Part 19

At Beverley there are three very interesting examples of the survival of old English words, which have elsewhere dropped entirely out of use. The Beverley _Frith-Stool_ has preserved its name unchanged from the days when the word which meant peace was _frith_. The street known to-day as _Toll Gavel_ preserves memories of the time when _gafol_ meant a tax or toll, and it is clear that tolls continued to be paid in it long after the original meaning of this word had become forgotten. Similarly the _Hurn_, or freemen’s pasture which was once a corner of Beverley Westwood, has kept its name from the days when _hyrne_ meant a corner.

Another example of how the original meaning of a word may be kept in one instance only occurs in the descriptive name which is so commonly applied to England’s largest shire. Yorkshire is known far and wide as the ‘Land of the Broad Acres.’ But to how many who use this expression does it convey any meaning? Are the acres in Yorkshire ‘broader’ than they are elsewhere in Britain? If they are not, what sense is there in the expression?

As a matter of fact, the expression is a most suitable one. But it is so only if we know that the word _aecer_ (pronounced _akker_)[69] originally meant not a certain area of land, but merely a ploughed field. Yorkshire is still the ‘Broad-acred Shire,’ for in no other part of our country shall we find _fields_ of waving corn that measure as much as a hundred acres in extent.

Footnote 69:

The local pronunciation of ‘acre’ in the East Riding is _yakker_; so that the old sound of the word has been here kept, even though its meaning has universally changed.

* * * * *

In Chapter VIII. we read how the fierce Northmen settled in our land, and on pages 59–61 it was shown how numerous are Danish place-names in the East Riding of Yorkshire. But it is not only in the place-names of the district that we find proofs of the presence of the Northmen. There are in common use among the inhabitants of the East Riding scores of words that are purely Danish words, handed down from father to son, almost or quite unchanged during more than a thousand years. Some are as follows:—

WORDS USED BY THE MODERN STANDARD WORDS USED IN EAST NORSEMEN 1000 YEARS ENGLISH. YORKSHIRE TO-DAY. AGO.[70]

AT that (conjunction) AT

BAND string, cord BAND

BARN child BA’AN or BARN

BELJA to cry, shout out BEEAL

BUINN ready BOON

DALIGR dismal, lonely DOWLY

DENGJA to strike DING, DENG

FLYTJA to change one’s abode FLIT

FRA from FRA

GARTHR yard GARTH

GATA road, way GATE

GAUKR cuckoo GOWK

GYMBR female lamb GIMMER

HLAUPA to leap LOWP

HNEFI fist NEEAF

KETLINGR kitten KITLIN

KJARR low-lying land CARR

KLEGGI horse-fly KLEG

LEIKA to play LAIK

MEGIN very MAIN

MOLDVARPA mole MOODIEWARP

MUNU must MUN

REYKR smoke REEK

SKAELA to overturn SKEL UP

SKJAPPA basket SKEP

SLAKKI hollow SLACK

SLEIPR slippery SLAAPE

STIGI ladder STEE

THETTR watertight THEET

THRONGR busy THRONG

Footnote 70:

In reading these, it should be remembered that the Norse J=_y_, AU=_ow_, EI or EY=_ai_, and V=_w_.

Other proofs of the great influence of the Old Norse tongue on the language of East Riding folk are seen in their liking for the sound of K where modern standard English demands that of CH. The words _benk_ (or _bink_), _birk_, _breeks_, _caff_, _kirk_, _kist_, _pickfork_, and _thack_, are commonly heard used in place of the Southern English forms bench, birch, breeches, chaff, church, chest, pitchfork, and thatch. So also _hask_ or _’ask_ is the East Riding pronunciation of harsh, and _brig_ is universally used for the different meanings of the word bridge.

* * * * *

In the Rev. M. C. F. Morris’s history of Nunburnholme the author gives an amusing example of the East Riding Folk-Speech. But it is really something more than this. For we can see from it very clearly how much truer English is spoken by the East Yorkshire farm-labourer than by the fine fellow who prides himself on his knowledge of the English language.

