At the tobacconist's

This is a no smoking laboratory, but this gem in the BL's sound archive could tempt us. You can hear JRR Tolkien in this early Linguaphone recording. He's better known now for his fiction, but he was also a skilled linguist and heavily involved in the OED. Follow the link after the link, and do find the three minutes and eighteen seconds to listen - you'll be well rewarded. It seems people really did speak like that. At least some people, anyway.