POPULAR PHRASES AND SAYINGS
To most people the details contained in the preceding chapter will
seem but the dry bones of dialect speech; they would prefer the bones
to be covered with sinews and flesh. Dialect speech as the embodiment
of living, many-sided, human nature is perhaps nowhere so closely
seen as in a collection of the figurative terms and phrases applied
to people and things. Here we approach the unlimited humour displayed
in the dialects. It is of all kinds--the ironical, the sage, the
frankly jolly, the merely ridiculous. It takes every shape; we meet
it in similes, metaphors, proverbs, and in various other forms which
elude description. A characteristic form of humour, often combined
with sarcasm, appears in those comparisons wherein the moods, habits,
and actions of men are likened to those of birds, beasts, fishes,
and even insects in real or imaginary situations. The following is a
miscellaneous selection of similes: as awkward as a cat in pattens; as
big as bull-beef, said of a conceited person; as black as the devil’s
nutting-bag; as blue as a whetstone; as bug [self-satisfied, vain] as
a pump with two spouts; as busy as bees in a basin, said when any one
is busy about trifles; as busy as a cat in a tripe-shop; as clean as
print; as cold as snow in harvest, said of any one who looks hard and
unfeeling; as dark as a boot; as dark as a black cow’s skin, said of a
very dark night; as dateless as a rubbin’-stoop [as stupid, insensible
as a rubbing-post]; as dazed as a duck against thunder; as dazed as a
goose with a nail in its head; as deaf as a beetle [a wooden mallet];
as deaf as a haddock; as drunk as mice, cp. ‘We faren as he that
dronke is as a mous,’ Chaucer, _Knightes Tale_, l. 403, ‘Thou comest
hoom as dronken as a mous,’ _Wife of Bath’s Prol._, l. 246; as dunch
[deaf] as a door-post; as dutch [fine, affected in language] as a dog
in a doublet; as dutch as a mastiff, said of one who assumes an air
of innocence after having done some mischief; as fat as a modiwarp [a
mole]; as fast as a midge in a treacle-pot; as fast as a thief in a
mill [i.e. an old windmill, built on posts, and with only one way of
ingress and egress]; as fine as a new-scraped carrot, used to describe
any one who has dressed himself up smartly for any occasion; as flat
as a flaun [a pancake, O.Fr. _flaon_]; as fond [foolish] as a besom;
as fond as a poke [bag] of chaff with the bottom end out; as foul as a
curn-boggart [as ugly as a scarecrow]; as friendly as a bramble-bush;
as genny [fretful] as a bear with a sore lug [ear]; as greedy as a
fox in a hen-roost, referring to the fact that a fox kills many more
hens than he can eat; as good-natured as a pump; as green as a leek,
cp. ‘His eyes were green as leeks,’ _Mids. N. D._ V. i. 342; as happy
as pigs in muck; as happy as little pigs in new straw; as handy as a
gimlet, said of any one who is quick and useful; as hard as a ground
toad, said of any one who looks healthy and strong; as hardened as
Pharaoh; as heart-sound as a cabbage, said of any one possessing a good
constitution; as hungry as a June crow; as in and out as a dog’s hinder
leg, said of any one not to be depended on; as keen [strong] as Samson;
as lilty as tykes in a tramp-house [as light-hearted as vagrants in a
tramps’ lodging-house]; as lonely as a milestone; as lonely as a steg
[gander] in sitting-time, said of a bachelor living by himself; as
mild as a moon-beam, said of a particularly mild and placid person;
as narrow as a drink of water, said of a person excessively thin; as
nimble as a cat on a hot backstone; as nimble as a cow in a cage, said
of a person who is clumsy and awkward; as plain as a pack-staff. This
refers to the pedlar’s staff which supports the pack on his back, and
also serves to measure his wares, and which by constant wear on his
journeyings becomes exceedingly smooth. The better known version--as
plain as a pike-staff--is thought to be a corruption of pack-staff.
As peart as a gladdy [as lively as a yellow-hammer]; as peart as a
robin; as pleased as a dog with two tails; as poor as a rames [as thin
as a skeleton]; as right as pie; as sackless as a goose; as safe as a
church tied to a hedge, said when superfluous precaution has been used;
as sharp as a weasel; as simple as a ha’porth of cheese; as simple as
a ha’porth of soap in a washing-mug, i.e. as ineffectual as so small
a quantity of soap would be in so large a vessel of water, mug here
denoting a wash-tub; as slender in the middle as a cow in the waist,
said of a very stout person; as slick as a oont [as smooth as a mole];
as slim as a barber’s pole; as soft-hearted as a rezzil [weasel], said
of a person who is absolutely cruel; as sound as a trout; as sour as
a grig, referring to _grig_, the wild bullace, not to the proverbial
_merry grig_; as straight as a loach, an allusion to the swift direct
motion of the loach; as sure as God’s in Gloucestershire, an allusion
to the large number of churches and religious houses the county used
to possess; as throng [busy] as a cobbler’s Monday, said in ridicule,
because a cobbler is supposed to rest on Monday to work off the effects
of a drinking bout at the week-end; as tough as a withy; as wakken as
a witterick [as lively as a weasel]; as warm as a bee; as weak as a
midsummer gosling; as weak as a wet dish-clout; as welcome as flowers
in May, said to a friend entering the house; as welcome as snow in
harvest, or as welcome as water in one’s shoon, said of an undesired
guest; as whisht as a winnard, an allusion to the redwings which reach
Cornwall in the late autumn, and are seen there in the winter in a very
thin and miserably weak condition; as windy as a wisket [basket], said
of a forgetful person; as yellow as a gollan [a corn-marigold].
[Sidenote: _Similes and Metaphors_]
To look like a bit of chewed twine is to look worn out; the tears were
running down his cheeks like beetles up a hill is said in ridicule of a
child who is crying for nothing; to grin like a Cheshire cat chewing
gravel, eating cheese, or brass wire. Charles Lamb once explained why a
Cheshire cat is given to grinning: ‘I made a pun the other day, and
palmed it upon Holcroft, who grinned like a Cheshire cat. (Why do cats
grin in Cheshire?--Because it was once a county palatine, and the cats
cannot help laughing whenever they think of it, though I see no great
joke in it.)’ _Letters_, vol. i, p. 245. Like a chip in a mess of milk,
or like a chip in porridge, said of a person or thing of no importance,
useless; to stare like a choked throstle, or like a throttled earwig;
like a cow handling a musket, said of a person doing something in a
clumsy manner; to look like death on a mopstick is to look miserable; to
work like Diggory is to work hard. The name Diggory was once a common
Christian name. It occurs as the name of a farm labourer in Goldsmith’s
_She Stoops to Conquer_. To go like a dinner of broth is to go
successfully without hitch or friction; short and sweet like a donkey’s
gallop; to go buzzing away like a dumbley-dory [a bumble-bee] in a
snoxun [a foxglove], or like a dumble-dore in a warming-pan, is said of
a humdrum preacher; she’s like an old ewe dressed lamb-fashion is said
of an old woman gaily dressed; she’s in and out of folkses housen like a
fiddler’s elbow is said of a gossiping woman; to be like a fly in a
glue-pot is to be in a state of nervous excitement; to have a memory
like a frog-tail is to have a bad memory, or none at all; to be like a
hen on a hot girdle is to be restless and impatient; off, like a jug
handle; laid out like lamb and sallet is said of a person gaily dressed;
it’s bare work and poor pay, like licking honey off a thorn, said of an
employment yielding only a small and uncertain profit; lost like a lop
in a barn, said of a person living in too big a house; to be like a pig
in a well is to be without visible means of support; to be like a pig,
to do no good alive, is said of a covetous and selfish man; it’s much
cry for little wool, like shearing a pig; to mend like sour ale in
summer is to grow worse and worse; to look like a sow with side-pockets
is said of a person absurdly dressed; anything very useless is said to
be of no more use than a side-pocket is to a toad, or an umbrella to a
duck; like a sucking duck, said of a foolish person; it’s slow work,
like sucking buttermilk out of a sieve; to follow any one like a Tantony
pig is to stick as close to him as St. Anthony’s favourite is supposed
to have done to the saint, cp. ‘Lord! she made me follow her last week
through all the shops like a Tantiny pig,’ Swift, _Polite Conv._ i; to
sit like a toad on a shovel, said of any one who has a very uncertain
seat on horseback, and also of a person in a very uncertain condition of
affairs; like a toad out of a tree--thump; to live or lead a life like a
toad under a harrow is to suffer from ill-treatment or ill-usage; he’s
like a Tom-noup [the great tit] on a round of beef, said of a
swaggering, pretentious, little man; drinking to drown sorrow is like
trying to sleck a fire with gunpowder; it runs in the blood like wooden
legs.
