Part 14

Mr. Chambers, p. 171, gives some very interesting observations on these lines. "In England," he says, "the snail scoops out hollows, little rotund chambers, in limestone, for its residence. This habit of the animal is so important in its effects, as to have attracted the attention of geologists; one of the most distinguished of whom (Dr. Buckland) alluded to it at the meeting of the British Association at Plymouth, in 1841." The above rhyme is a boy's invocation to the snail to come out of such holes or any other places of retreat resorted to by it. Mr. Chambers also informs us that, in some districts of Scotland, it is supposed that it is an indication of good weather if the snail obeys the injunction of putting out its horn:

Snailie, snailie, shoot out your horn, And tell us if it will be a bonnie day the morn.

It appears from Gay's Shepherd's Week, ed. 1742, p. 34, that snails were formerly used in rural love-divinations. It was the custom[44] to place the little animal on the soft ashes, and to form an opinion respecting the initial of the name of a future lover by the fancied letter made by the crawling of the snail on the ashes:

Last May-day fair I search'd to find a snail, That might my secret lover's name reveal; Upon a gooseberry bush a snail I found, For always snails near sweetest fruit abound. I seiz'd the vermin, home I quickly sped, And on the hearth the milk-white embers spread. Slow crawl'd the snail, and if I right can spell, In the soft ashes mark'd a curious L; Oh, may this wondrous omen lucky prove, For L is found in Lubberkin and Love!

[Footnote 44: A similar practice is common in Ireland. See Croker's Fairy Legends, i. 215.]

Verses on the snail, similar to those given above, are current over many parts of Europe. In Denmark, the children say (Thiele, iii. 138)—

Snegl! snegl! kom herud! Her er en Mand, som vil kjöbe dit Huus, For en Skjæppe Penge!

Snail! snail! come out here! Here is a man thy house will buy, For a measure of white money.

A similar idea is preserved in Germany, the children saying (Des Knaben Wunderhorn, iii. 81)—

Klosterfrau im Schneckenhäussle, Sie meint, sie sey verborgen. Kommt der Pater Guardian, Wünscht ihr guten Morgen!

Cloister-dame, in house of shell, Ye think ye are hidden well. Father Guardian will come, And wish you good morning.

The following lines are given by M. Kuhn, Gebräuche und Aberglauben, 398, as current in Stendal:

Schneckhûs, peckhûs, Stäk du dîn vêr hörner rût, Süst schmît ick dî in'n gråven, Då frêten dî de råven.

APPLES.

Children in the North of England, when they eat apples, or similar fruit, delight in throwing away the pippin, exclaiming—

Pippin, pippin, fly away, Get me one another day!

THE WALNUT-TREE.

There is a common persuasion amongst country people that whipping a walnut-tree tends to increase the produce, and improve the flavour of the fruit. This belief is embodied in the following distich:

A woman, a spaniel, and a walnut-tree, The more you whip them the better they be.

And also in this quatrain:

Three things by beating better prove, A nut, an ass, a woman; The cudgel from their back remove, And they'll be good for no man.

THE ASH.

Burn ash-wood green, 'Tis a fire for a queen: Burn ash-wood sear, 'Twill make a man swear.

Ash, when green, makes good fire-wood, and, contrary perhaps to all other sorts of wood, is bad for that purpose when _sear_, or dry, withered. The old Anglo-Saxon term _sear_ is well illustrated by this homely proverb. The reader will remember Macbeth:

I have lived long enough: My way of life is fallen into the _sear_ and yellow leaf.

PEAS.

Children get the pods of a pea, and flinging them at each other, cry

Pea-pod hucks, Twenty for a pin; If you don't like them, I'll take them agin.

The _hucks_ are the shells or pods, and _agin_ the provincial pronunciation of _again_.

PIMPERNELL.

No heart can think, no tongue can tell, The virtues of the pimpernell.

