" JOHN CHAWBACON AND HIS WIFE MOLL.
Cum up t' Exeter to zee the Railway Opened, May 1, 1844.
"Lor Johnny! lor Johnny! now whativver es that,/ A urning along like a hoss upon wheels?/ Tis as bright as yer buttons and black as yer hat,/ And just listen, Johnny, and yer how 'a squeals!"
"Dash my buttons, Moll - I'll be darn'd if I know./ Us was vools to come yerr and to urn into danger; / Let's be off - 'a spits vire! lor do let us go - / And 'a holds up his head like a goose at a stranger."
"I be a bit vrightened- but let us bide yerr/ and hark how 'a puffs, and 'a caughs , and 'a blows;/ He edden unlike the old cart-hoss last yer - / Broken-winded; - and yet only zee how 'a goes!
"'A urns upon ladders , with they things like wheels / on hurdles, or palings put down on the ground;/ But why do they let un stray out o' the veels? / Tis a wonder they don't clap un into the pound."
"''A can't be alive, John, - I don't think 'a can." / " I bain't zure of that, Moll, for jist look 'ee how/ 'A breathes like a hoss or a znivell'd old man;- / And hark how he's bust out a caughing good now!"
"'A never could dra' all they waggins, d'ee zee,/ If 'a lived upon vatches, or turmets, or hay;/ Why, they waggins be vill'd up with people - they be; / And d'ee but look how they'm larfing away!"
"And look at they childern a urning about,/ Wi' their mouths full of gingerbread, there by the zhows;/ And zee to the scores of vine ladies turn'd out; / And gentlemen all in their best Zunday clothes.
"And look to thie houze made o'canvas so smart; / And the dinner set out with such bussle and fuss;-/ But us brought a squab-pie, you know, in the cart, / And a keg of good zider - zo that's nort to us,
"I tell 'ee what 'tis, Moll - this here is my mind; / The world's gone quite maze, as zure as you'm born;/ "Tis as true as I'm living - and that they will vind,/ With their hosses on wheels that don't live upon corn.
"I wouldn't go home b'mbye to the varm / Behind such a critter, when all's zed and dun, / We've travell'd score miles , but we never got harm, - / Vor there's nort like a market cart under the zun." - PETER"
John and Moll (Mary) were far and away the most popular christian names given to Devon's village children in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The county was full of Johns and Marys.
The 'gullibility' and 'simplicity' of the dialect-speaking rural Devonians were a source of great fun to the writers and the readers of the Exeter newspapers,. Of course, the 'peasants' were neither so gullible nor so simple as the citizens of Exeter liked to think they were. These days somebody would take offence.
Urning for running is new to me. Did people actually say that?
Vatches and turmets are vetches (legumes) and turnips.
Znivelled is a pleasant adjective for an old man. I feel like that sometimes.
Why the apostrophe before 'a ? Does anybody know?
Source: The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 4th May 1844.
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