[Sidenote: _Conversational Allusions to Fictitious Persons or
Things_]
Beside these are the longer similes in the style of those
conversational allusions for which Sam Weller is famous. For example:
all asiden like Martha Roden’s twopenny dish, said of something aslant,
out of the perpendicular; like the old cow’s tail, all behind, said when
any one is behind-hand with work; all to one side like the handle of a
jug; same’s the crow said by the heap of toads, all of a sort; same’s
the old Tucker found his halfpenny, all to a heap; all together like
Brown’s cows; like Morley’s ducks, born without a notion; it’s as broad
as it’s long, like Paddy’s blanket, means that it matters not which of
two ways a thing is done; clean gone, like the boy’s eye, and that went
into his head; like Malachi’s child, choke-full of sense, said of any
one who boasts of himself or of his children; to do things by degrees as
the cat ate the pestle [shank or foreleg of an animal, especially of a
pig]; as dirty as Thump-o’-Dolly, that died of being washed; dressed to
death like Sally Hatch; forty save one like Obitch’s colt, applied to
persons of a certain age who affect youthful manners; he’s like a
pig-tail, going all day and nothing done at night; he’s like the
parson’s fool, he likes everything that’s good; like Jan Trezise’s
geese, never happy unless they be where they baint; hitty-missy, as the
blind man shot the crow; nought’s impossible, as the old woman said when
they told her the calf had swallowed the grindlestone; knoppy road, as
the man said when he stumbled over a cow; as knowing as Kate Mullet, and
she was hanged for a fool; you’re late, as Paddy Loughran said to the
ghost; as lazy as Ludlam’s dog, that leaned up against the wall to bark;
long in the legs like Nanny Panter’s hens; like lucky Jan Toy, who lost
a shilling and found a twopenny loaf, applied to any one who is
rejoicing over a small gain purchased at the expense of a greater loss;
there’s more clout than pie, as the schoolboy said when he unwrapped his
dinner; he won’t do it if he hasn’t a mind to, as the man said by his
jackass; ’tis neat but not gaudy, as they said of the devil when they
painted his body pea-green, and tied up his tail with red ribbons, said
in ridicule of showy dress; don’t be in a hurry, it’s one at a time
here, as the old woman said at the wirligog [turn-stile]; as queer as
Dick’s hatband, that went nine times round and would not tie at last;
like the quest [wood-pigeon] always saying ‘to do’, but everybody knows
it makes the worst nest in the wood; thee beest a queer quest, as the
boy said to the owl; quietness is best, as the fox said when he bit the
cock’s head off; as throng as Throp’s wife when she hanged herself with
the dish-clout, applied to a woman who is for ever busying herself about
domestic affairs, but whose house and surroundings are nevertheless
always untidy; you thought wrong, like Hob’s hog, which, it is said,
when the butcher went into the sty to kill it, fancied its breakfast was
coming. To catch a person napping, as Moss caught his mare, is a saying
which occurs as far back as 1641 in Taylor’s works. To sit like
Mumchancer who was hanged for saying nothing contains an allusion to an
old game of chance played with cards or dice, at which silence was
essential.
[Sidenote: _Figurative and Metaphorical Terms and Phrases_]
Amongst the figurative and metaphorical terms and phrases are:
ankle-biters, children, e.g. I had too many little ankle-biters to save
much; abbey-lubber, an idle person, a loafer. This is a very old word
occurring in Cotgrave, and also in Dr. Johnson’s _Dictionary_, in the
latter it is defined as: ‘a slothful loiterer in a religious house,
under pretence of retirement and austerity.’ The blacksmith’s daughter,
a padlock; a bread-and-cheese friend, a true friend, as distinguished
from a cupboard-lover; bread, or potatoes and point, a meal of bread, or
potatoes, only; calf-lick, a tuft of hair growing on the human forehead,
which will not part or lie flat; calf’s tongue, a person who is,
according to occasion, mild-spoken or harsh-spoken, like the tongue of a
calf, smooth on one side and rough on the other; cat-lick, a hasty,
indifferent washing; cat-malison, a recess or cupboard in the ceiling,
in which meat, &c., is hung, called the cat’s curse because from its
position it was secure from the cat; a churn-milk [buttermilk] study,
reverie, a brown study; clash-bag, a tale-bearer, a scandal-monger;
cobbler’s pork, bread; cold turkey pie, bread and cheese; countryman’s
treacle, garlic; a duck’s frost, a slight frost, or none at all, also a
drizzling rain; fly-by-sky, a giddy, flighty person; hearthstone talk,
boastful talk, promises made at night and not intended to be kept in the
morning; hopping-Giles, a cripple, so named from St. Giles, the especial
patron of cripples; a lawyer, a long thorny stem of bramble or briar; a
lick and a promise, a slight, ineffectual washing, any work done in a
perfunctory manner; a messenger, a sunbeam, a small detached cloud
betokening rain; Methody cream, or milk from the brown cow, rum in tea;
milestone-bread, shouting-cake, or Here be I, where be you? bread, cake,
or pudding in which the currants or raisins are far apart; Miss Nancy,
an effeminate man, especially one conspicuous for outward adornment, but
deficient in common sense; muck-spout, a person who uses filthy
language; news-poke, a gossip; nip-curn [-currant], nip-fig, nip-raisin,
a person so stingy that he would nip a raisin in two; the one-armed
landlord, a pump; pea-swad [-pod] days, young days; the poor man’s
piano, a wringing-machine; poverty-engine, a tea-kettle; Prince-town
College, Dartmoor prison; a pump without a handle, any person or thing
that is quite unfit to discharge the office which he or it has to fill;
Purdy’s lantern, the moon; sike-fat [rill-fat], water used instead of
fat in making cakes, puddings, &c.; a snail’s gallop, a very slow pace;
snow-blossom, a snowflake; a stepmother’s blessing, a loose piece of
skin at the base of the finger-nail; a Sunday saint and Monday sinner, a
pseudo-religious person; tea-kettle broth, weak tea, or broth made of
bread, hot water, and an onion or two; tongue-bang, to scold, abuse;
water-bewitched, weak tea or ale; a winter Friday, a cold,
wretched-looking person; a wooden cloak, dress or sark, a coffin.
To tell a long story without much point is to beat the Devil round the
gooseberry-bush; to be lazy is to have Lawrence on one’s back; Lawrence
bids high wages is said of a person who is rendered almost incapable of
work by the heat of the weather, or who yields to it too willingly; the
boy’s gone by with the cows, and the snap’s down, are sayings addressed
to one who has lost a certain opportunity, and is now too late; a person
who has fallen into trouble by his own foolishness or misconduct says:
Ah’ve browt me pigs tiv a bad mahkit; to make a bad bargain is to sell a
hen on a rainy day, cp. ‘Never mind our son, cried my wife; depend upon
it he knows what he is about. I’ll warrant we’ll never see him sell his
hen of a rainy day. I have seen him buy such bargains as would amaze
one,’ _Vicar of Wakefield_, chap. xii; a person who has been deceived
once, and will not be so again, says: Ah’ve been ta Jerry berrin’
[Jerry’s funeral]; it’s all along of Colly Weston, said when anything
goes wrong, bears reference to a very old phrase found as early as 1587.
Collywest, or collyweston, is an adverb or adjective meaning askew, not
straight or level. Of a project or undertaking that has failed it is
said: That cake’s all duff [dough]. A Warwickshire folk-rhyme runs:
O, dear, O!
My cake’s all dough,
And how to make it better
I do not know.
Shakespeare uses the phrase twice in the _Taming of the Shrew_, I. i.
