Christmas with William Barnes - "A-keepen up o’ Chris'mas".

I've just added this footnote to an email, written to my adult children in the USA and Bermuda:

"At least you're spared my traditional Christmas Eve renditions of two of William Barnes's Dorset dialect Christmas poems! Just in case you miss them, see....

http://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2006/12/christmas-with-william-barnes-keepen-up-ochristmas/

and

http://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2006/12/christmas-with-william-barnes-christmas-invitation/

More anon.

Statue of William Barnes, Dorchester (Photo JP)

Tim Laycock, playing the part of Barnes in The Year Clock

Whitcombe Church  

William Barnes took his first service here in 1847 and his last in 1885.