Gerard enumerates several complaints for which this plant was considered useful, and he adds, that country people prognosticated fine or bad weather by observing in the morning whether its flowers were spread out or shut up.—Herbal, first ed. p. 494. According to a MS. on magic, preserved in the Chetham Library at Manchester, "the herb pimpernell is good to prevent witchcraft, as Mother Bumby doth affirme;" and the following lines must be used when it is gathered:

Herbe pimpernell, I have thee found Growing upon Christ Jesus' ground: The same guift the Lord Jesus gave unto thee, When he shed his blood on the tree. Arise up, pimpernell, and goe with me, And God blesse me, And all that shall were thee. Amen.

"Say this fifteen dayes together, twice a day, morning earlye fasting, and in the evening full." MS. ibid.

MARUM.

If you set it, The cats will eat it; If you sow it, The cats will know it.

BIRD-SHOOER'S SONG.

Awa', birds, awa', Take a peck And leave a seck, And come no more to day!

This is the universal _bird-shooer's_ song in the midland counties.

THE GNAT.

In the eastern counties of England, and perhaps in other parts of the country, children chant the following lines when they are pursuing this insect:

Gnat, gnat, fly into my hat, And I'll give you a slice of bacon!

THE TROUT.

In Herefordshire the alder is called the _aul_, and the country people use the following proverbial lines:

When the bud of the _aul_ is as big as the trout's eye, Then that fish is in season in the river Wye.

TOBACCO.

Tobacco hic, Will make you well If you be sick.

Tobacco was formerly held in great esteem as a medicine. Sickness was the old term for illness of any kind, and is no doubt the more correct expression.

It may just be worth a passing notice to observe, that Shakespeare never mentions _tobacco_, nor alludes to it even indirectly. What a brilliant subject for a critic! A treatise might be written to prove from this circumstance that the great poet was not in the habit of smoking; or, on the contrary, that he was so great an admirer of the pernicious weed, that, being unable to allude to it without a panegyric, he very wisely eschewed the subject for fear of giving offence to his royal master, the author of the 'Counterblast.' The discussion, at all events, would be productive of as much utility as the disputes which have occasioned so many learned letters respecting the orthography of the poet's name.

JACK-A-DANDY.

Boys have a very curious saying respecting the reflection of the sun's beams from the surface of water upon a ceiling, which they call "Jack-a-dandy beating his wife with a stick of silver." If a mischievous boy with a bit of looking-glass, or similar material, threw the reflection into the eye of a neighbour, the latter would complain, "He's throwing Jack-a-dandy in my eyes."

VII.—PROVERB-RHYMES.

Metrical proverbs are so numerous, that a large volume might be filled with them without much difficulty; and it is, therefore, unnecessary to say that nothing beyond a very small selection is here attempted. We may refer the curious reader to the collections of Howell, Ray, and Denham, the last of which chiefly relates to natural objects and the weather, for other examples; but the subject is so diffuse, that these writers have gone a very short way towards the compilation of a complete series.

Give a thing and take again, And you shall ride in hell's wain!

Said by children when one wishes a gift to be returned, a system naturally much disliked. So says Plato, των ορθως δοθεντων αφαιρεσις ουκ εστι. Ray, p. 113, ed. 1768. Ben Jonson appears to allude to this proverb in the Sad Shepherd, where Maudlin says—"Do you give a thing and take a thing, madam?" Cotgrave, Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, 1632, in v. _Retirer_, mentions "a triviall proverb:"

Give a thing, And take a thing, To weare the divell's gold-ring.

And it is alluded to in a little work entitled Homer à la Mode, a mock poem upon the First and Second Books of Homer's Iliads, 12mo. Oxford, 1665, p. 34:

Prethee for my sake let him have her, Because to him the Græcians gave her; To give a thing, and take a thing, You know is the devil's gold-ring!

The proverb sometimes runs thus:

Give a thing, take a thing, That's an old man's play-thing.

"A lee with a hatchet," as they say in the North, is a circumstantial self-evident falsehood, and so runs the proverb:

That's a lie with a latchet, All the dogs in the town cannot match it.

Children say the following when one has been detected in any misrepresentation of a mischievous character—

Liar, liar, lick spit, Your tongue shall be slit, And all the dogs in the town Shall have a little bit.

