|
A SEMPSTRESS that sews, And would make her work redde (i.e. scarce), Must use a long needle, And a short thread.
|
| [The following old saw is generally believed to refer to the Teutonic method of numbering. See Brand's "Popular Antiquities", edited by Sir H. Ellis, vol. ii, p.324.] |
|
FIVE score of men, money, and pins, Six score of all other things.
|
|
SEE
a pin and pick it up, All the day you'll have good luck ; See a pin and let it lay, Bad luck you'll have all the day !
|
|
A SWARM of bees in May Is worth a load of hay ; A swarm of bees in June Is worth a silver spoon ; A swarm of bees in July Is not worth a fly.
|
|
ST Swithin's day, if thou dost rain, For forty days it will remain : St. Swithin's day, if thou be fair, For forty days 'twill rain na mair.
|
|
TO make your candles last for aye, Your wives and maids give ear-o ! To put 'em out 's the only way, Says honest John Boldero.
|
|
BOUNCE BUCKRAM, velvet's dear ; Christmas comes but once a year.
|
/ p.122 /
|
THE
tailor of Bicester, He has but one eye ; He cannot cut a pair of green galagaskins, If he were to try.
|
|
NEEDLES and pins, needles and pins, When a man marries his trouble begins.
|
|
RIDDLE me, riddle me, riddle me ree ! None are so blind as those that won't see.
|
| [One version of the following song, which I believe to be the genuine one, is written on the last leaf of MS. Harl. 6580, in a hand of the end of the seventeenth century, but unfortunately it is scarcely adapted for the "ears polite" of modern days.] |
|
A MAN of words and not of deeds Is like a garden full of weeds ; And when the weeds begin to grow, It's like a garden full of snow ; |
|
And when the snow begins to fall, It's like a bird upon the wall ; And when the bird away does fly, It's like an eagle in the sky ; And when the sky begins to roar, It's like a lion at the door ; And when the door begins to crack, It's like a stick across your back ; And when your back begins to smart, It's like a penknife in your heart ; And when your heart begins to bleed, You're dead, and dead, and dead, indeed.
|
|
THE little Robin Red-breast, And Jenny Wren, Are God Almighty's Cock and hen.
|