110; V. i. 145; and it occurs in _Don Quixote_, translated by Jervas:
‘The duchess’s cake was dough, as the saying is, till she had read her
letter.’ To be all mops and brooms is to be bewildered; to be all skin
and grief is to be half-starved, of a melancholy disposition; anything
peculiarly agreeable is said to be honey and nuts; a rich fool is said
to carry his brains in his breeches-pocket; to make a great show on
insufficient means is to carry a tight swagger [ship’s flag] on a rotten
mast; a person singing or whistling badly is told that he would charm
the heart of a wheelbarrow; goa tell thy mother to cheän ugly up is a
remark often made to a pouting, ill-tempered child; choose how the cat
jumps is a phrase equivalent to by hook or by crook; to comb the head
with a three-legged stool is to beat, knock, cp. ‘... doubt not her care
should be To comb your noddle with a three-legg’d stool,’ _Tam. of Shr._
I. i. 63; of the return of a penniless scapegrace it is said he’s coming
home with Penny Liggan, or Peter Lacken, probably the original phrase
was penny lacking; a person with a sharp temper is asked: Did ye come
past the smithy?; a disagreeable person is told that he looks sour
enough to come [curdle] a cheese; of a very blunt knife it is said that
it would cut butter if it was hot; to attempt the impossible is to cut
smoke with a leather hatchet, to eat stir-pudding with an awl, to sup
sowens [oatmeal and water] with an elshin [a shoemaker’s awl], to gape
against a red-hot oven, to get blood from a turnip, to stop an oven with
butter, to throw straws at the wind; the dule’s had o’ th’porritch an’
the Lord’s nobbot getten th’pon for t’scrape is said of a death-bed
repentance; a person belonging to a different religious denomination to
that of the speaker is said to dig with the wrong foot; of a draught in
a room it is said that it would deet [winnow] potatoes; of a weak person
or animal it is said he can’t dint into a pound of butter; to eat
rue-pie signifies to repent, regret; to eat bread dipped in fried water
is to live poorly; when a horse is left standing outside a door,
especially of a public-house, it is said to be left to eat sign-post
hay, or sneck [latch] hay; sparrow-pie, or sparrow-pudding is a dish
supposed to make a person preternaturally sharp, e.g. Her’s purty flip
this morning, idden her? I rakkon her’th abin ayting sparrer-pie; Bless
her heart! aw could ate her wi’ a butter-cake! is a rustic compliment;
highly complimentary also is the saying: Hoo’s an e’e i’ her yed at ’ud
fot a duck off th’ wayter; a long and dull discourse is said to be
enough to deafen a spider; something irritating and provoking is said to
be enough to urge the blood of Peter Cockerel; Fare thee well, Oula, is
an expression used when parting from something one is not likely to see
again; to a person smiling or laughing for no apparent reason it is
said: What bist thee a-loffin’ at? I sh’d think thee ’adst fund a
tiddy-obbin’s nist un’ wus a-loffin’ at the young uns; I never flacker
my wings ower t’edge o’ my awn nest means that I never go beyond the
bounds of my own circumstances; to fly up with Jackson’s hens is to be
bankrupt; to gather or sow gape-seed is to stare about, to stare out of
a window; to gather strings, or to pick up one’s crumbs, is to regain
one’s health after an illness, e.g. Our Liz bin ter’ble bad, her was
a’most come to a nottomy [skeleton], but her’s pickin’ up her crooms
again now like, thank th’Almighty; to get one’s kale through the reek
[smoke] signifies to get a good scolding; a very tall and lazy person is
told to go and get measured for a pikel [pitchfork]; of a very dull,
unintelligent person it is said: He’s getten a head and so has a mell
[mallet]; of a scolding woman it is said: Hoo’s getten a tung sharp
enough for t’shave a urchant [hedgehog]; Eh, what a tail our cat’s got!
is said at the sight of unwonted finery and conceit; when the head of
the family has introduced various members of the family into the same
employ it is said that the fingers have got pretty close to the thumb;
of a mean man it is said: He’s a rare good customer wheer they’re givin’
things away for nowt; an undecided person, wanting in manly
straightforwardness is said to go betwix the oak and the rind; a person
living beyond his means is said to graze beyond his tether; a man who
invites friends during his wife’s absence is said to hang out the
besom; He’s hing’d his fiddle on the door-sneck is said of a man in a
bad temper; a person completely happy and independent may say: I wo’dn’t
thenk ye to hev th’ Queen for my aunt; of a haughty woman it is said
that she will hardly know the Queen’s cousin; of a coward it is said
that he has no more heart than a dumbledory; of a child who repeats
sentences or opinions picked up from his father it is said: He’s heard
the old cock crow; to heat or warm up old broth signifies to renew an
old courtship; of scant fare received in another person’s house it is
said that the shelf was pretty high; to keep on good terms with any one
is to keep the wheel in the nick; a person using large means for very
small ends is said to be killing clocks [beetles] with clubs; a person
supposed to be thoroughly acquainted with any particular matter is said
to know both the hare and the hare-gate; a state bordering on starvation
is described as lean lickin’ o’ thibles [sticks for stirring porridge];
to marry for money and then to be discontented with one’s lot is to like
the boose [stall for a cow] but not the ring-stake; a man who marries
for money, and whose wife turns out to be a scold, is said to wed
t’midden for t’muck and be puizened wi’ t’stink; to live or die an old
maid is to live the life or die the death of Jenkin’s hen[2]; not to be
deterred from anything by blustering talk is to live too near the wood
to be frightened by an owl; to a tardy messenger it is said: Theaw’rt
th’reet mon for t’send for sorrow--theaw’rt so lung uppo th’road; to be
in a state of bewilderment or confusion is to look two ways for Easter,
or to look seven ways for Sunday; of a person who squints it is said
that he was born in the middle of the week, and looked both ways for
Sundays; a man not to be depended upon is said to be loose in the haft,
not to be trusted further than you could throw a pig by the soaped tail;
If a mak an erran’ tae yer face, it ’ill no be tae kiss ye is an
expression of anger; a very cold wind is said to make thin linings, i.e.
to make one’s clothes feel thin, My word! but it’s a thin wind this
morning, it’ll go through you before it’ll go round you; to discourse
pointlessly or beyond the mark is to milk over the can; there’s a mule
in the garden signifies that something unpleasant is going on; of a
person who has said or done something foolish it is said that he is
plagued with the simples; to do anything in the slowest possible way, to
work ineffectually, is to plough with dogs; to sew hurriedly and badly
is to put in a stitch for a friend; to attempt to improve a thing which
is already perfect is to put butter on bacon; to take away one’s
appetite is to put one by one’s porridge, e.g. What, thoo’ll nivver come
nar neea mair? Let me tell thi that’ll put nin on us by wer poddish;
they don’t put up their horses together means that they are not friendly
together; when something has interfered to prevent an arrangement being
carried out it is said that the pigs ran through it; an old woman’s
rock-staff [distaff] is a contemptuous expression for a silly
superstitious fancy; of an impudent person it is said that he has rubbed
his face with a brass candlestick; of a person given to petty and
‘penny-wise’ economies it is said that he saves at the spigot and lets
it run out at the bung-hole; to consent readily is to say sniff if
another says snaff; to earn one’s bread laboriously before one eats it
is to scrat before one pecks; a person complaining of want of
sociability or kindness amongst neighbours will say: ’Er didn’t say as
much as Set down, dog, or: There isn’t one as’ll so much as look in and
say Dog, how beest?; when milk is burnt, and adheres to the sides of the
saucepan, it is said that the bishop has set his foot in it. This is a
very old saying, cp. Tusser, _Husb._, ‘Blesse Cisley (good mistris) that
Bishop doth ban For burning the milk of her cheese to the pan’; and
Tindale, _Obedience of a Christen Man_ (1528), ‘Yf the podech be burned
to, or the meate over rosted, we saye the bysshope hath put his fote in
the potte, or the bysshope hath playd the coke, because the bysshopes
burn who they lust and whosoever displeaseth them.’ Of a very thin
person it is said that he shames his pasture; of hollow friends it is
said: They’ll shak ye by t’hand an wish your airm off by t’elbow; of a
tedious caller it is said: She’ll sit a hen-sit; of a stingy, niggardly
person it is said that he would not part wi’ t’reek off his keal, and
that he would skin a toad for the hide and tallow; of an avaricious
person it is said that he would steal the cross off an ass, i.e. the
dark marks across its shoulders; to idle about the streets gossiping is
to spin street-webs; a description of poor fare is stare and stand
back--three jumps at the pantry door and a drink of cold water; of a
bow-legged person it is said that he couldn’t stop a pig in a snicket;
to have a sad life is to sup sorrow by spoonfuls; to pay attention to
one’s own faults is to sweep up one’s own doorstep; of a very loquacious
person it is said that he would talk a butt of bees to death, or talk a
dog’s hind leg off; of a tedious person it is said that he would weary a
growing tree; to tell improbable stories is to tell dildrams and
Buckingham Jenkins; to attract by good feeding is to tether by the
teeth; to a thriftless and extravagant wife it is said: Don’t throw your
property out of the door with a spade while your husband is bringing it
in through the window with a spoon; of a bachelor it is said that he
trails a light harrow, his hat covers his family; of a person who has
known sorrow or misfortune it is said that the black ox has trodden on
his foot. This saying occurs in our early literature, cp. Tusser,
_Husb._, ‘Why then do folke this prouerbe put, The blacke oxe neare trod
on thy fut, If that way were to thriue?’; and Lyly, _Sapho and Phao_
(1584), ‘She was a pretie wench, when Juno was a young wife. Now
crowesfoote is on her eye, and the black oxe hath trod on her foot.’ To
quit a business at a critical point is to unyoke in the sherd [gap in
the hedge]; to like to have one’s own way is to want the water to run in
one’s own ditch; a person who boasts of doing difficult things is asked
if he can whistle and chew meal; to go whistling jigs to a milestone is
a phrase used of any fruitless attempt or impossible undertaking; I wish
I had our cat by t’tail is said by people a long way from home and
fireside; to work overtime without receiving extra pay is to work for
the Queen; to do work for which the pay has been already drawn is to
work on a dead horse.