The following versions of the former rhyme are current in the North of England:

That's a lee wi' a latchet, You may shut the door and catch it.

That's a lee wi' a lid on, And a brass handle to tak houd on.

In Yorkshire a tell-tale is termed a _pleen-pie_, and there is a proverb current which is very similar to that given above:

A pleen-pie tit, Thy tongue sal be slit, An iv'ry dog i' th' town Sal hev a bit.

Left and right Brings good at night.

When your right eye itches, it is a sign of good luck; when the left, a sign of bad luck. When both itch, the above distich expresses the popular belief.

He got out of the muxy, And fell into the pucksy.

A muxy is a dunghill, and the pucksy a quagmire. This is a variation of the old saying of falling out of the dripping-pan into the fire:

Incidit in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdini.

Those that made me were uncivil, For they made me harder than the devil! Knives won't cut me, fire won't sweat me, Dogs bark at me, but can't eat me!

These proverbial lines are supposed to be spoken by Suffolk cheese, which is so hard that a myth tells us gate-pegs in that county are made with it. The proverb has been long true, and Pepys, writing in 1661, says: "I found my wife vexed at her people for grumbling to eate Suffolk cheese, which I also am vexed at."

Speak of a person and he will appear, Then talk of the dule, and he'll draw near.

Said of a person who makes his appearance unexpectedly, when he is spoken of.

When Easter falls in our Lady's-lap, Then let England beware a rap.

That is, when Easter falls on Lady-day, March 25, which happens when the Sunday Letter is G, and the Golden Number 5, 13, or 16. See Aubrey's Miscellanies, ed. 1696, p. 21.

In July Some reap rye. In August, If one won't, the other must.

From Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, given in Hone's Year-Book, col. 1595.

In March The birds begin to search; In April The corn begins to fill; In May The birds begin to lay.

From Lancashire. This resembles in its character the cuckoo song we have given at p. 160.

Friday night's dream On the Saturday told, Is sure to come true, Be it never so old.

When it gangs up i' sops, It'll fall down i' drops.

A North country proverb, the _sops_ being the small detached clouds hanging on the sides of a mountain. Carr, ii. 147.

To-morrow come never, When two Sundays come together.

This is sometimes addressed to one who promises something "to-morrow," but who is often in the habit of making similar engagements, and not remembering them.

TIT FOR TAT.

The proverb of _tit for tat_ may perhaps be said to be going out of fashion, but it is still a universal favorite with children. When any one is ill-natured, and the sufferer wishes to hint his intention of retaliating at the first convenient opportunity, he cries out—

Tit for tat, If you kill my dog, I'll kill your cat.

LAZY LAWRENCE.

Lazy Lawrence, let me go, Don't me hold summer and winter too.

This distich is said by a boy who feels very lazy, yet wishes to exert himself. Lazy Lawrence is a proverbial expression for an idle person, and I possess an old chapbook, entitled "the History of Lawrence Lazy, containing his birth and slothful breeding; how he served the schoolmaster, his wife, the squire's cook, and the farmer, which, by the laws of Lubberland, was accounted high treason." A West country proverb, relating to a disciple of this hero, runs thus:

Sluggardy guise, Loth to go to bed, And loth to rise.

March will search, April will try, May will tell ye if ye'll live or die.

Sow in the sop, 'Twill be heavy a-top.

That is, land in a soppy or wet state is in a favorable condition for receiving seed; a statement, however, somewhat questionable.

A cat may look at a king, And surely I may look at an ugly thing.

Said in derision by one child to another, who complains of being stared at.

He that hath it and will not keep it, He that wanteth it and will not seek it; He that drinketh and is not dry, Shall want money as well as I.

From Howell's English Proverbs, 1659, p. 21.

Gray's Inn for walks, Lincoln's Inn for a wall; The Inner-Temple for a garden, And the Middle for a hall.

A proverb, no doubt, true in former times, but now only partially correct.

In time of prosperity friends will be plenty, In time of adversity not one amongst twenty.

From Howell's English Proverbs, p. 20. The expression _not one amongst twenty_ is a generic one for not one out of a large number. It occurs in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, v. 2.