Let us take Mr. Morris’s story—the Fable of ‘The Bear and the Bees’—in two forms. Here is one of them:—

‘A bear happened to be stung by a bee, and the _pain_ was so _acute_ that in the madness of _revenge_ he ran into the _garden_ and overturned the hive. This _outrage_ _provoke_d their anger to a high _degree_, and brought the _fury_ of the whole swarm upon him. They _attack_ed him with such _violence_ that his life was in _danger_, and it was with the utmost _difficulty_ that he made his _escape_, wounded from head to tail.

‘In this _desperate_ _condition_, _lament_ing his mis_fortunes_ and licking his sores, he could not forbear _reflect_ing how much more _advisable_ it had been to have _acquiesce_d _patient_ly under one _injury_ than thus by an un_profitable_ _resentment_ to have _provoke_d a thousand.’

Now this version of the fable contains just over eighty different words; and, if we turn over the pages of a French dictionary, we shall find that twenty-one of the twenty-five words printed in italics were not originally English words at all, but are words introduced into our language from the French. Some of them ‘came over with the Conqueror’ undoubtedly. Others were introduced in more recent times. The remaining four words—_acute_, _desperate_, _reflect_ing, and _acquiesce_d—are purely Latin words.

Let us now take the East Yorkshireman’s account of what happened:—

‘Yah daay yan o’ them girt beears gat hissen sadly tenged wi’ a bee. He wer seea _despe’t_ly ho’tten was t’ beear at he wer wahld ommeeast. Noo, they’re a varry _lungeous_ thing is a beear, an’ seea ti mak ’em think on t’ next tahm, he maks nowt ti deea bud he off ti t’ _gardin_ an’ clicks t’ beeskep ower wi sikan a bat. Noo, by that, mun, ther was a bonny ti-deea; t’ bees was sairly putten aboot, an’ seea they all com at t’ beear, an’ leeted on him; an’ he wer that tenged all ower, whahl it leeaked agin they wer boun ti rahve him i’ bits; an’ he wer hard set ti ger awaay frev ’em wick.

‘Varry seean he was swidgin’ an’ warkin’ awhahl he could hardlins bahd; bud, hooivver, he set hissen doon upo’ t’ grund an’ started ti beeal, an’ he shakk’d his heead an’ scratted his lugs an’ sike leyke. Eftther he’d gotten sattled doon a bit, thinks he tiv hissen, ah mebbe mud as weel ae tae’n neea _noatis_ eftther t’ fo’st bee tenged ma, as ti a’e meead sikan a _durdam_ amang t’ others, awhahl they were fit ti modther ma; an’ it wer all ti neea use at t’ _finish_.’

All the long French words have disappeared, and in the whole account only five French words and one Latin word are used. The difference is striking, and the reason for the difference is not far to seek.

The language of the former version is that which has come down to us from the Court, and the Court language was for centuries Norman-French. The words used by the East Yorkshire farm-labourer are those of his humble forefathers who knew no _bewk-larning_, and who learned their English tongue by word of mouth, picking up here and there only an occasional French word.

In other words, the language of the farm-labourer is almost exactly the same as that used by his ancestors four or five centuries ago. In fact, as Mr. Morris puts it, ‘if old Tommy Smith who died in 1500, aged 80, and old Willie Ward who died in 1900, aged 80, could come to life again and hold converse with one another, they would understand each other perfectly.’

XXIX. HOW THE EAST RIDING GOVERNS ITSELF.

Every ten years a census is taken of the people inhabiting the British Isles. The latest counting of the people took place in 1911, when it was found that there were living in the East Riding of Yorkshire 432,804 persons. This large number of people is made up of men, women, and children who live in groups or communities very greatly varying in size. The number of persons living in the great city of Hull was 278,024; the number living in the little village of Wilsthorpe was only one.