[2] The Carlyles, however, used this phrase in a different sense. Mrs.
Carlyle in a letter to her husband (September 13, 1844) wrote: ‘The
evening of the Bullers’ departure Jenkin’s Hen came, pale as a candle,
with a red circle round each eye which was very touching;--he had
evidently been crying himself quite sick and sore.’ Carlyle’s note on
this passage is as follows: ‘Fleming. To “die the death of Jenkin’s hen”
expressed in Annandale the maximum of pusillanimity.’ V. _The Second
Post_, E. V. Lucas, p. 151.
[Sidenote: _Proverbs and Proverbial Sayings_]
Proverbs and proverbial sayings are very numerous in all the dialects,
generally introduced in plain epigrammatical style, but sometimes
preluded by: It’s an owd sayin’, an’ it’s a true un.... The following
specimens may be taken as a fair sample of the whole. It will be seen
that some are merely dialect readings of well-known lit. Eng. proverbs,
e.g. It’s th’yarly bird as gollaps th’wurm; others convey the same
meaning, but under a different figure to that with which we are
familiar, e.g. To give apples to orchards, beside the ordinary lit. Eng.
To carry coals to Newcastle.
It’s bad clicking butter out of a dog’s throat; a bealing coo soon
forgets it cauf; the beard won’t pay for the shaving; a blate [timid]
cat makes a proud mouse; co [call] thi own cawves t’gether an’ le’ mine
come whoam o’ thersels; kaa [call] me an’ aa’ll kaa thee = one good turn
deserves another; a child and a chicken should always be pickin’;
christen your own child first = charity begins at home; a deaf man hears
hae [have, take this]; wan’s as dip i’ the mood as t’oother i’ the moire
= it’s six of one and half a dozen of the other; dumb folks heirs no
land, said when anything is to be obtained by speaking; it’s easy
holding down the latch when nobody pulls the string, usually applied to
a woman who boasts about remaining single; way mut all ate a peck o’ dut
afore way doy, a saying commonly supplemented with: but non on us wants
it all at woonst; empty barrels make the most noise; what do you expect
from a pig but a grunt?; those who can’t fadge must louster, said of
people who increase their physical labour by want of foresight, cp. his
head doesn’t save his heels; them at feals [hide] can find; a feeal’s
bolt is seean shotten, cp. ‘Sottes bolt is son i-scoten,’ _Prov.
Alfred_, c. 1275; there’s never a gant [yawn] but there’s a want of
mate, money, or sleep, cp. ‘Them that gant Something want, Sleep, meat,
or making o’,’ Galt, _Sir Andrew Wylie_, 1822; if ye’ve got one [i.e.
child] you can run, If ye’ve got two you may goo, But if ye’ve got three
You must bide where you be; ther’s no gettin’ white meeol eawt of a
coal-seck = you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear; geea ne
hetter kail nor ye can sup yorsel; half an egg’s better an a team’d
shell = half a loaf’s better than no bread; hantle o’ whistlin’ an’
little red lan’ [ploughed land] = much cry and little wool; have a
little, give a little, let neighbour lick the mundle [stick for stirring
porridge] = charity begins at home; the hailer is zo bad as tha stailer,
cp. Germ. Der Hehler ist so gut wie der Stehler; every yerrin’ should
hang by it own gills; a hundred words won’t fill a bushel; a hungry eye
sees far; hunger’s famous kitchen [relish eaten with bread]; an idle
mon’s yed’s the divvle’s smithy; if stands stiff in a poor man’s pocket;
If ifs and an’s Were pots an’ pans There’d be naya trade for tinklers;
If ifs an’ buts Were apples an’ nuts, Wouldn’t I fill my guts; a bad
shearer [reaper] nivvor gat a good hyuk = bad workmen abuse their tools;
never invite a friend to a roast and then beat him with the spit; nivver
judge a blade by t’heft; the kail-pot’s callin’ the yetlin [pan] smutty;
it isn’t oft at t’kittlin’ carries t’owd cat a maase; to learn one’s
granny to lap ashes; they might lick thooms to the elbows = one is as
bad as the other; a little word is a bonny word = least said, soonest
mended; it is not good to live where you can hear your lord’s cock crow;
ye may lock afore a haand-tief, but no afore a tongue-tief; A man may
spend And God will send If his wife be good to ought, But man may spare
and still be bare If his wife be good to nought; those that have marbles
may play, but those that have none must look on; to measure a peck out
of one’s own bushel is to judge of another’s disposition or experience
by one’s own; meeat is mickle but mense [goodness, courtesy] is mair;
iv’ry megullat [owl] thinks her own bubs best; the mellerest apple hes a
crawk [core] i’side; o’er muckle water drowned the miller; a nimble
ninepence is better than a slow shilling; peekle in yer ain pwoke neuk =
mind your own business; Pity without relief Is like mustard without
beef; pull the bobbin with joy, bud knock wi’ sorrow; a raffle [foolish]
tung an’ a race-hoss gan t’faster t’leeter wight tha hug [carry]; a
rolling stone gathers no moss, but a tethered sheep winna get fat; save
thy wind to keel thy porridge; never scaud your lips in ither folk’s
kail; seein’s believin’, but feelin’s God’s truth; when I see shells I
guess eggs = there’s no smoke without a fire; it’s nouther seeds nor
meal = neither one thing nor another; a shift and a shilling is worth
thirteen pence, i.e. an expedient or contrivance will increase the value
of anything, and make it go further; as well sit teum [empty] as run
teum = better make the best of a bad bargain; skeer [rake out] your own
fire; he maun be seun up that cheats the tod [fox]; never speak ill of
the bridge that carries you; don’t stretch thi arms farther nor thi
sleeves reyks [reach]; ye mauna think to win through the world on a
feather-bed; Them as ’oon thrive Mun rise at five. Them as have thriven
May lie till seven; tiggers should not be tarrowers = beggars should not
be choosers; if a man tinkles, he must expect to be grimed; to tirr
[unroof] the kirk to theek the quire = to rob Peter to pay Paul; Twoast
yer bread An’ rasher yer vlitch, An’ as long as e lives Thee ’ooll never
be rich; the toll is heavier than the grist = the game is not worth the
candle. Formerly the miller always took his payment in a toll of the
corn, a custom alluded to in a metaphorical epitaph found in Surrey on
the tombstone of a miller:
O cruel Death, what hast thou done,
To take from us our mother’s darling Son?
Thou hast taken toll, ground and drest his grist,
The bran lieth here, the flour is gone to Christ.
A toom purse makes a blate merchant; other tow to teaze, other oats to
thrash = other fish to fry; dunna waste a fresh haft on an ould blade =
don’t throw good money after bad; there’s aye some water where the stirk
[heifer] drowns; better wed over the mixen than over the moor; the well
is not missed until it is dry; better a wet mitten than a cold hand;
t’wheem sew yets t’draff [the still sow eats the pig-wash]; A whistling
woman and a crowing hen Will fear the old lad out of his den; he that
will to Cupar maun to Cupar = a wilful man must have his way.
