es in the race of
Northumbrians to-day. There are few of them that are not true to type,
few that you would not care to have as comrades in a tight corner.
Their stubborn courage and contempt for danger have been proved again
and again. The worse the outlook the more cheerful they seem to
become. Sturdy independence is there, and for this allowance has to be
made--slow to like and slow to change; if you are known as 'Mister'
So-and-so, whatever your rank, you have won their respect. No better
soldiers in the land can be found to hold or to fortify a position.
But I doubt whether they have quite the same genius for the
attack.[1] A certain lack of imagination, a certain want of
forethought, have always, as it seems to me, been a handicap to these
brave men when they attack. Again and again during an assault they
have fallen in hundreds, they have shown themselves as willing to die
in the open as in the trenches. But have they the wild fury that
carries the Scot, the Irishman, or the Frenchman over 'impossible'
obstacles? No, they are not an enthusiastic people, nor a very
imaginative one. And these qualities are needed to press home a
difficult attack. They are not as a whole a quick or a very
intelligent race. But for stark grim courage under the most awful
surroundings they stand second to none. There is a streak of
ruthlessness, too, in their dealings with the enemy; a legacy from the
old Border wars with the Scots. They are quite ready, if need be, to
take no prisoners. A hard and strong, but a very lovable race of men.
Yes, I think all the world of the men of the north, although I am not
blind to their faults. Taken as a whole no more handsome or manly set
of men can be found in the British Isles.

The Northumbrian dialect is difficult to understand until you get the
trick of it. And the trick of it is in the accent and intonation, and
not so much in any peculiar form of words. They have a peculiar way of
dropping their voices, too, which is sometimes disconcerting. But it
is a clean wholesome language, undefined by the disgusting and
childish obscenity which is too often a disgrace to other districts in
England. It reminds me a little of the Scottish tongue, but rather
more of the country speech in the northern parts of Yorkshire, but in
some ways it is all its very own. It must indeed be one of the
earliest surviving types of the Anglo-Saxon speech. I had no great
difficulty in understanding it, but to this day I