The Sun.
London, England, 1852-04-16 00:00:00

FRIDAY

they resebed there in- the old time, so it was also said,
"The Mayor of Northampton opens oysters with his
dagger."
These several counties and towns prided themselves
in their-proverbial sayings, upon their respective qnali-
ties; for instance, " Cheshire, chief of men," "Lanca-
shire for women;" " Suffolk fair maids;" " Kent for
yeomen;"—according to the other proverb—
. A Knight of Cales,
A Gentleman of Wales,
And a Laird of the North Conntrie;
A Yeoman of Kent,
With his yearly rent,
Will buy them out all three.
The Kentishmen also boast of being the first Christians
who were converted in England, and they have a saying
of "Neither in Kent nor Christendom." They are also
proverbial talkers, as their proverb bespeaks,—. Dover
court, all speakers and no hearers."
"Suffolk stiles," "Norfolk wiles" end "Essex miles,"
are also proverbial. The Norfolk people were said to
be so skilful in the common laws, that they studied it when
following the plough-tail; and
the were so litigiously
given that they would even enter an_ action for their
neighbour's horse looking over their hedge! The" Es-
sex miles" were the longest in England, something like
~e a
the " Yorkshire wee-bit," which was generally found to
be considerably longer than the longest mile. Hertford-
fordsbire boasts of its "Hertford
sheen," "Hertfordshire hedgehogs," nd better than all,
"Hertfordshire kindness." Cambridgeshirefordclubs
and
me cloutedl be-
came a saying from the Penmen stalking along upon
their stilts over the marshes in olden times, as the shep-
herds of the Landes, in France, do now. " Cambridge-
shire men," is also a phrase of pride, for they gallantly
fought the Danes and Normans, when the East Aoglians
ran away.
"As bola as Beauchamp," is a saying in Warwick-
shire,
and arose out of the bravery of the Earls of
Warwick. "He is true Coventry-blue," is applied to
men of the right stuff-aahe best standing blues in Eng-
land having been dyed in Coventry centuries ago. In
the same way, in Yorkshire, the proverb, " As true steel
as Rippon rowels," is applied to men of metal—these
old Rippon spurs being of such temper that their rowels
could be struck through a shilling.
Many of the county proverbs extol the richness of the
various districts. The Herefordshire proverb—" Blessed
is the eye that is betwixt Severn and Wye"—expressive
of the pleasure of blessedness or safety. " Where
should I be borne else than in Tauntonn. DeaneP" is the
brag of the peasant of Somerset—for the place is said
to' be so fruitful with the zun and roil alone, that it needs
no manuring. Strange that " The beggars of Bath"
should be proverbial in the same county! Cornwall
prides itself on its tin, as a matter of course, and they
say of one famous place there—
Hengsten-down well ywrought,
Is worth London town dear ybought.
Cornish tin is better worth having than " A Cornish
Hogg"—figuratively applied to deceitful dealing.
" To carry coals to Newcastle," is a folly of which
only a " wise man of Gotham" would be guilty—the
said Gotham being a village in Nottinghamshire. In
the several counties the proverbial definition of a fool is
different, according to the localities famous for giving
birth to these lulus naturce. In Oxfordshire they say of
such a one, "He was born at Hogs-Norton." In Lin-
colnshire they say, " He was born at Little Witham;"
and of thoroughly cracked persons, they say, in the
same county, "As mad as the baiting-bull at Stamford."
"In Nottinghamshire they have a proverb—" The
little smith of Nottingham, who doth the work that no
man can"—applied to conceited persons who pretend to
do impossibilities. In Cornwall they apply a proverb of
similar meaning, "It will be done when Dudman and
Ramehead meet,"—two promonteries considerably
apart from each other. There used to be a similar pro-
verb at Croyland, in Lincoln—" All the carte that come
to Croyland are shod with silver"—Croyland being
situated among the fens, whither no cart could come.