Trim tram, Like master like man.

From an old manuscript political treatise, dated 1652, entitled a Cat may look at a King.

Beer a bumble, 'Twill kill you Afore 'twill make ye tumble.

A proverbial phrase applied to very small beer, implying that no quantity of it will cause intoxication.

Lancashire law, No stakes, no draw!

A saying by which a person, who has lost a verbal wager, avoids payment on the plea of no stakes having been deposited.

As foolish as monkeys till twenty and more, As bold as a lion till forty-and-four; As cunning as foxes till three score and ten, We then become asses, and are no more men.

These proverbial lines were obtained from Lancashire. An early version occurs in Tusser, p. 199.

They that wash on Monday Have a whole week to dry; They that wash on Tuesday Are not so much agye; They that wash on Wednesday May get their clothes clean; They that wash on Thursday Are not so much to mean; They that wash on Friday Wash for their need; But they that wash on Saturday Are clarty-paps indeed!

A North country version of these common proverbial lines, given by Mr. Denham, p. 16. _Clarty-paps_ are dirty sluts.

The children of Holland Take pleasure in making What the children of England Take pleasure in breaking.

Alluding to toys, a great number of which are imported into this country from Holland.

VIII.—PLACES AND FAMILIES.

This division, like the last, might be greatly extended by references to Ray and Grose.

ELTON.

The following lines are still remembered by the members of the Elton family:

_Upon Sir Abraham Elt being knighted, and taking the name of Elton._

In days of yore old Abraham Elt, When living, had nor sword nor belt; But now his son, Sir Abraham Elton, Being knighted, has both sword and belt on.

MS. Harl. Brit. Mus. 7318, p. 206.

NOEL.

N. for a word of deniance, E. with a figure of L. fiftie, Spelleth his name that never Will be thriftie.

MS. Sloane 2497, of the sixteenth century.

COLLINGWOOD.

The Collingwoods have borne the name, Since in the bush the buck was ta'en; But when the bush shall hold the buck, Then welcome faith, and farewell luck.

Alluding to the Collingwood crest of a stag beneath an oak tree.

THE CAULD LAD OF HILTON.

This fairy or goblin was seldom seen, but his gambols were heard nightly in the hall of the great house. He overturned everything in the kitchen after the servants had gone to bed, and was, in short, one of the most mischievous sprites you could imagine. One night, however, the kitchen happened to be left in great confusion, and the goblin, who did everything by contraries, set it completely to rights; and the next morning it was in perfect apple-pie order. We may be quite sure that, after this occurrence, the kitchen was not again made orderly by the servants.

Notwithstanding, however, the service thus nightly rendered by the Cauld Lad, the servants did not like it. They preferred to do their own work without preternatural agency, and accordingly resolved to do their best to drive him from their haunts. The goblin soon understood what was going on, and he was heard in the dead of night to warble the following lines in a melancholy strain:

Wae's me! wae's me! The acorn is not yet Fallen from the tree, That's to grow the wood, That's to make the cradle, That's to rock the bairn, That's to grow to a man, That's to lay me.

He was, however, deceived in this prediction; for one night, being colder than usual, he complained in moving verse of his condition. Accordingly, on the following evening, a cloak and hood were placed for him near the fire. The servants had unconsciously accomplished their deliverance, for present gifts to fairies, and they for ever disappear. On the next morning the following lines were found inscribed on the wall:

I've taken your cloak, I've taken your hood; The Cauld Lad of Hilton will do no more good!

A great variety of stories in which fairies are frightened away by presents, are still to be heard in the rural districts of England. Another narrative, by Mr. Longstaffe, relates that on one occasion a woman found her washing and ironing regularly performed for her every night by the fairies. In gratitude to the "good people," she placed green mantles for their acceptance, and the next night the fairies departed, exclaiming—

Now the pixies' work is done! We take our clothes, and off we run.

Mrs. Bray tells a similar story of a Devonshire pixy, who helped an old woman to spin. One evening she spied the fairy jumping out of her door, and observed that it was very raggedly dressed; so the next day she thought to win the services of the elf further by placing some smart new clothes, as big as those made for a doll, by the side of her wheel. The pixy came, put on the clothes, and clapping its hands with delight, vanished, saying these lines:

Pixy fine, pixy gay, Pixy now will run away.