An interesting elucidation of the common proverb: Don’t spoil your ship
for a ha’porth of tar, is given by comparison with the dialect version
of it, which remains faithful to the original. The saying Dunnot loaz
t’yow [ewe] for a hawporth o’ tar, i.e. do not be niggardly or
over-economical in farming, is recorded as far back as 1636 in the form
‘hee that will loose a sheepe (or a hogge) for a pennyworth of tarre
cannot deserve the name of a good husband’. It thus becomes clear that
our word ‘ship’ is here a dialect form of sheep, and that the ha’porth
of tar does not signify the remedy for a leaking vessel, for which it
would be wholly inadequate, but the means for marking the owner’s
initial on a sheep’s back to prevent its being unrecognized when found
straying. The introduction of spoil for lose is no doubt due to the
misunderstanding of ‘ship’.
[Sidenote: _Phrases referring to Time_]
We noted at the beginning of Chapter II some examples of the
multifarious expressions which can be found in the dialects for one
simple idea, but a few more may be added here: a moment of time,
instantly, is: in a couple of cat-squints, in half a dozen cracks of a
cobbler’s thumb, in two claps of a lamb’s tail, in the fillin’ o’ a
pipe, in a pig’s whisper, in the shaking of an ass’s lug, in the snifter
[sniff, snort] of a rabbit, in the snirt of a cat, in the twinkle of a
bed-post, and--commonest of all--in a twink, cp. ‘That in a twink she
won me to her love,’ _Tam. of Shr._ II. i. 312; never is: o’ St.
Pawsle’s [Apostle’s], at Tib’s Eve, on Whistlecock Monday, in the reign
of Queen Dick, midsummer-come-never, to-morrow-come-never, next
neverstide, when apples grow on orange-trees, when there are two moons
in the lift [sky], when there are two Fridays in the week, when two
Sundays come together, the first Sunday in the middle of the week, some
Sunday in next week, a week of three Sundays; a long, indefinite period
of time is: from seven year end to seven year end, for years long years
and donkey’s ears; a place far off and solitary is: aback o’ beyond, or
aback o’ beyont where they kessen [christen] cawvs and knee-band lops
[fleas], behind God speed, up atop o’ down yonder miles-endy-ways; to go
to Jericho is to go to Buckhummer, or to gill-kickerty. A person who is
half-witted, or slightly insane is said to have a leaf out, to have
nought but what was put in with a spoon, to be a bit of a toby-trot, to
be sort o’ comical in his head, to be gone past hisself, to be
half-rocked, nobut ninepence to the shilling, not exactly plumb, not up
to Monday, one of God’s oddlin’s, put in wi’ the bread and a’tookt out
wi’ the cakes like.
[Sidenote: _Phrases referring to Death_]
The phrases referring to death are of many kinds, some cold and
commonplace, some grim, and a few almost poetical. Amongst them are: he
has put his spoon in the wall; he is gone to the mole country; he is
singing Whillalooya to the day nettles; he’s gone deeod sure enough, an’
iv he’s ta’en his brass wi’ him it’ll be melted bi neaw; thou’l niver be
satisfied til thoo gets thi moothful a mould is a phrase used to a
grumbling, discontented person; he’s nowt good for till he’s happed up
[buried, lit. covered], said of a miserly churl; they’ve a-putt poar ol’
Bill tü beyd wi’ a showl [shovel] tüday; of a delicate person not yet
old, it is said he’ll never carry a grey toppin’ whoam; of a person too
ill to be likely to recover it is said: I fear he’s boun’ up
padjan-tree; the sexton has shaked his shool at him; of an old man in
failing health it is said he’s going down the brewe [brow, hill]; it’s
welly [wellnigh] six o’clock with him, six o’clock being the hour at
which labourers, when it is light, leave off work; he’s gettin’ into th’
linderins. The linderins or lindrins are ropes put round a weaver’s beam
when the woof is nearly finished, and the term is applied thus
figuratively to the approaching end of an old man’s life. And then, when
the end has come, like the hand-loom weaver whose work is finished: he’s
ta’en his reed and gears in at last. There is something picturesque in
the use of the phrase to go home applied to trees and flowers. My
gardener always speaks of a dead plant or a withered blossom as having
gone home.
[Sidenote: _Evasive Replies to the Inquisitive_]
There are certain curious expressions used in the dialects as replies
to children and inquisitive questioners when the person addressed
does not mean to give the desired information. For example, answers
to the question What’s that? are: rare overs for meddlers; lay-overs
for meddlers, and crutches for lame ducks; shimshams for meddlers; a
trina-manoose; a whim-wham for a mustard mill, or for a treacle-mill,
a whim-wham to wind the sun up. What are you making? Ans. A snoffle
[snout] for a duck. What are you doing? Ans. Muckin’ ducks wi’ an
elsin. What have you got in the cart there? Ans. Only a load of
post-holes. What did that cost? Ans. Money and fair words. Where did
that come from? Ans. I got it from the Binsey treacle-mine (Oxf.).
What’s the latest news? Ans. The Dutch have taken Holland. Where is he
gone? Ans. To Botn’y Baay and theäre he maay staay. How old are you?
Ans. As owd as me tongue an owder than me teeth. How old was So-and-So
(lately deceased)? Ans. Oh! I reckon he lived same’s Tantarabobus--all
the days of his life. Why did you do that? Ans. For fun and fancy,
because Bob kissed Nancy. What will you bring us from the Fair? Ans.
If you’ll be good children, I’ll bring you all a silver new-nothing to
hang on your arm.
[Sidenote: _Salutations_]
Dialect forms of greeting are usually short and comprehensive. It is
not uncommon for a rustic to pass the time of day with a friend met on
the road by the use of a single monosyllable. All forms of salutation,
from the single monosyllable to the interchange of a few remarks,
may be termed passing the time o’day. This expression is current in
practically all the dialects of England, e.g. A niver stopped to speak
to ’im, on’y just passed the time o’ day, cp. ‘But meet him now, and,
be it in the morn, When every one will give the time of day, He knits
his brow,’ _2 Hen. VI_, III. i. 14, ‘Good time of day unto my gracious
lord!’ _Rich. III_, I. i. 122. Noo! is a common greeting in the North
when two friends meet. There are various forms of inquiry after the
well-being of the person addressed, e.g. Well, an’ how be ’ee to-day?
Purty bobbish, thank-ee. Are ye middlin’ weel? Hoo’s a’ wi’ ye? On
a grey day among the Yorkshire moors every native one meets salutes
one with the single word Dull! If the weather be fine he will say in
passing, Grand day! If wet, his greeting will be: Soft weather! or, A
soft day! A story is told of two Irishmen who thus greeted each other
when they met at a Fair: Bad luck to you, Pat, says one, How are you?
Good luck to you! Mick, answered the other, and may neither of them
come true.
A common Devonshire salutation at meal-times is Gude stummick to ee
wan an’ all, a phrase which from its like significance might claim
country-cousinship with the after-dinner greeting ‘Gesegnete Mahlzeit’
of North Germany. A Cornish grace before meat runs: Lord mek us able To
eat what’s upon table, followed by: The Lord be praised Our stummicks be
aised. Outspoken phrases of this kind have their charm, when they
proceed from simple, honest hearts. After a long morning walk on a
Yorkshire moor, plates of home-made cake, and tumblers of new milk,
spread in a farm-house kitchen with the homely invitation, Reik tul, an’
mak yersens at ’oam, can be a meal which will linger in the memory long
afterwards as a feast of fat things, and wines on the lees well refined.
Reach to, in its various forms, is the ordinary phrase in the northern
dialects, e.g. Noo reeach teea an’ help yersels, ther’s nowt ya need be
neyce [shy] aboot, an’ ya needn’t mak spare ov owt; Noo, deean’t be owre
neyce, reach tul an’ git agait; Noo you munnot be shy and owernice, but
mak a lang airm to what you like best. The guest may reply: Ah sal lad,
ah sal bide noa assing [await no asking]; I’s ower meeat-yabble
[hungry] to be blate [bashful]. Not this time, thank you, is a polite
way of declining to take any more food at the hospitable board, and when
the guest leaves the house he says: Well, a mun love ye, and leave ye.