Living in these fens brings on ague, and this the Fen-
men call being "Arrested by the Bailey of Marshland."
In Lincolnshire they say of men who lose their point
through divisions—" They held together, like the men
of Marham, when they lost their common." In Glou-
cestershire, when a man has broken his word, they say,
" You are a man of Duresty." And applied to men
who are slow but sure, they use the term, " It's long in
coming, like Cotswold barley," this being a heavy and
fine crop, though a late one. In the same county, they
say of a person of rueful visege—" He looks as if he
had lived on Tewkesbury mustard."
The Northumberland proverbs have chiefly reference
to their restive neighbours—the Scots. "We will not
lose a Scot," that is, we will not abate a fraction. " A
Scottish mist may wet an Englishman to the skin,"—or,
email mischiefs, unleseheeded in time, may prove very
dangerous in the end. " A Scottish man and a New-
castle grindstone travel all the world over,"—this is a
well-known proverb. In Cumberland, also, the old pro-
verbs are of a similar character. Here is one—

When thy neighbour's house doth burn,
Take heed the next be not thy turn ;
alluding to the danger from the forays of the Scotia, who
generally burned after they had robbed.
In Devonshire they had a proverb, similar to the
Scotch one of " Jedwood justice, first hang and then
try." The Devon proverb was—
First
hang, and then draw,
Then hear the cause by Ledford law.
Of the Londoners, in the same way, it used to be said—
London jury, hang half and save half;" and also, " Ho
that is a low ebb at Newgate may soon be afloat at
Tyburn." In Dorsetshire they spoke of a man who
had been banged, as " Stabbed with a Bridport dagger,"
—the beet hemp being grown thereabout in early times.
Thieves in Yorkshire had a salutary fear of three
places, as is shown by the surviving proverb, "From
Hull, —, and Halifax, good -- deliver us!" At
Halifax they executed thieves caught in the act of steal-
ing cloth by means of an instrument resembling the mo-
dern guillotine. Buckingham seems to have been in bad
repute for thieves in early times, from the proverb,
" Here if you beat a bush, 'tis odds you'd start a thief;"
beech-trees (from which the name of the county) then
abounding in the district. In 'Cent there was a proverb
.--" The father to the bough, the son to the plough;"--
the father, when executed for felony or murder, being
usually succeeded by his 2011 in the inheritance.
Some of the old proverbs bearing upon courtship,
marriage, and manners, are curious. In Cheshire they
have one, "Better wed over the mixon than over the
moor,"--that is, better wed a wife near the homestead
than go to a distance for one; for, as the Irish proverb,
to a similar effect, says, " Foreign cattle have long horas."
In Chester they say, " When the daughter is stolen, shut
Peppergate;" the mayor of that city having once per-
formed this wise act after his daughter had eloped. It
"toon7ltednybCeaofnordrnecwotahnieldMemany bad housewives. And in De-
is equivalent to " when the steed is stolen, shut the stable '
they say of a sloven, " She is to be
or of Halgaver"—an imaginary
door.osoffi mcem
vonshire, when that extraordinary phenomenon of a
man who is master of his wife is discovered, they say of
him, ".He may remove Mort-Stone,"—a huge rock in
Mort-Bay, to lilt which would be a wonder. In Essex,
they still preserve the old proverb, applied to a wedded
couple who have lived for so many years together without
quarrelling, " They may fetch a flitch of bacon from the
Prior of Dunmoe." Not long ago, a happy couple
presented themselves at Dunmoe Church, and received
hShropshire wives would seem
not e traditional
totnrnou gammon.
t so
owe
li i 1
any
reliance is to be placed
on the old proverb, "He that fetcheth a wife from Shrews-
bury must carry her into Staffordshire, or else live in
Cumberlaud,"—teat is, go where there are plenty of
sticks or querterstaffs to be had! Perhaps the proverb
applies only to shrews.