But whether the inhabitants of the East Riding are living together in large communities or in small ones, they live at peace with one another; and any disorderly person who disturbs the peace of the community is quickly brought to book. Now, seeing that man is by nature somewhat inclined to be a quarrelsome animal, how is this very desirable state of affairs brought about?

The answer to this is that all the men, women, and children of the East Riding are living under certain wise laws by which their lives are governed. Probably they do not often recognise the fact that their lives are being governed or ruled. If they did, they would almost certainly begin to kick against the rules and say that it is an Englishman’s privilege to do just as he likes.

But that is just the secret of the quiet, peaceful lives led by the great majority of English people. They submit to be governed without their knowing it; and they do not realise that they are being governed because, very largely, they govern themselves.

The laws by which the lives of the inhabitants of the East Riding are ruled are made at Westminster by the British Parliament. This consists of two ‘Houses’—the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

Among the 670 men who make up what is called the House of Commons there are six who are chosen by the people of the East Riding to represent them in Parliament. The city of Hull supplies three of these; and the remaining portion of the East Riding supplies the other three. For voting purposes, when the elections of these _Members of Parliament_ are held, Hull is split up into three Divisions—East Hull, West Hull, and Central Hull; and the rest of the East Riding is similarly split up into the Buckrose Division, the Holderness Division, and the Howdenshire Division.[71]

Footnote 71:

Hedon sent two members to Parliament from the time of Edward I. until 1832, when it was disfranchised as one of the ‘rotten boroughs.’ Beverley also was represented by two members till 1870.

In what is known as the House of Lords the East Riding is represented—though not through the process of election—by the Earl of Londesborough, Baron Middleton of Settrington House, Baron Leconfield, Baron Deramore of Heslington Hall, and Baron Nunburnholme of Ferriby Hall.

* * * * *

But the British Parliament only says what the laws of the whole country shall be. To see that these laws are rightly administered, there are in London what are called ‘Government Departments,’ such as the Board of Trade and the Board of Agriculture. A great deal of the work of these Departments, however, cannot be conveniently carried on from London, and the country is therefore split up into _Shires_, or _Counties_, to each of which is given the work of seeing that certain of the laws made by Parliament are properly kept.

The East Riding of Yorkshire is one of these counties, and in addition to seeing that the laws of the country are properly kept, it has the duty of making less important laws which concern only its own inhabitants. The latter are known as _by-laws_, or, as the word is often written, _bye-laws_.

Again, just as Britain is split up into different counties, each of which makes for itself the by-laws which it considers best, so the East Riding is split up into different portions, each of which makes its own by-laws.

This sort of arrangement is by no means a modern invention. A thousand years ago each ‘town,’ or group of farm dwellings, in the East Riding had its meeting to arrange the rules by which it should be governed. So also each ‘wapentake,’ or wider district, had its meeting, which was attended by representatives from the different ‘towns’ composing it. Lastly the whole ‘shire,’ the East Riding itself, had its meeting, attended by representatives from the different wapentakes.

Now we will see how this very ancient system is followed out to-day; but first we must put on one side the city of Hull, and the towns of Beverley, Bridlington, and Hedon.

Taking the rest of the East Riding, what was the _tūn mōt_ of the Angles is our PARISH COUNCIL. There are in the East Riding 131 Parish Councils, each of which is attended by chosen representatives of the village or township, and each of which looks after its own good management of affairs.

Similarly the _waepentac_ or _hundred mōt_ of the Angles is our URBAN or RURAL DISTRICT COUNCIL. In the East Riding there are eight groups of townships to which the name ‘Urban District’ is given; these have for their respective centres Cottingham, Driffield, Filey, Hessle, Hornsea, Pocklington, Norton, and Withernsea. There are also twelve groups of townships which we know as ‘Rural Districts.’

As you will see from the map on this page, the difference between an Urban and a Rural District is that in the latter the people are spread over a much wider area than in the former. The Urban Districts are, in other words, the more thickly populated parts of the country.

Similarly, too, the _scīr mōt_ of the Angles is the COUNTY COUNCIL of our day. This exercises authority over both the smaller Councils.

