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Praise O' Do'set

By Mark North

The Fancy Feäir At Maïden Newton © Jennifer Martindale 2017
The Fancy Feäir At Maïden Newton © Jennifer Martindale 2017

William Barnes was a much-loved and respected teacher, clergyman, scholar of languages and poet. Most of his poems are written with a strong Dorset accent as he casts a kindly eye over the lives of the hardworking Dorset rural community.

With these rustic woodblocks, hand carved, handprinted, and hand-coloured images, Jennifer Martindale has tried to share the spirit of the poems.

The techniques used in this tea room exhibition at the Dorset County Museum, lend themselves to simple kitchen table production.

Jennifer explains "Making pictures uses the calm mindful part of me, and I aim to share with viewers the immense happiness that planning and making the work creates. A childish glee of playing with colours has never quite left me.  Over the years I have worked in most media, and I still move between painting and printmaking. I have long had an interest in South East Asia and have been influenced by the use of space and the concept of capturing the fleeting moment. The handpainted relief block print techniques of this William Barnes series were carefully chosen to represent the rustic nature of the poems."

Jennife's work will be on view from 4 April 2017 to 10 June 2017 in the museum's Tea Room, and it will be FREE to come and view.  Mounted, unframed versions of her work will be for sale during the exhibition.

The Fancy Fair at Maiden Newton by William Barnes

THE Frome, wi‘ ever-water‘d brink,
Do run where shelvèn hills do zink:
Wi‘ housen all a-cluster‘d roun‘
The parish tow‘rs below the down.
An‘ now, vor woonce, at leäst, ov all once
The pleäcen where the stream do vall,
There‘s woone that zome to-day mid vind,
Wi‘ things a-suited to their mind.
An‘ that‘s out where the Fancy Feäir
Is on at Maïden Newton.

An‘ vo‘k, a-smarten‘d up, wull hop
Out here, as ev‘ry traïn do stop,
Vrom up the line, a longish ride,
An‘ down along the river-zide.
An‘ zome do beät, wi‘ heels an‘ tooes,
The leänes an‘ paths, in nimble shoes,
An‘ bring, bezides, a biggish knot,
Ov all their childern that can trot,
A-vlockèn where the Fancy Feäir
Is here at Maïden Newton.

If you should goo, to-day, avore
A Chilfrome house or Downfrome door,
Or Frampton’s park-zide row, or look
Drough quiet Wraxall’s slopy nook,
Or elbow-streeted Catt’stock, down
By Castlehill’s cwold-winded crown,
An‘ zee if vo‘k be all at hwome,
You‘d vind em out—they be a-come
Out hither, where the Fancy Feäir
Is on at Maïden Newton.

Come, young men, come, an‘ here you‘ll vind
A gift to please a maïden‘s mind;
Come, husbands, here be gifts to please
Your wives, an‘ meäke em smile vor days;
Come, so‘s, an‘ buy at Fancy Feäir
A keepseäke vor your friends elsewhere;
You can‘t but stop an‘ spend a cwein
Wi‘ leädies that ha‘ goods so fine;
An‘ all to meäke, vor childern‘s seäke,
The School at Maïden Newton.

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