Past and present at the English lakes . have got your eyesight too. But what we mud ga doon stairs into t parlourand sit doon, and then Ah can crack on for ivver. You have seen the poet, Mary ? I snid. Ay what many a time, she replied, for Icoomed into t vale two years or mair afore hedeed. Where did you come from ? Fra Hutton-in-t-Forest, mair nor sixty-sixyear gone noo. Ah was nobbut a lass then, andAh coomed wi Mr. Broon to t Hollins andLowther Hotel as nursemaid. It was a hotel ithem daays, and than Mr. Broon built t Prince oWales, and Ah went wi him to the spot. It washim at started t omn
Past and present at the English lakes . have got your eyesight too. But what we mud ga doon stairs into t parlourand sit doon, and then Ah can crack on for ivver. You have seen the poet, Mary ? I snid. Ay what many a time, she replied, for Icoomed into t vale two years or mair afore hedeed. Where did you come from ? Fra Hutton-in-t-Forest, mair nor sixty-sixyear gone noo. Ah was nobbut a lass then, andAh coomed wi Mr. Broon to t Hollins andLowther Hotel as nursemaid. It was a hotel ithem daays, and than Mr. Broon built t Prince oWales, and Ah went wi him to the spot. It washim at started t omnibus running to Waterhead—a girt lang thing we called i them days t hearse. Your maiden name was Noble was it not, Yis, and me fadder was woodman to the lateSir Harry Vanes grandfadder. There was eightin t family, six lads and two lasses. I could not help thinking that she bore out hermaiden name. There was such a look of realrefinement about her finely-chiselled face, such aquiet dignity in all her ways, you felt that you were. A CRACK WITH MRS. DIXON 273 in the presence of a real lady, one of natures noble-women. And have you lived in Grasmere eversince ? I said. Yis, yis, she said, what Ah wedded husbands mudder and fadder kept the onlybakers shop i t toon, just theer away beyond tRed Lion. And your husband was a waller was he not ^ Yis, yis, and three sons is wallers and aw. I remembered that her husbands father wasa waller of such note that he and his brothershad been called upon to build a bridge over theEsk at Muncaster when all other builders hadfailed to deal with shifting bank and flood water,and that that bridge, built in 1829, stands to-daya monument to her father-in-laws ability. He was a wrestler too, I said. Ay that he was, a stiff little man was Garge,a girt wrustler till we wedded, and than Ah saidto mesel well hev nea mair on it, and Ah telt himseah. As I write I have in memory a photograph ofGeorge standing by the side of his wife, a square-se
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Keywords: ., bookauthorwordsworthcollection, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910
