On Thu, 23 Jan 2014 21:25:23 -0000, Ian Sage <sage_gen@tiscali.co.uk> wrote: > By chance recently, I stumbled across the poem "Leady-Day, an' Ridden > House" by William Barnes which gives a quite detailed inventory of the > household of a labouring man. > William Barnes wrote nostalgically about the life of his youth in early > 19th century rural Dorset; life in the Somerset countryside would not > have been very different, and his verses provide a concentrated and > personal view which books of social history struggle to match. His > verses are available freely at > http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21785/21785-h/21785-h.htm Hi Ian and Listers, Thanks for the link to the poems of William Barnes, Ian. Reading one of them, Praise o' Do'set, has struck a chord with me: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21785/21785-h/21785-h.htm#page333 In this poem, 'vinny cheese' is mentioned. I have known about Blue Vinny cheese for about 40 years, but never tasted it. Perhaps my Somerset ancestors did. For anyone who hasn't heard of Blue Vinny cheese, also known as Dorset Blue Vinney, there's information about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorset_Blue_Vinney Josephine