[Sidenote: _Phrases denoting Contempt_]
Turning from the language of courtesy and good-feeling to that of
contempt and derision, we shall find in the dialects a rich variety of
expressions of a still more outspoken and forceful character. For
example: Me gwain to have thick [that] hangdog-looking fuller!--why, I
widn be azeed in a ten-acre field way un; Au wodn’t be seen at a
hen-race wi’ thee; Thee jump up an’ knep [pick] a daisy; He don’t care
for kith, kin, hog, dog, nor devil; Her temper’ll ne’er be meawlt
[mouldy] wi’ keepin’; Thou gert lang-catching buzzard; Old cinderwig;
You’re a nice cup o’ tea, you are, said to a person who thinks himself a
fine fellow; Thou gaumless donnat [stupid good-for-nothing]; ’Er’s a
vigger ov nort, ’er is; A jolter-yeded gawpsheet; Old gimlet-eye; Thoo
gert idle honk, thoo; Shoo is a pullet, shoo goes abaht like a guytrash;
A ragabrash slitherin’ owd raskald; Wor hes thoo been aw this time, thoo
sledderkin, thoo?; Tomnoddy, big heed an’ little body, a street-boy’s
gibe at a person of dwarfish stature.
[Sidenote: _Phrases applied to Localities_]
Corresponding to the figurative and proverbial similes and sayings
of a general nature are the more strictly local ones, recording some
feature of the locality, some current tradition, or some real or
imaginary characteristic of the inhabitants of a special town or
county, for example: all on one side like Bridgnorth Election, said
of anything which is oblique or out of the perpendicular. The saying
is supposed to refer to the fact that members of the Tory Whitmore
families of Apley, near Bridgnorth, have, with rare exceptions,
represented the borough in Parliament from 1663 onwards for over two
hundred years. All on one side like Marton Chapel (Chs.); all on one
side like Parkgate, said of anything lopsided. Parkgate is a fishing
village on the Cheshire side of the river Dee, consisting of one long
street with houses on one side only, the sea wall being on the other
side. All play and no play, like Boscastle Market, which begins at
twelve o’clock and ends at noon (Cor.); always too late like Mobberly
clock (Chs.); to end in a whew, like Cawthorne feast, said of anything
which ends badly or never comes to pass (w.Yks.); like a Whillymer
cheese, it wants an axe and a saw to cut it (n.Cy.); it’s gone over
Borough Hill after Jackson’s pig, said when anything is lost. Borough
Hill is an extensive Roman encampment near Daventry. ’Tis as long in
coming as Cotswold barley, applied to things which are slow but sure.
This proverb, alluding to the slow growth and ultimate excellence of
Cotswold corn, is amongst those collected by Ray in 1678. Ship-shape
and Bristol fashion signifies respectability, steadiness, stolidity;
he has been sworn in at Highgate, is said of a man who is very sharp
or clever (n.Der.). The custom of swearing on the horns at Highgate
near London is described in Hone’s _Everyday Book_, 1827. As big as
Russell’s wagon (Cor.). This was a huge wagon for the conveyance of
goods and passengers, drawn by six, eight, or even ten horses. It took
nearly a fortnight to go from Cornwall to London. Passengers sometimes
took their own bedding with them, and slept in the wagon, and they made
their wills before starting. Like Nicholas Kemp he’s got occasion for
all (Cor.) is a saying referring to a traditional voter in a Cornish
borough who, in order that it might not be said that any one had given
him a bribe, was told to help himself from a table covered with gold
in the election committee-room. Taking off his hat, he swept the whole
mass into it, saying: ‘I’ve occasion for all.’ They’ll rax [stretch]
an’ run up like Tommy Yarrow’s breeches (Nhb.) is applied to anything
very elastic. Tommy Yarrow was a celebrated maker of leather breeches,
which he asserted to be capable of stretching or shrinking to meet
the wearer’s requirements. To _creg_ means to be short-tempered or
ill-natured, like the inhabitants of Cragg Hill, a geographical portion
of Horsforth in West Yorkshire.
[Sidenote: _Local Nicknames_]
Nicknames for the inhabitants of certain towns are: Bury muffs; Dawley
oaves, a name derived from the traditional Dawley Barrow-maker who was
the original oaf. He is said to have built a wheelbarrow in an outhouse
with so small a door, that he could not get the barrow out when it was
finished. Morley gawbies; Leeds loiners; Radcliffe boiler-lifters; Wigan
Hearty-Christers, an allusion to a form of oath peculiar to the Wigan
colliers, a corruption of Heart-of-Christ; Yarmouth bloaters, cp. ‘But
Peggotty said, with greater emphasis than usual, that we must take
things as we found them, and that, for her part, she was proud to call
herself a Yarmouth Bloater,’ Dickens, _David Copperfield_. A Dicky-Sam
is a Liverpool man; and a Jug is a man of Brighton.
Sometimes these sayings are in rude rhyme, e.g. Proud Preston, poor
people, Eight bells in a crackt steeple; Birstal for ringers,
Heckmondwike for singers, Dewsbury for pedlars, Cleckheaton for
sheddlers [swindlers]; Oh, Boston, Boston, thou hast nought to boast on
But a grand sluice and a high steeple, And a coast as souls are lost on;
Cheshire bred, Strong i’ th’ arm But weak i’ th’ head; Derbyshire born,
Derbyshire bred, Strong i’ th’ arm, and thick i’ th’ head; Essex miles,
Suffolk stiles, Norfolk wiles, many men beguiles, cp. ‘For Norfolke
wiles, so full of giles, Haue caught my toe, by wiuing so,’ Tusser.
Gobbinshire is an old name for a portion of West Cheshire, gobbin
signifying a clownish person, a country fellow.
Parallel to the nicknames belonging to certain towns are the county
ones, such as: an Essex calf; a Hampshire hog [sheep]; a Norfolk
dumpling; a Yorkshire bite, or tyke; wild people, i.e. the inhabitants
of the Weald of Sussex. Shropshire is reputed to be full of trout and
Tories. Anciently the Salopian was proverbial for sharp shins, as
recorded by Leland and others:
I am of Shropshire, my shinnes be sharpe:
Ley wode to the fyre and dresse me my harpe.
Leland’s _Itinerary_, 1710-12. This old proverb remains in a
crystallized form in the term sharpshins, e.g. Now then, sharpshins,
taking me up as usual! said in rebuke to some sharp speech, or captious
criticism.
[Sidenote: _Phrases denoting Local Characteristics_]
To direct a person to go to a place not to be named to ears polite is
to tell him: to go to Melverley (Shr.), a saying which has arisen from
the fact that this village is continually flooded by the irruptions
of the Severn, and is therefore a place where ills and misfortunes
befall the inhabitant; to go to Halifax (Yks. Lin. Oxf.); to Hexham
(Nhb. Yks.); to Hull. From Hull, Hell, and Halifax, Good Lord deliver
us (Yks. n.Lin.), is a saying based on the local history of the two
towns named. At Hull all vagrants found begging in the streets were
whipped and put in the stocks, and at Halifax persons taken in the act
of stealing cloth were instantly, and without any process, beheaded.
Jedburgh and Lydford (Dev.) bear a like fame for summary infliction of
punishment. Jedburgh-justice and Jedburgh-law are proverbial phrases
signifying trial after execution. ‘First hang and draw, Then hear the
cause by Lidford law,’ is amongst Ray’s _Proverbs_, 1678. To send a
man to Dingley couch, or Dinglety-cootch (Irel.), means to send him
to Coventry. Dingle-i-Coush was an old name for Dingle in Co. Kerry,
a place very remote and inaccessible; to be sent to Ketton (n.Lin.)
signifies to be sent to the prison at Kirton-in-Lindsey; to be sent to
Wakefield is a parallel expression current in Yorkshire. You could tell
that up in Devonshire is a Cornish expression equivalent to: Give a cat
a canary, or: You fry your feet (e.Suf.), said when any one makes an
incredible statement.
[Sidenote: _Stories illustrating Local Stupidity_]
Deeds such as those for which the Wise Men of Gotham are famous are
localized in various parts of the country. In Wiltshire people sometimes
speak of their western neighbours as Somerset hedge-cuckoos, in taunting
allusion to their making a hedge round the cuckoo to keep it from flying
away. The natives of Madeley-on-Severn are said to have tried to secure
the cuckoo by standing round it in a ring with clasped hands; whilst
they of Borrowdale sought to compass the same end by building a wall.
Moonraker, a term for a very foolish person (w.Yks. Hrf. Oxf. Hmp.
