into the air which being kept in constant agitation by the same heat that raised them require a great space to perform their motions in and new still ascending they must needs be cast off part to the South and part to the North of the Suns course So that were there no winds the parts of the earth towards the North and South poles would be most full of clouds and vapours Now the North-wind blowing keeps back those vapours and causes clear weather in these Northern parts but the South wind brings store of them along with it which by the cold of the air are here condensed into clouds and fall down in rain Which accompt is confirmed by what Pliny reports of Africa loc cit Permutant duo naturam cum situ Auster Africae screnus Aquilo nubilus The reason is because Africa being under or near the course of the Sun The South-wind carries away the vapours there ascending but the North-wind detains them and so partly by compressing partly by cooling them causes them to condense and descend in showers When the wind 's in the South It blowes the bait into the fishes mouth No weather is ill If the wind be still A hot May makes a fat Church-yard A green winter makes a fat Church-yard This Proverb was sufficiently confuted Anno 1667 in which the winter was very mild and yet no mortality or Epidemical disease ensued the Summer or Autumn following We have entertained an opinion that frosty weather is the most healthful and the hardest winters the best But I can see no reason for it for in the hottest countreys of the world as Brazil c. Men are longest lived where they know hot what frost or snow means the ordinary age of man being an hundred and ten years and here in England we found by experience that the last great plague succeeded one of the sharpest frosty winters that hath lately happened Winter never rots in the sky Ne caldo ne gelo resta mai in cielo Ital. Neither heat nor cold abides always in the sky It 's pity fair weather should do any harm Hail brings frost i'th'tail A snow year a rich year Anno di neve anno di bene Ital. A winters thunder 's a summers wonder Quand il tonne en Mars on peut dire helas Gall. Drought never bred dearth in England Whoso hath but a mouth shall ne're in England suffer drought v. in Sentent When the sand doth feed the clay which is in a wet summer England wo and well-a-day But when the clay doth feed the sand which is in a dry summer Then it is well with England Because there is more clay then sandy ground in England The worse for the rider the better for the bider Bon pais mauvais chemin Gall. Rich land bad way When the Cuckow comes to the bare thorn Sell your cow and buy you corn But when she comes to the full bit Sell your corn and buy you sheep If the cock moult before the hen We shall have weather thick and thin But if the hen moult before the cock We shall have weather hard as a block These prognosticks of weather and future plenty c. I look upon as altogether uncertain and were they narrowly observed would I believe as often miss as hit I' th' old o' th' moon A cloudy morning bodes a fair afternoon As the days lengthen so the cold strengthens Cresce di cresce'l freddo dice il pescador Ital. The reason is for that the earth having been well heated by the Sun 's long lying upon it in Summer time is not suddainly cooled again by the recess of the Sun but retains part of its warmth till after the Winter Solstice which warmth notwithstanding the return and accesse of the Sun must needs still languish and decay and so notwithstanding the lengthening of the days the weather grows colder till the externall heat caused by the Sun is greater then the remaining internall heat of the earth for as long as the externall is lesser then the internall that is so long as the Sun hath not force enough to produce as great a heat in the earth as was remaining from the last Summer so long the internall must needs decrease The like reason there is why the hottest time of the day is not just at noon but about two of the clock in the afternoon and the hotest time of the year not just at the Summer Solstice but about a moneth after because till then the externall heat of the Sun is greater then the heat produced in the earth So if you put a plece of iron into a very hot fire it will not suddenly be heat so hot as the fire can make it and though you abate your fire before it be througly heated yet will it grow hotter and hotter till it comes to that degree of heat which the fire it is in can give it If there be a rainbow in the eve it will rain and leave But if there be a rainbow in the morrow It will neither lend nor borrow An evening red and a morning gray Is a sign of a fair day Le rouge soir blanc matin Font rejouir le pelerin Gall. Sera rossa negro matino Allegra il pelegrino Ital. A red evening and a white morning rejoyce the pilgrim When the clouds are upon the hills they 'll come down by the mills David and Chad sow pease good or