“A humble cow is I fancy more properly a humbled cow—it is so called in Durham—a cow whose horn is no longer set up on high. A humble or bumble bee is there called a ‘bumbler.’ To bumble in Durham means to go buzzing about; a fussy man would be called a great bumbler. But don’t believe it has no sting: it can sting worse than a honey bee, and all but as badly as a wasp. They used to tell us as children that ‘bumblers’ did not sting, but I know from experience that they do. We used as children to feel that we knew that the little yellow mason bee (?) did not sting, but I have no true knowledge on that point. Do you care to have the common village names of birds? I am afraid I can only remember one or two, but they are universally used in the north.
“The wren which makes the hanging nest lined with feathers is called the feather poke; yellow-hammer, yellow-yowley; golden-crested wren, Christian wren; white-throat, Nanny white-throat; hedge-sparrow, Dicky Diky. I could find more if you cared for them. To wind up, I will send you an anecdote I find among father’s writings, and which refers to your country. He is speaking [[115]]of some time early in 1800. ‘Cock-fighting was then in all its glory. When I was in the neighbourhood of Ulverston, in 18—,[8] I was told that about the time of which I am writing, a grave ecclesiastical question had been settled by an appeal to a battle with cocks. The chapelry of Pennington was vacant, but there was a dispute who should present a clerk to the vacant benefice,—the vicar of Ulverston, the mother-church, the church-wardens, the four-and-twenty, or the parishioners at large,—and recourse was had to a Welsh Main.’ ”
Finally, the following letter is worth preserving. It succinctly states the impression on the minds of the majority of booksellers that they ought to be able to oblige their customers at my expense. Perhaps in time, the customers may oblige the booksellers by paying them something for their trouble, openly, instead of insisting on not paying them anything unless they don’t know how much it is.
“Mr. George Allen.
Sir,—We will thank you to send us Ruskin’s
Aratra Pentelici £0 19 0 The Eagle’s Nest 0 9 6 Relations between Angelo and Tintoret 0 1 0 £1 9 6 And continue Account next year Fors Clavigera 0 7 0 Cheque enclosed. £1 16 6
“It cannot be too frequently referred to by the trade,—the unjustifiable mode Ruskin has adopted in the sale of his books. [[116]]It may be profitable to you (as we hope it is), but to the general trade it is nothing but a swindle. Our customer, for instance (whom we cannot afford to disoblige), pays us for this order just £1 16s. 6d.; and we must come back on him for expense of remitting, else we shall lose by the transaction.
“Your obedient Servant.”
| Aratra Pentelici | £0 | 19 | 0 |
| The Eagle’s Nest | 0 | 9 | 6 |
| Relations between Angelo and Tintoret | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| £1 | 9 | 6 | |
| And continue Account next year Fors Clavigera | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| Cheque enclosed. | £1 | 16 | 6 |
[[117]]
[1] Frightened, (I hear it was guessed in a gossiping newspaper,) by the Shipton accident, and disgusted afterwards by unexpected expenses. The ingenious British public cannot conceive of anybody’s estimating danger before accidents as well as after them, or amusing himself by driving from one place to another, instead of round the Park. There was some grain of truth in the important rumour, however. I have posted, in early days, up and down England (and some other countries) not once nor twice; and I grumbled, in Yorkshire, at being charged twenty-pence instead of eighteen-pence a mile. But the pace was good, where any trace of roads remained under casual outcasting of cinders and brickbats. [↑]
[2] “Our Lady’s,” doubtless, once. [↑]
[3] I include in my general term ‘mob,’ lords, squires, clergy, parish beadles, and all other states and conditions of men concerned in the proceedings described. [↑]