Wil.), has its origin in similar tradition. The Wiltshire moonrakers are
best known to fame, but it is also told of the natives of Slaithwake
that they raked the canal to secure the moon which was reflected
therein, and which they mistook for a cheese. It has been stated with
regard to the existence of the term in Hampshire, that the original
moonrakers were smugglers who, when detected on their journeyings, were
wont to pitch their booty into one of the numerous ponds in the
district, to be raked out again some night when fear of pursuit was
past. As fond as the folks of Token (Cum.) is a saying based on the
tradition that the first coach that passed through Token was followed by
a crowd of the inhabitants who were anxious to see the big wheel catch
the little one; as fond as th’ men of Belton, at hing’d a sheäp for
stealin’ a man, is a north Lincolnshire expression. A Coggeshall job
means in Essex a stupid piece of work, a foolish action. Many stories
are told in illustration of the stupidity of the people of Coggeshall,
for instance, it is related that when they had built their church they
found they had forgotten to make any windows. So they got some hampers,
and set them open in the sun to catch the light, then shut them up
tight, wheeled them into the church in barrows, and there opened them to
let the light out. Another legend tells that the people thought that
their church was in the wrong place. In order to move it, they went to
one end to push it, laying their coats down on the ground, outside the
opposite end, on the spot to which the wall was to be removed. When they
judged that they had moved the building far enough, they went round to
find their coats, but none were to be found. They at once concluded that
they had pushed the wall over them, and went to look for them inside the
church. Further, they are said to have placed hurdles in the stream to
turn the river, and to have chained up the wheelbarrow when the dog bit
it.
[Sidenote: _Historical Allusions_]
Among the most interesting of the dialect sayings are those which
contain historical allusions. Here we find the memory of old, unhappy,
far-off things, and battles long ago, handed down from generation to
generation, enshrined in some quaint word or phrase. Or perchance
it is the name of some great or notorious man that has now passed
into a rustic proverb, some notable event in political or Church
history which, long after it has ceased to live in men’s minds, still
lingers in their speech. When Durham boys are quarrelling or playing
at soldiers, one may taunt another by crying: A coward! a coward! o’
Barney Castle Dare na come out to fight a battle. In all probability
this refers to the holding of Barnard Castle by Sir George Bowes during
the Rising of the North in 1569. The couplet: Bellasis! Bellasis! daft
was thy knowle, When thoo swapt Bellasis for Henknoll (e.Yks.), refers
to a foolish exchange of estates in the fifteenth century. An Easter
Monday custom peculiar to Ashton-under-Lyne, called Riding the Black
Lad, consisted in carrying through the streets an effigy which was
afterwards publicly burned. Originally this effigy represented a man in
black armour, and was intended for Sir Ralph Assheton, the tyrannical
Black Knight of Assheton, but later it was made up to resemble some
person who happened to be politically or socially unpopular in the
town. Bloody Mary (w.Yks.) is a name for the crane’s-bill, _Geranium
Robertianum_. To vanish in a bokanki (Dur.) is to take precipitate
flight after the manner of Dr. Balcanqual, Dean of Durham, in the time
of the Civil Wars, who fled from the city with extreme precipitation,
after the battle of Newburn, for fear of the Scots. A reminiscence of
the days when rural England lived in terror of a Napoleonic invasion
is contained in the phrase: marrow to Bonny (Lakel. w.Yks.), i.e. a
match for Buonaparte, equally bad, applied to any one who bears a very
bad character, or who has been guilty of a bad action. Chewidden Day,
Picrous Day, and the phrase drunk as a Perraner, are all references
to the reputed finders of tin in Cornwall. Tradition tells that St.
Perran was one day cooking for himself a humble meal when a stream of
white metal flowed out of the fire which he had built on a heavy black
stone. Great was the joy of the good saint, for he perceived that
there had been revealed to him from above something which would be
useful to man. He communicated his discovery at once to St. Chewidden,
and the two saints soon devised ways and means of producing this metal
in large quantities. They called the Cornishmen together and told them
of their treasures, and how they could set to work to obtain them.
Days of feasting followed the announcement; mead and metheglin and
other drinks flowed in abundance, and were partaken of so freely by the
saints and their followers, that St. Perran’s name from that day passed
into a proverb. The name of Cromwell occurs in an Irish imprecation:
the curse of Cromwell, and in the Lincolnshire saying: it caps old
Oliver, and he capped Long Crown, i.e. the Cavaliers, so called from
the shape of their hats, said when anything very extraordinary is
recounted. Other versions of this expression are: it caps Leatherstarn,
and he capt the divel (e.Yks.), it cowes the gowan (Sc.), it flogs
t’doll (Yks.). A red-haired Dane (Sus. Wil. Som. Cor.) is a term of
reproach applied to a man with red hair. Such a man is often said to
be crossed wi’ the Danes, or a bit touched wi’ the Danes. Danes’ blood
(Wil.) is the dwarf elder, _Sambucus Ebulus_, popularly believed only
to grow on the ancient battle-fields, and to have sprung originally
from the blood of the slain Danes. The same name is also given to
the pasque-flower, _Anemone Pulsatilla_ (Hrt. Cmb. Nrf.), and to the
clustered bell-flower, _Campanula glomerata_ (Cmb.); it also denotes
a certain species of red clay found in Hampshire. Dane-weed (Nhp.) is
a name for the field eryngo, _Eryngium campestre_. A Dane’s skin is a
freckled skin. Derwentwater Lights (Nhb. Cum.) is a name for the aurora
borealis. On the night of the execution of the Earl of Derwentwater
the aurora borealis flashed with remarkable brilliancy, and has since
been so named in remembrance of him. Duff’s luck (Sc.) is a proverb
expressive of some special good fortune. Duff is the family name of
the Earls of Fife, a family which has for many generations gone on
adding land to land, successfully building up huge estates. The days
of the Duke of Monmouth’s rebellion are remembered as Dukin’-time
(Som.). Schoolboys in north Lincolnshire call coloured snail-shells or
butterflies English, the origin of which term dates back to the period
of the long war with France, when children used to kill all the white
butterflies they could find, regarding them as symbols of the French.
[Sidenote: _Allusions to Historical Events and Noteworthy Personages_]
Here and there some noteworthy man is commemorated in an everyday
simile, as for instance: as deep as Garrick; as big as Gilderoy; as sour
as Hector. The name gaskin (Ken. Sus.) denotes a species of wild cherry
brought from France by Joan of Kent when her husband, the Black Prince,
was commanding in Guienne and Gascony. Effigies of Guy Fawkes may still
be seen on Nov. 5, carried by small boys who beg for coppers with a:
Please to remember poor Guy, but the old rhymes narrating his history
are now seldom heard. An old Devonshire version runs:
Wul é plaize tü remimber
Tha veefth ov Novimber
Tha gunpowder trayson an’ plot;
I daunt zee no rayson
Why gunpowder trayson
Shüde iver be vurgot.
This was sung on the night of Nov. 4, when funds were collected for the
next day’s bonfire. On the 5th, the _momet_ or figure was carried round
by boys singing:
Guy Fawkes, Guy!
He and ’is companions did contrive
Tü blaw all Englan’ up alive,
With a dark lantern an’ a match,
By God’s massy ’e wuz catched.
[Sidenote: _Local Traditions_
_Old Customs_
_Oak-Apple Day_
_Robin Hood_]
In West Yorkshire, Nov. 5 is known as Plot, and a special kind of
cake, made of oatmeal and treacle and called _parkin_, is eaten at
about that date. A curious bit of testimony to the popularity of
Shakespeare may be traced in the common Yorkshire expression to play
Hamlet (with), e.g. Bai gou, lad! wen ta gets ’oam ther’ll bi ’amlit
to pleay; Mi mother pleayed ’amlit wi’ ’im fer stoppin’ aht lat at
neet. The use of Hanover in exclamations and mild oaths such as: What
the Hanover do I care about it! (Lin.), Go to Hanover and hoe turnips!