bad That is about the beginning of March This rule in gardening never forget To sow dry and to set wet When the sloe-tree's as white as a sheet Sow your barley whether it be dry or wet Sow beans i' th' mud and they 'll grow like wood Till St James his day be come and gone You may have hops or you may have none The pigeon never knoweth wo But when she doth a benting go If the Partridge had the wood cocks thigh T' would be the best bird that ever did fly Yule is good on yule even That is as I understand it every thing in his season Yule is Christmas Tripe's good meat if it be well wip't A Michaelmass rot comes n'ere i' th' pot A nagg with a weamb and a mare with nean i. e. none Behind before before behind a horse is in danger to be prick't You must look for grass on the top of the oak tree Because the grass seldom springs well before the oak begins to put forth as might have been observed the last year St. Matthie sends sap into the tree A famine in England begins at the horse-manger In opposition to the rack for in dry years when hay is dear commonly corn is cheap but when oats or indeed any one grain is dear the rest are seldom cheap Winters thunder and Summers flood Never boded Englishman good Butter's once a year in the cows horn They mean when the cow gives no milk And butter is said to be mad twice a year once in Summer time in very hot
certainly untrue so the second is frivolous and not to be heeded by sober persons as neither any other of the like nature Sussex A Chichester lobster A Selfey cockle an Arundel mullet a Pulborough eel an Amberley trout a Rie herring a Bourn wheat-ear Are the best in their kind understand it of those that are taken in this Countrey Westmorland LEt Uter Pendragon do what he can The river Eden will run as it ran Parallel to that Latine verse Naturam expellas fured licet usque recurret Tradition reporteth that Uter Pendragon had a design to fortifie the castle of Pendragon in this County In order whereto with much art and industry he invited and tempted the river Eden to forsake his old channel but all to no purpose As crafty as a Kendale fox Wiltshire IT is done secundùm usum Sarum This Proverb coming out of the Church hath since enlarged it self into a civil use signifying things done with exactness according to rule and precedent Osmund Bishop of Sarum about the year 1090 made that Ordinal or Office which was generally received all over the land so that Churches thence forward easily understood one another speaking the same words in their Liturgy Salisbury plain is seldom without a thief or twain Yorkshire FRom Hell Hull and Halifax deliver us This is a part of the beggers and vagrants Letany Of these three frightful things unto them it is to be feared that they least fear the first conceiting it the furthest from them Hull is terrible to them as a town of good government where beggers meet with punitive charity and it is to be feared are oftener corrected then amended Halifax is formidable to them for the Law thereof whereby thieves taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the very act of stealing cloth are instantly beheaded with an engine without any further legal proceedings Doubtless the coincidence of the initial letters of these three words help't much the setting on foot this Proverb A Scarborough warning That is none at all but a sudden surprise when a mischief is felt before it is suspected This Proverb is but of an hundred and four years standing taking its original from Thomas Stafford who in the reign of Queen Mary Anno 1557 with a small company seized on Scarborough castle utterly destitute of provision for resistance before the Townsmen had the least notice of his approach However within six days by the industry of the Earl of Westmoreland he was taken brought to London and beheaded c. vide As true steel as Rippon rowels It is said of trusty persons men of metal faithful in their employments Rippon in this County is a Town famous for the best spurs of England whose rowels may be enforced to strike through a shilling and will break sooner then bow A Yorkshire way-bit That is an overplus not accounted in the reckoning which sometimes proves as much as all the rest Ask a countreyman How many miles it is to such a Town and he will return commonly so many miles and a way-bit Which way-bit is enough to make the weary Traveller surfet of the length thereof But it is not way-bit though generally so pronounced but wee-bit a pure Yorkshirism which is a small bit in the Northern language Merry Wakefield What peculiar cause of mirth this Town hath above others I do not know and dare not too curiously enquire Sure it is seated in a fruitful soil and cheap countrey and where good chear and company are the premisses mirth in common consequence will be the conclusion Pendle Ingleborough and Penigent Are the three highest hills between Scotland and Trent And which is more common in the