 very boundary of the Durham or Yorkshire, and the Northum- 

 brian dialects. At Ebchester and Shotley Bridge the North- 

 umbrian also prevails, ascending the vale of Derwent. 



The old dialect of the county now called Northumberland 

 is preserved in its strongest, broadest, and least altered state 

 in the high moorland vallies of North Tyne, Reed, Coquet, 

 Breamish, and Glen. In the last mentioned dale stood Yever- 

 ing, an abode of the Anglian princes. The vicinity of Wooler 

 is therefore an important one to those who would inform 

 themselves as to the probable characteristics of the Anglian 

 speech of this region of Bernicia, as brought into it by Ida and 

 his followers. Bamborough and Lindisfarne are no less im- 

 portant centres of research. Hexham again is an instructive 

 locality. 



In all of these tracts, with perhaps some reservation as to 

 the last mentioned, the popular speech has much in common 

 with that of the neighbouring shires of Roxburgh and Ber- 

 wick. The r is often strongly and clearly pronounced, as 

 beyond the Tweed. Thence we may infer that the burr is 

 mainly a corruption proper to the rustic dialect of " The 

 How " or hollow of Northumberland, and the adjacent coast 

 line, which did not prevail widely in early times. 



But before we proceed to speak further of the Northum- 

 brian dialect, it is necessary to observe that a still further 

 extension of the early Anglian speech must be recognized. 



Let me however, ere proceeding further, observe, that I am 

 very far from wishing to cast any doubt upon the fact of 

 numbers of Danish or Norse words having established them- 

 selves in Northumberland, together with a multitude of 

 Danish personal and family appellations. We unquestion- 

 ably have very many such, and many have passed from us 

 into Lothiane, where others again of Norse origin have met 

 them from the north of Caledonia. Yet neither in Northum- 

 berland nor in Lothiane is there any Danish or Norse nomen- 

 clature of localities indicating the domination and lordship of 

 these north-eastern strangeis. The terms from their language 

 seem to have come to us at second hand, together with their 

 personal names, from Yorkshire and Durham, when the Danic- 