* * * * *

The EAST RIDING COUNTY COUNCIL is made up of representatives from different districts throughout the County, and consists of:—

/* Members elected for Beverley 4 Members elected for Bridlington 3 Members elected for the rest of the East Riding 45 — Total of Elected Members 52 County Aldermen 17 — Total of Members 69 */

For purposes of local government the city of Hull is entirely, and the towns of Beverley, Bridlington, and Hedon are partly, outside the East Riding. Hull ranks as a COUNTY BOROUGH, its full title being the ‘City and County of Kingston-upon-Hull,’ and it is governed by a Corporation, consisting of a Mayor, sixteen Aldermen, forty-eight Councillors, a Recorder, and a Sheriff.

Beverley, Bridlington, and Hedon rank as MUNICIPAL BOROUGHS. That is equal to saying that at some time or other each has received from the reigning Sovereign a charter granting it the right to rule its own affairs. Each Municipal Borough has a Mayor for its chief townsman.

In addition to their Mayors, Beverley and Bridlington have each six Aldermen and eighteen Councillors, while Hedon is governed by its Mayor, three Aldermen, and nine Councillors. For the election of Councillors Bridlington is divided into three wards—Bridlington Ward, Quay Ward, and Hilderthorpe Ward—and Beverley into two. The latter are named respectively Minster Ward and St. Mary’s Ward.

* * * * *

The work to be got through by a County Council or a Town Council is so large in amount that the members would not be able to carry out their duties satisfactorily if they did not arrange themselves in groups or _Committees_, each of which can undertake one kind of work. Often these Committees are again arranged in _Sub-Committees_.

Footnote 72:

This mace dates from the reign of Henry VI. In the enlarged portion are shown the _lions_ of England quartered with the _fleur-de-lis_ of France.

Thus the sixty-nine members of the East Riding County Council arrange themselves in the following nine groups, each of which has its Chairman and Deputy Chairman:—

1. Finance Committee. 2. Highways and Bridges Committee. 3. Asylum Committee. 4. Cattle Plague Committee. 5. General Purposes Committee. 6. Public Health Committee. 7. Small Holdings Committee. 8. Education Committee. 9. Old-Age Pensions Committee.

Each Committee conducts the affairs entrusted to it, and makes reports to the whole Council at stated intervals.

The _Finance Committee_ examines and recommends for payment all bills and accounts; it also has the management and control of all County Council buildings.

The _Cattle Plague Committee_ deals with the outbreak of contagious diseases on farms—such as swine fever, foot and mouth disease, sheep scab, and the most dreaded anthrax. It has to see that the various Acts of Parliament concerning these are fully carried out. Hence it may have to order the immediate slaughter of all the cattle or sheep on a farm, or perhaps to order that no animals are moved from one farm to any other. Should there be during a hot summer a plague of destructive insects, it issues instructions to farmers how to fight the plague, and moreover it can compel farmers to carry out these instructions.

The work of the _General Purposes Committee_ is very varied. It is concerned with the protection of wild birds during the nesting-season, the testing of the weights and measures used in some seven thousand shops, the inspection of places where ‘Living Pictures’ are shown, the granting of licenses for these, and the choice of places at which men and women shall record their votes at the time of an election.

Under the notice of the _Public Health Committee_ come all proposals for the planning of new town-districts and all those dealing with sanitation; under the _Small Holdings Committee_ come all requests for allotments. The applicant for an old-age pension must prove to the _Old-Age Pensions Committee_ that he or she is seventy years old, and has not a greater income than £31 10s. a year. The control and repair of roads and bridges, and the management of the County Asylum at Walkington, are in the hands of the _Highways and Bridges Committee_ and the _Asylums Committee_.

* * * * *

But of greatest influence over the lives of schoolboys and schoolgirls is the work of the _Education Committee_. The work is felt to be so important that the Committee is divided into Sub-Committees. These are called respectively:—

The Higher Education Sub-Committee. The School Management Sub-Committee. The School Attendance Sub-Committee. The School Buildings and Sites Sub-Committee. The Finance Sub-Committee.