mouths of the vulgar Pendle Penigent and Ingleborough Are the three highest hills all England thorow These three hills are in sight of each other Pendle on the edge of Lancashire Penigent and Ingleborough near Settle in Yorkshire and not far from Westmorland These three are indeed the highest hills in England not comprehending Wales But in Wales I think Snowdon Caderidris and Plimllimmon are higher If Brayton bargh and Hambleton hough and Burton bream Were all in thy belly 't would never be team It is spoken of a covetous and unsatiable person whom nothing will content Brayton and Hambleton and Burton are places between Cawood and Pontefraict in this County Brayton Bargh is a small hill in a plain Countrey covered with wood Bargh in the Northern dialect is properly a horse-way up a steep hill though here it be taken for the hill it self When Dighton is pull'd down Hull shall become a great Town This is rather a prophecy then a Proverb Dighton is a small Town not a mile distant from Hull and was in the time of the late warrs for the most part pull'd down Let Hull make the best they can of it Cleveland in the clay Bring in two soles and carry one away Cleveland is that part of Yorkshire which borders upon the Bishoprick of Durham where the ways in winter time are very foul and deep When Sheffield Park is plowed and sown Then little England hold thine own It hath been plow'd and sown these six or seven years You have eaten some Hull cheese i. e. Are drunk Hull is famous for strong Ale When all the world shall be aloft Then Hallam-shire shall be Gods croft Winkabank and Temple brough Will buy all England through and through Winkabank is a wood upon a hill near Sheffield where there are some remainders of an old Camp Temple brough stands between the Rother and the Don about a quarter of a mile from the place where these two rivers meet It is a square plat of ground encompassed by two trenches Selden often enquired for the ruines of a temple of the god Thor which he said was near Rotherham This probably might be it if we allow the name for any argument besides there is a Pool not far from it called Jordon-dam which name seems to be compounded of Jor one of the names of the god Thor and Don the name of the river Miscellaneous locall Proverbs Dunmow bacon and Doncaster daggers Monmouth caps and Lemster wooll Derby ale and London beer There is a currant story that the Prior and convent of Dunmow were obliged by their Charter to give a Flitch of Bacon to any man who coming with his wife should depose both of them that they had been married a twelve moneth and neither of them had at any time repented You may sip up the Severn and swallow Mavern as soon Little England beyond Wales i. e. Pembrokeshire Little London beyond Wales i. e. Beaumaris in the Isle of Anglesey both so called because the inhabitants speak good English indeed in Pembrokeshire many of the people can speak no Welsh There 's great doings i' th' North when they barre their doors with tailours There 's great stirring in the North when old wives ride scout Three great evils come out of the North A cold wind a cunning knave and a
non conseam tam tristem esse posse Plaut in Trucul Partly of such as are snappish captious and prone to take exceptions The Traceys have always the wind in their faces This is sounded on a fond and false tradition which reporteth that ever since Sr William Tracy was most actiâ—… among the four Knights which killed Thomas Becket it is imposed on the Tracies for miraculous penance that whether they go by land or by water the wind is ever in their faces If this were so saith the Doctour it was a favour in an hot summer to the females of that family and would spare them the use of a Fan c. As fierce as a lion of Cotswald i. e. A sheep Hampshire MAnners make a man Quoth William of Wickham William of Wickham was a person well known He was Bishop of Winchester founded New Colledge in Oxford and Winchester Colledge in this County This generally was his Motto inscribed frequently on the places of his founding So that it hath since acquired a Proverbial reputation Canterbury is the higher Rack but Winchester is the better Manger W. Edington Bishop of Winchester was the Authour of this expression rendring this the reason of his refusal to be removed to Canterbury though chosen thereunto Indeed though Canterbury be graced with an higher honour the revenues of Winchester are greater It is appliable to such who preferre a wealthy privacy before a less profitable dignity The Isle of Wight ath no Monks Lawyers nor Foxes This speech hath more mirth then truth in it Speeds Catal. of religious houses That they had Monks I know Black ones at Caris-brook White ones at Quarter in this Island That they have Lawyers they know when they pay them their fees and that they have Foxes their Lambs know But of all these perchance fewer then in other places of equal extent Hartfordshire HArtfordshire