Down-along Talks. By "Dan'l Grainger " (David F. Gass). Somerset
Folk Series No. 6. (Somerset Folk Press, 16 liarpur Street, W.C. 1. is. 8d.)—This little collection of stories gives examples of village affairs as they go on in remote parts of Somerset. The new life is present in a way, but it is all coloured by the old, and the dialect remains unintelligible to the outsider when spoken. In print it is not difficult, for the kernel of the English language is Wessex, and it is Wessex that is still spoken in the county of high hills, flat marshes and great elm trees. The episode of the parish council meeting, when the undesirable elector hands in his nomination paper which would
compel an election, is a perfectly natural piece of village politics ; so is the way in which the difficulty is got over by the private conversation outside the meeting, when the chair- man induces the undesirable candidate to withdraw because he is not fitted for the post, the real reason being a small episode of poaching known to the chairman and as yet not made public.
Previous page