Each of these Sub-Committees has its particular work, the nature of which can be recognised from its name. The Sub-Committee which exercises, perhaps, the greatest amount of influence is that whose name stands first in the list. It is the _Higher Education Sub-Committee_, which provides funds for the carrying on of the Bridlington, Pocklington, and Beverley Grammar Schools; which founded the Bridlington and Beverley High Schools for Girls; which provides the villages of the East Riding with lectures on Dairy Farming, Poultry Keeping, Gardening, and Beekeeping; which organises classes for Cookery, Laundry-Work, Dressmaking, Carpentry, Wood-Carving, and Domestic Economy; which grants Scholarships to deserving boys and girls who wish to continue their education at a Secondary or a Technical School.

A very special kind of work carried on by the East Riding County Council is that known as the _Registration of Deeds_. As a result of this work the Council possesses a record of all sales of land in the East Riding since the year 1706. There are only two counties in Britain that keep such records, Yorkshire being one and Middlesex the other.

For carrying on its numerous branches of work the County Council needs large supplies of money. In the year 1901–2 its total receipts were £61,760; in the year 1910–11 they had grown to £190,927. These figures show how the work of the Council increased during the nine intervening years.

About one-fifth of this large sum of money is provided by the Government, the rest of it by the inhabitants of the Riding. The latter is made up of rates, rents, licenses for traction engines and motor cars, fees for pedlars’ and chimney sweeps’ certificates, fines imposed by magistrates, and so on.

Of course very accurate accounts have to be kept of all items of Income and Expenditure. In the accounts for 1910–11 there are such items as the following:—

_Income Account_:— £ s. d. Charge for Loan of Hose Pipe 0 15 0 Sale of Old Hurdles, etc. 0 8 3 Cash found on Drowned Person 0 16 6 _Expenditure Account_:— Caution Posts—Painting and Repairing 18 9 6 Skerne—Tree-Topping 2 9 0 Taking Samples of Bread and Expenses 0 0 1

All moneys received and all moneys paid away must be accounted for, and the accounts for 1910–11 show that for the whole year the _Receipts_ amounted to £190,927, while the _Payments_ amounted to £191,161. You may, perhaps, think that you see in these figures something like a mathematical impossibility; but that is only because you have not reached the higher stages of commercial arithmetic.

* * * * *

The meetings of the County Council and those of its different Committees and Sub-Committees are held at the COUNTY HALL, Beverley.[73] That is the reason Beverley, though only a small town, is called the ‘Capital of the East Riding.’

Footnote 73:

The meetings of the Hull City Council, and the Beverley, Bridlington and Hedon Town Councils are held in their respective _Town Halls_.

The full meetings of the Council take place in the _Council Chamber_ four times each year—in the months of January, May, July, and October. Each meeting is presided over by the Chairman, or in his absence, by the Deputy-Chairman; and the conduct of the meeting is in accordance with a set of rules known as the _Standing Orders of the East Riding County Council_. To each resolution brought forward and put to the vote the members give their assent, or refuse it, by the words _Aye_ and _No_.

Both the County Council and the Town Councils have a body of officers to see that their wishes are properly carried out. They comprise a _Clerk_, _Treasurer_, _Accountant_, _Surveyor_, _Medical Officer of Health_, _Inspector of Weights and Measures_, _Analyst_, and so on, down perhaps, to the _Gardener_. In the case of the County Council the adjective _County_ is prefixed to the name of the office; in the case of a city or town, the word _Borough_. The chief officer in each is known as the _Clerk of the Council_ and the _Town Clerk_.

The Urban and Rural District Councils, and also the Parish Councils, have each a smaller body of officers whose duties resemble those of the officers mentioned above.

XXX. EAST RIDING SCHOOLS.

To have behind it a history that goes back certainly for eight hundred years, and in all probability for a thousand, is something of which a school may be proud. Such is the rightful boast of the BEVERLEY GRAMMAR SCHOOL.