TRANSCRIBERS' NOTES
Dialect has been retained. Printer's errors and corrections aredescribed at the end of the text.
Note that there is an index to the poems at the end of the text.
WITH A GLOSSARY OF THE
YORKSHIRE DIALECT:
BY JOHN CASTILLO.
WHITBY:
PUBLISHED BY HORNE & RICHARDSON.
1843.
The Author of the following Poems prefixes a “Preface” to them, lest heshould seem to be wanting in respect to his readers, did he not complywith a custom which is universal. In doing so, however, he would eschewtwo kinds of Preface, viz: that in which the author arrogates to himselfthe merit of having produced a work entirely new, both in subject, andin manner of expression, and on that score claims the plaudits of hisfriends and the public;—and that in which the author professes to feelhimself inadequate to the task of composing a book, but at the pressingsolicitation of his friends, with great distrust of his abilities forsuch a work, he yields to their entreaties, and pleads his inability inmitigation of the critic’s wrath. With respect to the former, the writerof the present volume professes not to offer to his readers any thingnew, either as to matter, or to language; and as to the latter, thefollowing pieces were most of them composed several years ago, atdistant intervals of time, and were frequently perused by his friendslong before he had thoughts of publishing them:—the character of hispoetry is therefore pretty well known to those who are likely[Pg vi] to becomepurchasers of his book; and it would be but a bungling apology did heattempt to shelter its defects under the plea of inability for his task.
It will be unnecessary to say much of the subjects sung of in thefollowing poems. Though they are various, the author hopes they will allbe found to contain a moral, which, if acted upon in common life, woulddirect the conduct to a beneficial end. Many of them are founded onfacts which occurred in the writer’s neighbourhood, and which he hasendeavoured to turn to a useful purpose. Others are of an experimentalcast, and are the breathings of the poet’s heart when inflamed by LoveDivine! It has been his constant aim to exhibit the workings of grace inthe heart, its effects on the life, and the glorious futurity to whichit conducts its possessor. For this purpose, he has seized on a varietyof incidents known to many of his friends, which have furnished him withmatter on which to graft a spiritual thought. Life in its spring tide,or when ebbing in death, home with its simple yet hallowed joys, areligious assembly rapt in devotion and love, a landscape endeared bythe associations of youth or of kindred, a dilapidated church, awithering flower, a text of scripture—have supplied him with topics;—andhe trusts that the doctrines which he has inculcated in connection withthem will always be found to agree with the Word of God.
Of the “Dialect” in which some of the pieces are composed, the authordeems it necessary to say a[Pg vii] few words. It is well known that everycounty in England has its peculiarities of expression and pronunciation.These peculiarities, though often unintelligible to persons brought upat a distance, are yet the native language of the common inhabitants;and there is, in their estimation, a point and power in them, which a