Lancashire Humour. By Thomas Newbigging. (J. M. Dent and Co.
2s. 6d.)—Of course many of these stories are old— indeed, Mr. Newbigging has himself told some of them elsewhere, as he lets us know in his preface—but the absolutely new jest is, to say the least, rare Anyhow, the forms and circumstances are frequently fresh. Here are some specimens. In a coal famine the owner of a well-filled coal bunk heard some one manifestly helping himself. "You're pykin"em out, Aw see ! " he cried. "Nay," said the thief, "thou'rt a liar, owd man. lw'm ta'en 'em as they come." "How far to Bury ?" asked a tramp of a stonebreaker. "There's a milestone doun theer, thae con look for dal' gel'." " But aw connot read." " Well, then, that mile- stone '11 just suit thee, owd lad. It's nought on it." When the Manchester Ship Canal was buying land an owner claimed cora- pensation for a valuable seam of coal for which he had been boring. "Have you se in men barite; for coal in this field ? " asked the vendor's counsel of a witness. No, he hadn't seen them—though he crossed the field daily. No other answer could be got out of him. At last the question was put in this form,—" Have you not seen men engaged in making borings in this field ?" " Oh ! ay ; Aw've seed 'em boring." "You hare seen them boring for coal, then ? " "Nose not for coal. Aw have seen 'em boring." " Then what were they boring for ? " "They vrur boring for compensation." This witness had the same impenetrable stupidity as Mr. Samuel Weller the Younger had in a famous case. The book is nicely illustrated by J. Ayton Symington.
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