“My purpose throughout has been to hold a mirror up to Nature, to give a faithful interpretation of thought and character, and to show my readers some of the ply of mind and habits of life that still prevail among Yorkshiremen whose individuality has not been blunted by convention.”

Dialect monologue as a true likeness, not a comic turn · Preface, Songs of the Ridings

• Character
• Honesty
• Individuality

“In volume and variety the dialect poetry of Yorkshire surpasses that of all other English counties.”

A historian of the vernacular staking Yorkshire's claim · Introduction, Yorkshire Dialect Poems

• Place
• Poetry
• Tradition

“It should be the aim of the writer of dialect verse to bring poetry out of the coteries of the people of leisure and to make it dwell in artisans' tenements and in cottagers' kitchens.”

Poetry as a household inheritance rather than a drawing-room privilege · Preface, Songs of the Ridings

• Democracy
• Poetry
• Work