(I cude gev ee a map reference, if tis naidful; these yer compreensives maak the chillun all talk the zaam, but when I was a lil maid, over to Newton Market I cude tell ee which village a varmer caam from, jes by lesnin to en. This yer taal shows ee ow the Dartmoor volk used to talk out Leusdon way.)

GRANDFEYTHER IN CHIMLEY CORNER

• Volks nowadays don’t know as ow they’m born.


• When I was a boy, a body didn think of skule
• As a plaace ee went to for to better yerselve —
• Twas where ee larned ow much ee was of a vule,
• And taicher vetched ee a scat — mean ole toad —
• Whenaiver e ketched ee out. Anyroad,
• I left thik skule when I was risin twelve
• An went to work over to Annaford’s plaace.
• When I say work, I main us worked, I tellee,
• So sunes the sun ad showed is marnin faace
• Right droo until e zet again, by gally.


• Arvest time was ard for men and osses,
• But cheerful like — us cuden afford to be grumpy —
• And, best of all, at dinner time, the boss’s
• Wive brought down the cloamen jugs of scrumpy.
• Et went down zuant, I tellee, twas the rale
• Article was Annaford’s zider — not the oss-piss
• They drinks today, as fills yer noze with fizz
• And gevs ee weend — anyroad, on wi mi tale:
• When reaper-binder ad cut most all the whait,
• And us ad stooked et all in raws, all nait,
• The neighborin volks ud bring their dogs to ketch
• The paasel of rabbits as was all crookeed down
• In the last stand. Binder, ee goes roun,
• And their cover’s gawn: tis voles and mice and rabbits
• Gwain in all directions: dogs wude fetch
• En back and tear the rabbits all to flibbets
• If us didn stop en; and mebbe there’s a hare
• Zettn up and watchin — then awaydego,
• And dogs arter en — twadn sure whether or no
• They’d taak en — a hare’s real fly — but a pair
• Of rabbits was a sartainty fer pie
• Fer next day’s dinner. Us all traipsed ome to bed
• And slept till dawn as sound as if we’m daid.


• Volks nowadays bargins for each hower’s pay,
• An brings gert combines in to swaller the corn —
• Do ee call that workin, zettn down all day?
• Volks nowadays don’t know as ow they’m born.

   GLOSSARY (for Grandfather in Chimley Corner)

scat

a sudden blow or smack

thik

that

cloamen

made of cloam or earthenware

scrumpy

farm cider made in the traditional way (straw is an essential flavouring, and some people will tell you that wasps are too)

e

he

ee

you (originally ye)

zuant

smoothly, flowing

oss

horse

stooked

stood the sheaves of corn in loose cone shapes to dry

paasel

group or bundle

crookeed down

hunched down (crookee is one of a small group of verbs that have the infinitive ending ee: in some villages people also say lookee for look)

flibbets

little pieces (I think it may derive from flea-bites)

awaydego

off they went (do is an intensifier, and the present tense is used for exciting past events, as in most spoken English dialects)

fly

clever, quick-witted, cunning

traipsed

walked over a longish distance

zettn down

sitting down

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