clubs and clouted shoon Some will wonder how this shire lying so near to London the staple of English civility should be guilty of so much rusticalness But the finest cloth must have a list and the pure Pesants are of as course a thread in this as in any other place Yet though some may smile at their clownishness let none laugh at their industry the rather because the high-shoon of the tenant payes for the Spanish leatherboots of the Landlord Hartfordshire hedgehogs Plenty of hedgehogs are found in this high woodland Countrey reported to suck the kine though the Dairy-maids conne them small thanks for sparing their pains in milking them Whether this Proverb may have any further reflection on the people of this County as therein taxed for covetousness and constant nudling on the earth I think not worth the enquiry these nicknames being imposed on several Counties groundlesly as to any moral significancy Ware and Wades-mill are worth all London This I assure you is a master-piece of the vulgar wits in this County wherewith they endeavour to amuse travellers as if Ware a through-fare market and Wades-mill part of a village lying two miles North thereof were so prodigiously rich as to countervail the wealth of London The sallacy lieth in the homonymy of Ware here not taken for that Town so named but appellatively for all vendible commodities It is rather a riddle then a Proverb Hartfordshire kindness It is when one drinks back again to the party who immediately before drank to him and although it may signifie as much as Manus manum fricat par est de merente be ne mereri yet it is commonly used onely by way of derision of those who through forgetfulness or mistake drink to them again whom they pledged immediately Herefordshire BLessed is the eye That is between Severn and Wye Not onely because of the pleasant prospect but it seems this is a prophetical promise of safety to such as live secured within those great rivers as if priviledged from Martial impressions Sutton wall and Kenchester hill Are able to buy London were it to sell These are two fruitfull places in this Countrey saith M r Howell Lemster Bread and Weabley Ale Both these the best in their kinds understand it of this County Otherwise there is Wheat in England that will vie with that of Lemster for pureness for example that of Nordens Middlesex Camden Brit. Heston near Harrow on the hill in Middlesex of which for a long time the manchet for the Kings of England was made and for Ale Derby town and Northdown in the Isle of Thanet Hull in Yorkshire and Sambich in Cheshire will scarce give place to Webley Every one cannot dwell at Rotheras A delicate seat of the Bodmans in this County Huntingtonshire AN Huntington Sturgeon This is the way to Beggers-bush It is spoken of such who use dissolute and improvident courses which tend to poverty Beggers-bush being a tree notoriously known on the left hand of London road from Huntington to Caxton Nay stay quoth Stringer when his neck was in the halter Ramsey the rich This was the Croesus of all our English Abbeys for having but sixty Monks to maintain therein the revenues thereof according to the standard of those times amounted unto seven thousand pounds per annum which in proportion was an hundred pounds for every Monk and a thousand pounds for their Abbot yet at the dissolution of Monasteries the income of this Abbey was reckoned at but one thousand nine hundred eighty three pound a year whereby it plainly appears how much the Revenues were under-rated in those valuations Kent NEither in Kent nor Christendom That is saith D r Fuller our English Christendom of which Kent was first converted to the Christian saith as much as to say as Rome and all Italy or the first cut and all the loaf besides not by way of opposition as if Kent were no part of Christendom as some have understood it I rather think that it is to be understood by way of opposition and that it had its original upon occasion of Kent being given by the ancient Britains to the Saxons who were then Pagans So that Kent might well be opposed to all the rest of England in this respect it being Pagan when all the rest was Christian A Knight of Cales a Gentleman of Wales and a Laird of the North-countree A Yeoman of Kent with his yearly rent will buy them out all three Cales Knights were made in that voyage by Robert Earl of Essex to the number of sixty whereof though many of great birth some were of low fortunes and therefore Queen Elizabeth was half offended with the Earl for making Knighthood so common Of the numerousness of Welch Gentlemen nothing need be said the Welch generally pretending to Gentility Northern Lairds are such who in Scotland hold lands in chief of the King whereof some have no great Revenue So that a Kentish Yeoman by the help of an Hyperbole may countervail c. Yeomen contracted for Gemen-mein from Gemein signifying common in old Dutch so that a Yeoman is a