(e.Suf.), is said to date from the time of the Georges, who were very
unpopular in the east of England. According to an old Cheshire legend,
for several days before the battle of Blore Heath, there arose each
morning out of the fosse three mermaids, who announced: Ere yet the
hawberry [hawthorn-berry] assumes its deep red, Embued shall this
heath be with blood nobly shed. Higgledy-piggledy, Maupas shot (Chs.)
means serving all alike, a saying which is sometimes extended by the
addition of: let every tub stand on its own bottom. The tradition
which accounts for its origin is by some attributed to James I, and
by others to William III. The kernel of the story in either case is
the refusal of the then Rector of Malpas to treat the monarch to his
share of a dinner at the village inn. In spite of the remonstrances
of the Curate, who was also present, the shot was equally divided
between the three: higgledy-piggledy all pay alike. Later the monarch
caused the same rule to be applied to the benefice, and henceforth the
Curate received a moiety of the glebe and tithes. Hobby-horse Day is
a festival held in Padstow on May 1. A hobby-horse is carried through
the streets to a pool about a quarter of a mile outside the town, where
it is supposed to drink. The procession then returns home singing a
song to commemorate the tradition that the French, having landed in the
bay, mistook a party of mummers in red cloaks for soldiers, and hastily
fled to their boats and rowed away. Hockney Tuesday, that is the first
Tuesday after Easter week, is celebrated at Hungerford in Berkshire
as Kissing Day, in accordance with the charter which John of Gaunt
gave the town after its services in some great battle. Two tutty-men
visit each house in the borough, and demand a coin of the realm from
each male, and a kiss from every female. They each carry a staff about
six feet long, bedecked with flowers and ribbons, the whole being
surmounted with a cup and spike bearing an orange, which is given
away with each salute, and then replaced by another one. The tutty-men
[nosegay-men] are the tything-men, selected from the tradesmen of the
town, whose duty it was before the establishment of the county police
to act as constables, and assist in preserving order in the town.
Pictures of the proceedings on Kissing Day appeared in the _Daily
Graphic_ of April 6, 1910, entitled ‘Hocktide at Hungerford: Quaint
thirteenth-century customs observed’. Hock-Monday in Sussex is kept as
a festival in remembrance of the defeat of the Danes in King Ethelred’s
time. The term Kemble’s Pipe (Hrf.), applied to the concluding pipe
any one smokes at a sitting, is now no longer in current use. The
original Kemble was executed at Hereford on Aug. 2, 1679, on a charge
of implication in Titus Oates’ plot. On his way to execution he
smoked his pipe and conversed with his friends, and hence arose the
name Kemble’s Pipe for the last pipe smoked in a social company. The
cloud-berry, _Rubus Chamaemorus_, in many north-country dialects is
known by the name of knout-berry. A Lancashire tradition derives this
name from King Cnut, or Cnout, who, being reduced to great extremity,
was preserved from starvation by feeding on this fruit. There’s been
worse stirs than that at Lathom is a Lancashire saying used when a
flitting, a whitewashing, or any domestic stir of an unpleasant nature
makes an apology needful on the score of untidiness or confusion. It
alludes to the havoc made when the Parliamentary forces took Lathom in
1645. To pull anything Lymm from Warburton (Chs.) signifies to pull
anything to pieces. The expression originates from the fact that the
church livings of Lymm and Warburton were formerly held together, but
that they were eventually separated, and the income of the rectors of
Lymm thereby reduced. Nelson’s bullets (n.Cy.) is the name of a kind
of sweetmeat made in the shape of small balls. A Norman (Suf.) is a
tyrannical person. Lord Northumberland’s Arms (Nhb.) is synonymous with
a black eye. The 29th of May, commemorating the Restoration of Charles
II, is commonly observed in the midland and south-western counties.
The day is variously known as: Oak-apple Day, Oak-ball Day, Royal Oak
Day, and Shick-shack Day. Shick-shack is the name of the piece of
oak, especially one with an oak-apple attached, which is worn before
noon, mostly by school-children. In the afternoon the shick-shack is
discarded, and monkey-powder, i.e. leaves of the ash, put in its place.
In the evening both emblems have to disappear, or the wearers are
beaten with nettles (Oxf.). Elsewhere the beating with nettles is the
punishment for not wearing any oak-leaves at all. In Yorkshire a boy
who does not wear the oak is nicknamed a Papish. The Penny Hedge (Yks.)
is a fence or hedge of wicker-work set up annually on the eastern
shore of Whitby harbour, at the Feast of the Ascension. According to a
legend, dating from 1315, ‘the lords of Sneaton and Ugglebarnby, with
others, whilst hunting the boar, did mortally injure an hermit, who
dared to protect the quarry.’ As penance for this outrage, the local
lord and his successors after him must thenceforth plant a certain
number of stakes every year in the tideway. This performance is now
called the Horngarth Service, or the Setting of the Penny Hedge. A
Cheshire version of a well-known proverb is: When the daughter is
stolen, shut the Peppergate. The proverb is said to be founded on
fact. The daughter of a certain Mayor of Chester was stolen as she was
playing at ball in Pepper Street, and the young man who carried her
off took her through the Pepper Gate. After the loss of his daughter,
the Mayor ordered the gate to be closed. The case is altered, quoth
Plowden (Shr.), is a phrase which originated through the unexpected
decisions given by Judge Plowden, an eminent lawyer in Queen Mary’s
time. A _pussivanting_ (Dev. Cor.) is an ineffective bustle; used as an
adjective the word is equivalent to meddling, fussy. It is undoubtedly
a corruption of _poursuivant_, but whether the original Poursuivants
from whom the term is derived were those sent into Cornwall in the
fifteenth century, threatening punishment for the blackmailing habits
of certain Cornish sea-captains, or whether they were the Poursuivants
of the latter part of the seventeenth century, who were sent to search
out all those entitled to bear arms, is a matter on which opinions
differ. The name of Queen Anne is used to denote a coloured butterfly
(Chs.), an ancient gun (Sc.), and an old-fashioned tale (n.Yks.),
e.g. Tell us some o’ your aud Queen Anners. Queen Anne’s flowers
(Nrf.) is a name for the daffodil; Queen Anne’s needlework (Nhp.) is
the striped crane’s-bill. Queen Mary’s thistle (Nhp.), the cotton
thistle, _Onopordon Acanthium_, owes its name to the tradition that
it was brought to Fotheringay by Mary’s attendants. Various plants
are named after Robin Hood, e.g. Robin Hood’s feather, or fetter
(Cum.), the traveller’s joy, _Clematis Vitalba_; Robin Hood’s hatband
(Cum. Yks.), the club moss, _Lycopodium clavatum_; Robin Hood’s men,
or sheep (Lin.), the bracken fern, _Pteris aquilina_. To go round by
Robin Hood’s barn (Cmb. w.Midl.) is to go a roundabout way, to go the
farthest way; Robin Hood’s wind (Chs.) is a wind which accompanies a
thaw. It is said that Robin Hood could stand anything but a thaw wind.
A Yorkshire proverb runs: Many speak of Robin Hood, that never shot his
bow, i.e. many people talk of doing great things which they can never
accomplish. It’s long o’ comin’, like Royal Charlie (Irel.), is said
of a thing that has been long expected. A Scarborough warning (Yks.
Nrf.) signifies no warning at all. The origin of the saying rests on
the statement that in 1557 Thomas Stafford entered and took possession
of Scarborough Castle before the townsmen were aware of his approach.
Sherra-moor (Sc. Nhb. Dur.), used to signify a row, tumult, a state of
confusion, is originally a name given to the Rebellion of 1715. The
title of Vicar of Bray (Brks.) is applied as a term of contempt to a
turncoat.
[Sidenote: _Historical Value of Loan-words_]
Apart from isolated scraps of history preserved in epithets and
sayings such as these, there is the mass of historical evidence that
can be gleaned by a careful study of the loan-words in the dialects. We
have already noted many of them, but only for their philological value.
To estimate their importance from an historical point of view they
would have to be treated geographically, the point of consideration
being not the form in which they are found, but the locality. Thus we
should obtain valuable corroborative testimony to known historical
facts, regarding the settlement of the British Isles. For instance,
history tells us that some time before the Norman Conquest some Flemish
people settled in England. John of Trevisa wrote: ‘The Flemmynges, that
woneth in the west syde of Wales, habbeth yleft here strange speche
and speketh Saxonlych ynow.’ But in learning English they carried over
into the new language some of their own words, and these Flemish words
brought in by these colonists have remained in the dialects of those
counties which lie on the west side of Wales, e.g. south Pembroke and
Glamorganshire.
The loan-words, further, give living support to written history in
pointing back to the existence of Frisians in Kent, the Isle of Wight,
and Hampshire; to an early settlement of people from the south-west of
England in Wexford; to the influx of Scots into Ulster; and of Huguenots
into Norfolk. They prove, too, that far more Normans settled in the
south-midland and southern counties than in the rest of England; that
the Scandinavian settlers in East Anglia were to a great extent Danes;
and that the Scandinavians in Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland,
Westmorland, Yorkshire, and Lancashire were chiefly Norwegians.