"Those that made me were uncivil, Dogs bark at me, but can't eat me!" These proverbial lines are supposed to be spoken by a Suffolk cheese, which is so hard that a myth tells us gate pegs in that county are made with it. The proverb has been long true, and Pepys, writing in 1691, says, "I found my wife vexed at her people for grumbling to eate Suffolk cheese, which I also am vexed at." AV. 183: Forby's Vocabulary, 1830, p. 424. Ray says Suffolk cheese, from its poverty, is frequently the subject of much humour; and the point is referred to in a quaint tract called The World Bevitel d, 4to, 1699. There is also a proverb, “ Hunger will break through anything except Suffolk cheese." BC. 218. Suffolk "bang" or "flet" cheese is poor because it is made from skimmed milk. The Suffolk new-milk cheese is said to be rich and generous. "I saw the ghostesses, Sitting on the postesses, Eating of their toastesses, And fighting with their fistesses." Sussex. CM. 13. See also C.J. ix. 250, for a similar version. A fuller example is Three little ghosteses, Sitting on posteses, Eating bread and butter toasteses, Messing their fisteses. Up to their wristeses, O! what little beasteses. Northamptonshire. In parts of the county all words ending in "st," form the plural by adding a syllable, as-nest, nest-es; breakfast-es; frost-es, etc. CJ. ix. 379. "To make your candles last for aye, Says honest John Boldero."-CR. 33. The following, "Song of the Piper and the Fiddler's Wife," occurs in Gammer Gurton's Garland, p. 16. "We're all dry with drinking on't, And I can't sleep for thinking on't." In Major B. Lowsley's Berkshire Words and Phrases, Dial. Soc., 1888, the following rhyme is given without addition. It seems, however, to be a variation of the old song, "Puir Auld Maidens." "What a life 't 'ood be to us, Wife at whoam an' child to nuss, Smart young bach'lers."—p. 131. "Whistle, daughter, whistle, and you shall have a sheep; 'Mother, I cannot whistle, neither can I sleep." "Whistle, daughter, whistle, and you shall have a cow ;" Mother, I cannot whistle, neither know I how." "Whistle, daughter, whistle, and you shall have a man," "Mother, I cannot whistle, but I'll do the best I can." CH. ii. 381. In Cravendale a version is sometimes sung as a sort of "show" song. Whistle, daughter, whistle, and you shall have some sheep; (repeat) I cannot whistle yet. COW. I cannot, etc. Whistle, daughter, whistle, and you shall have a man ; Id. 274. The longest line and the shortest are sung to the same tune by an adroit singer. When a certain woman of Almondbury for the first time wore a pair of right and left shoes, she, by mistake, placed them on the wrong feet. She habitually turned in her toes, and being therefore surprised at the appearance of her feet as she walked in the new shoes, was heard to say "Why, what the hangman do I ail, I used to twang, but now I shale." Hangman" or "hangment" is a term used in oaths. Y. 60. "Whose little pigs are these, these, these, And whose, etc." "They are Johnny Cooks, I know by their looks, And I found them among the peas." "Go pound them, go pound them." For tho' I don't love Johnny Cook, I dearly love his wife." East Cornwall. CH. iv. 575. The verses would seem to apply to some game. Another version (locality not stated) finishes thus For he that poundeth John Cook's pigs Must never kiss his wife.-Ibid. In Halliwell's Nursery Rhymes, 5th edit., is- Kissed the maids a-milking, And with his merry daffing, He set them all a-laughing, Ha, ha, ha!-p. 225. Allies, in his Antiquities and Folklore of Worcestershire, 8vo, 1852, p. 432, quotes the two first lines, and notes its likeness to the ancient English rhyme temp. Hen. II. 1173 (quoted by Lambarde in his Dictionary of England, p. 36, and relating to Robert, Earl of Leicester, and his Flemings). Hoppe Wyliken, hoppe Wyliken, Ingland is thine and myne, etc. The resemblance is remarkable; it is probable that Wyliken was a sort of puck or nimble spirit whose name was appropriated to any one of sprightly habit. See "Hoppe Wylikin," History and Humour. In Leicestershire, when one makes excuses for a wrong surmise by saying, "I thought so-and-so," it is usual to reply— "You thought a lig, Loike Hudson's pig." And if No. I says in the vernacular, "And what did Hudson's pig thought?" he gets for reply, “Whoy, a thowt as they was a-gooin' to kill un, an' they oon'y run a ring threw it nooze." AA. 185. There is a common saying in the Midlands, "You're like Joe Stokes's pig; he thought as how he was a-goin' to have his breakfast, but they was agoin' to kill him." QUIPS AND CRANKS. "A cat may look at a king, And surely I may look at an ugly thing." Said in derision by one child to another, who complains of being stared at. AV. 186. In Heywood's Proverbs, etc., he gives a saw, "A cat may look on a king." But in Cornwall they say, A cat may look at a king, if he carries his eyes about him." The first portion, which is the usual extent of the proverb, is the title of a pamphlet published in 1652, 8vo. BC. 5. "Adam and Eve, and Pinch-me, Went over the water to bathe; And who do you think was saved?" If the child to whom this rhymed question is put is unthinking, or slow to understand, and should answer, "Pinch me," a sharp pinch follows. "Adam and Eve went up my sleeve And didn't come down till Christmas Eve." More rogues than honest men." West Somersetshire. Z. 24; but in Warwickshire they have a way of placing the left thumb between the fore and middle fingers, saying "Amen, parson in his pen." and then withdrawing it, and closing the fist so as to resemble the rump, continue "Take him out and smack his And put him in again." |