lu fluntingdoxishire, it is said of a sp
Suffolk,"endthrift,You
"He
is on the way to beggar's bush ;" and in
are in the right road to Needhate,"—Needham being
formerly a market-town stocked with poor people. In
Oxfordshire, " Taking a Burford bait," means getting
hoops) to broad gates in Oxford," was applied to
drunk. And in the same county,
ladies'
those indecorous circumferences, which were • supposed
" Send verdingales (or
lanoSnliherptosheinreviuus persons. The Berk-
of concealing certain
The proverb,." As sure as
God's in Gloucestershire,"
otoonbseecioofteennoesuswedhifoohr
shallthe phuernpeamsof.kBe.
-•arose• from the number of rich religious houses formerly
in that county; and of two southern sees ,it used to be
said, " Canterbury's the high rack, but Winchester's the.
better Maoger.'! , Those who study " preferment" may
know that, now-a-days, both rack and manger are best
Weaver,
iray will be Vicar of
they have au awful pro-
a" leteloohs like the Devil over
under Henry VIII., Edward VI.,
where God came
.aWr oe
1 ,nvas
hest: rivCrbooes,ro:lpl::rel,o,rn,vlbei
snu- :rb81:00.i
Lincolnshire,tllo, no
"The
uh ne d eV: c
Bray still," is known over all England. This celebreied
Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, He was first a
then a Protestant, then a Papist again, and lastly
Papist,
vicar held his living
a taxed for a tarn-coat; Protestant. Being " Not so,"
be replied; "for I always-kept my principle, to live and
die the Vicar of Bray,!"
Many .
of the county proverbs are founded on local
peculiarities, . popular weather-signs, leo. , Thus, " The
''
bailiff of Beclford _is coming, means the
, river Ouse.
sweepingefletvn- on-the- Isle of Ely after a freshet. "As
• Dunstable road," is plain enough. In Cumber-
plain as
-land they say=
If Skiddaw bath a cap,
• -
Scrutfell roots full well of that ;
•
a
prOierb used in token
in of sympathy for the suffering of
neighbours. And Leicestershire they say_ 6
-
If Bever have a care
You churls of the vale look to that.
In Westmoreland, it. is obsereed of any who would
th
violently alter or set at defiance the
lals
of
Nature—
Let Uter-Pendragon do what he can,
The river Eden will run as it ran.
•
legally is said to be " Done
and le
Any act done solemnly „
according to the use of Sarum, —a celebrated Ordinal,
or Office, having been -promulgated in England by a
Bishop of Sarum, in 1090, for the use of the same words
in the Liturgy, an then • d which was received by the
•
Church as an unqueetionable authority.
In Nottinghamshire, many of the
old
proverbs are as-
sedated with Robir Hood—that
county-being the theatre
of his chief exploits. Of these, we may cite two:—
" Many talk of Robin. Hood who never
in shot with his
bow"—that is, many prate of matters. Wich they
have no skill; and "To sell R 0
l bin Hood's penny-
worth's," is applied
to the selling of sto en goods under
half, their value.
" The London proverbs of "Dine with Duke Hum-
phray" (that is, going dinnerless,walking round St.
Paul's, where Duke Humphrey was e
supposed to be
buried),—" Using one as bad as a Jew (Jews having
their teeth extracted by royal operators, and being made
subject to all sorts of indignities in the good old times),
.---e Tottenham turned French" (which
arose from the
large influx of French unmans. in the beginning of
Henry VIII.'s reign, but afterwards applied to those
who adopted French fashions and infections),—"Fit for
Ruffians' Hall" (as West Smithfield was formerly called)
--e He will follow one like a st. Anthony's pig" (St.
Aetheny being the patron saint of hogs, but since ap.
plied- to servile souls and lick spittle fellows); —" Born
witeiu the mould of Bow-bells" (a 0 applied to "Cock-
neys"),--" All goeth down gutter Lane" (orignitlly