Fairies always talk in rhyme. Mr. Allies mentions a Worcestershire fairy legend which says that, upon one occasion, a pixy came to a ploughman in a field, and exclaimed:

Oh, lend a hammer and a nail, Which we want to mend our pail.

FELTON.

The little priest of Felton, The little priest of Felton, He kill'd a mouse within his house, And ne'er a one to help him.

SIR RALPH ASHTON.

Sweet Jesu, for thy mercy's sake, And for thy bitter passion, Save us from the axe of the Tower, And from Sir Ralph of Ashton.

This rhyme is traditionally known in the North of England, and refers, it is said, to Sir Ralph Ashton, who, in the latter part of the fifteenth century, exercised great severity as vice-constable. The ancient custom of _riding the black lad_ at Ashton-under-Lyne on Easter Monday, which consists of carrying an effigy on horseback through the town, shooting at it, and finally burning it, is alleged to have taken its origin from this individual, who, according to tradition, was shot as he was riding down the principal street. According to another story, the custom commemorates the valiant actions of Thomas Ashton at the battle of Neville's Cross.

PRESTON.

Proud Preston, poor people, Fine church, and no steeple.

LANCASHIRE.

Little lad, little lad, where wast thou born? Far off in Lancashire, under a thorn, Where they sup sour milk in a ram's horn.

LEYLAND.

A village in Lancashire, not far from Chorley. There is, or was sixty years since, a tradition current here, to the effect that the church, on the night following the day in which the building was completed, was removed some distance by supernatural agency, and the astonished inhabitants, on entering the sacred edifice the following morning, found the following metrical command written on a marble tablet on the wall:

Here thou shalt be, And here thou shalt stand, And thou shalt be called The church of Ley-land.

Leyland church stands on an eminence at the east side of the village. The ancient tower is still standing, but the body of the church is modern.

HUGH OF LINCOLN.

He tossed the ball so high, so high, He tossed the ball so low; He tossed the ball in the Jew's garden, And the Jews were all below.

Oh, then out came the Jew's daughter, She was dressed all in green; Come hither, come hither, my sweet pretty fellow, And fetch your ball again.

These lines refer to the well-known story of the murder of a child at Lincoln by a Jewess. The child was playing at ball, and threw it into the Jew's garden. She enticed him into the house to recover it, killed him, and, to conceal her guilt, threw the body into a deep well. According to the ballads on the subject, the spirit of the boy answers his mother's inquiry from the bottom of the well, the bells ring without human aid, and several miracles are accomplished. The above fragment of some old ballad on the subject was given me by Miss Agnes Strickland as current in the country nursery.

CUCKSTONE.

If you would go to a church miswent, You must go to Cuckstone in Kent.

So said because the church is "very unusual in proportion." Lelandi Itin. ed. 1744, ii. 137.

SAINT LEVAN.

When with panniers astride A pack-horse can ride Through St. Levan's stone, The world will be done.

St. Levan's stone is a great rock in the churchyard of St. Levan, co. Cornwall.

ROLLRIGHT.

The "Druidical" stones at Rollright, Oxfordshire, are said to have been originally a general and his army who were transformed into stones by a magician. The tradition runs that there was a prophecy or oracle which told the general,—

If Long Compton thou canst see, King of England thou shalt be.

He was within a few yards of the spot whence that town could be observed, when his progress was stopped by the magician's transformation,—

Sink down man, and rise up stone! King of England thou shalt be none.

The general was transformed into a large stone which stands on a spot from which Long Compton is not visible, but on ascending a slight rise close to it, the town is revealed to view. Roger Gale, writing in 1719, says that whoever dared to contradict this story was regarded "as a most audacious freethinker." It is said that no man could ever count these stones, and that a baker once attempted it by placing a penny loaf on each of them, but somehow or other he failed in counting his own bread. A similar tale is related of Stonehenge.

HAMPDEN.