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PREFATORY NOTE.
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THE title of this
volume, "Tufts of Heather," seems to have been a favourite one with
Waugh. He has used it to cover different collections of stories, and
in different forms. One of these is "Yeth Bobs an' Scaplins; or,
Tufts of Heather an' Chips of Rock." The phrase is not inapplicable
to his writings, in which we often find mingled the freshness and
fragrance of the heather flower with the rugged character of the
moorland soil.
In "The Old Fiddler," the first story of the present volume, Waugh
touches once more with a loving hand the character of
Besom Ben, the
narrative of whose adventures he is evidently unwilling to lay down. The sketch is noticeable chiefly for the snatches of old country
songs with which it is plentifully interspersed, and for a really
good ghost story — "Breawn Dick o' Blacks'n Edge," which the Fiddler
tells in Chapter III.
The story called "Jannock " was published as a separate book of 108
pages in 1874, under the title of "Jannock; or the Bold
Trencherman." In this piece Waugh leaves his own native part of
Lancashire, and takes the reader to Broughton-in-Furness and the
beautiful valley of the Duldon. The student of dialects will be
interested in comparing Waugh's excellent rendering of the North
Lancashire, or Cumberland, folk-speech, with that of the Southern
district, which he ordinarily uses. In addition to the principal
incident, "Jannock" contains some good short stories, and an account
of Wordsworth's "Wonderful Walker," the famous parson of Seathwaite
Chapel, which is perhaps the best that can be obtained. The burial
of his wife and his own death at the age of 93, is told in the
eighth chapter with real pathos.
"The Barrel Organ" is one of Waugh's oldest and most popular pieces,
and has probably been published more frequently than any other. It
had reached a fourth edition in 1866, and was then issued as a
pamphlet of 31 pages, with the illustrations by Charles Potter,
which appear in the present volume.
"Owd Cronies" was published in a separate form in 1875 as "Old
Cronies; or, Wassail in a Country Inn." The inn, which, with its
surroundings, is capitally described, is the Old Boar's Head at
Middleton, near Manchester, and the sketch embodies an inimitable
story for public reading, that which is known as "The Lancashire
Volunteers." The last paper in the volume, under the title of "The
Dead Man's Dinner," gives a charming description of a village in
Rossendale, and ends with what is perhaps the most pathetic thing
which Waugh has written —
Lancashire tales: "Tufts of Heather",
Volume I. Edited by George Milner, M.A.; published by John Heywood, Manchester
(ca. 1890).a sad story of sudden calamity in a poor
man's home.
G. M. |
