OLD GLOUCESTERSHIRE PROVERBS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2254, 18 December 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

OLD GLOUCESTERSHIRE PROVERBS.

Mil Jame* Bakkr has in<reniou*ly strung together, for the pages of " All the Year Round," a number of West Country proverbs, which he has found in the Berkeley manuscripts. We nelect a few : — John Smythe the chronicler nays : — "In the hundred of Berkeley aio frequently vsed certiine words, proverbs, and phrases of speech, which we hundreders conceive (.is wee doe of certaiue marketer!*), to bee not only native but confined to the boile bounds and territory thereof ; which, if found in the mouths of any forraijjners, wee deem thetn as leapt over our wall, or as strayed from their proper pasture and dwelling plnce. And doubtless, in the hand-ome mouthinge of them, the dialect seeme* borne of our owne bodies and natural vnto vs from the breasts of our owne nurses, with some fewe of which dnhe.s I will heaie feast my readers and sport tny selfe." The use of the "y" between words ending aud beginning with a consonant, he gloats over, to prove they " bee true patryots and true preservers of the honoured memory of our ohl forefathers, Gower, Chaucer, Lulgate, etc.,'' aud this usage of the connecting "y >% is still in common use in the district, a3 Sit-y-doun, Willy goe, Dont-y-say-so. The first phrase given to illustrate the pride of the inhabitants in their native pluee io pure German, as a hundreder leing asked where he was born, would reply, "Each was geboren at Berkeleyhurns." Tlje first three words are in modern German. Ich war gcboreu ; and the word " Ich ' for "I," pronounced Ik, is in daily use still in parts of Gloucestershire. "Wee hundreders have a powerfnll prerogative of tiansplantacion over the alphabet," cries out John Smythe, " for do not we usp •f ' for ' v,' and y ' for • f," and •g ' for • c,' and ' ous' for « us,' aa • fousty,' for ' fusty T A prerogative still retained in full iisige, as also the puzzling use of "thick" and "thuck" for " this" and "that." " Putton on thick way," quotes our writer of three centuries back ; but a phrase heard but the other day, used by a waHherwoman who had the wrong ba-ket of clothes handed down to her from her cart, well illustrates the usage of these words, and is a pood phrase tv puzzle t'lo learned foreigner who mly boast thifc he understands Kn^lish dialect, ''Te'ant thick un, tin thuck un.'' (It iHw't t'ns one, it's that one.) But it is more in the proverbs th in in the plira.>es> that the non-philolosri. al leader will find his feast of quiint hnmnur and aound sense, although about four pages are devoted to the phia-r-onlv. Thesiyin<r, '* llee th nl<p* hi-ns-lfp • jfuat n^ my L.rd B ru«>l y," i b\ n nvnis a do id prnvrb, even in the* 1 crowded days of sto.un anl tiavol in th. villages, in Gloucestershire. Sotno of the proveib* given are t-m out-spoken, <md too plainly call a hp ule n spade fur out own days. ; although > ould John «Smythe re id some of our pi<- ;it il.iy ht«raturo with its borrowed bVem h muendo, he m gHt say in th't mtttei " wee mend iilve .sovvre ale in summer," or that we ijo from bad to worse. "Day way be discerned at a little hole," is a shrewd saying, and the faut of '• the gray nvire 13 the better horse ' appearing in these proverbs deposed of the absurd notion that tlih saying e-iin. in with the giey horse of II mover— with the white hor«e of tiie Saxons might be nearer the mark. The saying, " Hoe hath offered his candle to the. dnill," is given here as coming from the fact that a certain " oh' fh'lliinore of tarn, going in anno loSi, to present Sir Tho : Thiogoi : of tortwortb with a suger lofe, met by the way with his neighbor 8. M : uho demanded whither and upon what business hee wa.s goinge, answered, ' To oiler my candle t< the Uivill :' which comingc to the e.ir« of Sir Tho : at the next muster he cent two of liillimores sonuca soldiera into the

Low Countries, wheie the one was shine, and the other at a deere rate redeemed ins return. ' Many a badly-nntuied man, wh« has found marriage to be a, worry exchange for hi 1 ? early days of freedom, might •'xcl.iim, as did these hundreders, "If once ay*in I were Jacko Thomson I would nfcver after be goud man Thomson while [ lived." Th»y laughed at the foolish and unthrifty nittu with " hfe hath i^ld a beano aud bought a peaze," or " hee hath -old Briitoll and bought Bedminiater," an allusion of fouiblc weight, when the httlp wparir«» town of Bpdrmnijiter (novr apaitof Hi i^tol ) was compared againat the wealthy < it v . "Hwi* an inildK as an Immtt " was a saying as commou in th" chionioler'B wire'rt mouth ci "tiue hundiuder " as "ohidingu with hi*r maid*'".," letting a little gliinp.xe be taken into the good wile's churaetpr. " Poorly hitt nt«'hly warrae, is a curious but pithy H.iyinsr, ar.d In little medlingo is much ease, Of much medhnge comes no sound sleeping, may well be romeinbered by lovers of a calm and quiet life. The use of the word "hmicker" for pretty reminds, oue of the Danish "Smnkke pige " for prrtty girl. "Smoke will to the smicker," cays the proverb, inclining if many gossips sift again^t <i smoky chimney the smoke will bund to the f-urest. Bee the coun-ell batter, bee it worea, Follow him th.it bears the purse, Nin.icKs fcttongly of '* Put money in thy purse." There is a fund or worldly wisdom and shrewd teaching throughout these proverbs As in " The owner's foot doth fatt the soiie," whu-h is explained by a second Haying of " The maater'a eye doth feed the hor-e." Right well knew John Smythe the tricks of hostlers, and that the impre«Bi-jn of the master's foot made richer the laud by the more careful labour that prevailed under his eye. His choice of these one hundred prove! bs proves him to have been a painstaking, careful, kindly, generous man ; for the hard and coarse sayinga he throws tlovibt upon, or boldly objects to theii teaching ; hut to the gentle sayings that uryo to kindliness and thnftiness, he lunds weight to by some sententious wonN of his own. The following he does not comment upon : "As the good in in sai< s.soe it might be ; but as the g» I wid- saiea, soe it should be." The hundu'dt'.i [irovero i 3 : "Beware tho fox i-i a f .-ii'j bush," to which he adiK, " i.e., OJII fcaiue of like colour k»'ep3 vttcn the foy unporceived. Hypocriaj often clokcs a knave " With \\inuh old-world, ever-true motto we it «i\ c tlit^se lost sight sayings, now once more brought to i'^ht i n these volumes ; that are indeed "an abstract and Liicf chronicle of the tunes, " through which the B-±iU«'lt^s have lived and reigned fioni 10'i'j to 1 ( )1S, as plainly set foith on the title p.ije.