In days gone by it used to be said that a ’calling’ wife and a dusty spinning-wheel were commonly associated together, and the saying, ‘A mucky moos-trap shoots’ (shouts) ‘for t’ cat,’ was one of those standing rebukes to a slatternly mater familias which is tellingly put, while the following doggerel might well find a place on the walls of every kitchen:—
A cobweb i’ t’ kitchen
An’ feeat-marks on t’ step
Finnd neea wood i’ t’ yewn
An’ neea cooals i’ t’ skep.
No theme is more frequently harped upon by our old folks, when contrasting present manners and customs with those of a generation or two ago, than the change that has come over the community in the matter of dress, and there is a moral which they commonly draw therefrom. ‘There’s sadly owermich prahd noo,’ say they; while the money that many of the young people spend upon their dress passes the understanding of their elders, who in their younger days were content with fustian jackets and print gowns. It was said, for instance, by one who held that a hood was a suitable head-covering for a woman, that ‘she is a feeal ’at hugs a geease’ (i.e. the price of a goose) ‘on t’ top of her heead.’ In consequence of extravagancies of this nature, it is doubtful if, in spite of increased wages and cheapness of living, our farm lads and lasses save as much money as they did in the olden days. With corn at the high price it was, say, fifty years ago, the people were early inured to thrifty ways, and the absolute necessity for carefulness in all things was frequently insisted upon. Thus, for instance, a child would be told that ‘a beean thrawn away at t’ fore-end is a dinner lost at t’ back-end.’ Few of those living now would credit with what hard fare their grandfathers had often to be content, and yet the physique of the men which those times produced was probably not inferior, in point of endurance and capacity for work, to that at the present time.
Most of us, I dare say, remember the schoolgirl’s reply when asked to define scandal, namely, ‘When no one does nothing to nobody, and some one else goes and tells’; and although we cannot perhaps surpass even in Yorkshire that happy explanation of the term, yet we do own to certain sayings with reference to the unruly member, some of which may not be unworthy of being placed on record. There is one, for instance, which savours somewhat of the schoolgirl’s definition just mentioned, and there are probably many similar ones; it runs thus: ‘Them ’at says they deean’t leyke saayin’ nowt aboot nowt ti neeabody, meeastlins pass tahm by saayin’ summat aboot summat ti somebody.’
Again, the following rhyme aptly hits off what, it is to be feared, is a not altogether uncommon failing in Yorkshire as elsewhere:—
Them ’at says they weean’t, an’ diz it still,
Dizn’t deea it when they saay they will.