a

To pocket an injury.

i. e. To pass it by without revenge, or taking netice. The difference between the poor man and the rich is, that the

poor walketh to get meat for his stomach ; the rich, a stu.

mach for his meat.
Prate is prate, but it's the duck lays the eggs.
She is at her last prayers.
Proo naunt your mare puts. 2. e. pushes.
It would vex a dog to see a pudding creep.
He was christened with

pump water. It is spoken of one that hath a red face. Pie-lid makes people wise.

Because no man can tell what is in a pie till the lid be taken up.
To ride post for a pudding.
Be fair conditioned, and eat bread with your pudding.
He is at a forced put.

Q.
We'll do as they do at Quern ;

What we do not to-day, we must do in the morn. Quick and nimble, it will be your own another day.

In some places they say, in drollery, Quick and nimble, more like a bows than a squirrel.

R.
SOME rain, some rest. A harvest proverb.
The dirt-bird (or dirt-owl] sings, we shall have rain.

When melancholy persons are very merry, it is observed, that there usually follows an extraordinary fit of sadness; they doing all things commonly in extremes. Every day of the week a shower of rain, and on Sunday

twain. A rich rogue, two shirts and a rag. Right, master, right; four nobles a year is a crown a quarter.

Chesh. Right, Roger, your sow is good mutton. Room for cuckolds, &c. He rose with his a-e upwards. A sign of good luck. He would live as long as old Rosse of Pottern, who lived till all

the world was weary of him.

Ler him alone with the saint's bell, and give him rope enough.
He is on the high ropes. i. e. Conceited and insolent.
The lass in the red petticoat shall pay for all.

Young men answer so when they are chid for being so prodigal and expensive; meaning, they will get a wife with a good portion, that shall

pay for it.

Riches rule the roast.
Rub and a good cast.

Be not too hasty, and you'll speed the better. Make not more haste than good speed.

S.

'Tis sooner said than done. Say nothing when you are dead. i. e. Be silent. School-boys are the most reasonable people in the world ; they

care not how little they have for their money. A Scot on Scots bank. The Scotch ordinary. 2. e. The house of office. She has been stung by a serpent. i. e. She is with child. E stata beccata da una serpe.

Ital.
That goes against the shins. i. e. It is to my prejudice, I do

it not willingly.
He knows not whether his shoes go awry.
In the shoemaker's stocks.
Sigh not, but send; he'll come, if he be unhang’d.
Sirrah your dogs, sirrah not me;
For I was born before

you

could see. Of all tame beasts I hate sluts. He is nothing but skin and bones. Snapping so short (wondering) makes you look so lean. He is up to snuff. i. e. He is not to be taken in. To spin a fair thread. Spit in his mouth, and make him a mastiff. No man cries stinking fish. Stretching and yawning leadeth to bed. Nay, stay, quoth Stringer, when his neck was in the halter. To stumble at the truckle-bed.

To mistake the chamber-maid's bed for his wife's. He could have sung well before he broke his left shoulder

with whistling.

a

a

Sweet-heart and bag-pudding.

T. His tail will catch the chin-cough.

Spoken of one that sits on the ground. A tall man of his hands, he will not let a beast rest in his

pocket.
He's Tom Tell-troth.
Two slips for a tester.
The tears of the tankard.
Four farthings and a thimble make a tailor's pocket jingle.
To throw snot about. i. e. To weep.
Though he says nothing, he pays it with thinking, like the

Welchman's jackdaw.
When Tom's pitcher is broken I shall have the sheards.

i. e. Kindness after others are done with it, the refuse. Tittle-tattle, give the goose more hay. Toasted cheese hath no master. Trick for trick, and a stone in thy foot besides, quoth ons pulling a stone out of his mare's foot, when she bit him on the

back, and he her on the buttock. Are there traitors at the table, that the loaf is turned the

wrong side upwards? To trot like a doe. There's not a t-d to choose, quoth the good wife, by her two

pounds of butter.
He looks like a tooth-drawer ; i. e. very thin and meagre.
That's as true as I am his uncle.
Turnspits are dry,
To have a two-legged tympany ; i. e, to be with child.

V.
VEAL will be cheap : calves fall.

A jeer for those who lose the calves of their legs hy, &c.
In a shoulder of veal there are twenty and iwo good bits.

This is a piece of country wit. They mean by it, there are twonty (others say forty) bits in a shoulder of veal, and but two good ones. He's a velvet true heart. Chesh.

:

а

I'll renture it as Johnson did his wife, and she did well.
Do with it, if it be but a gallon ; it will ease your stomach,

W.
LOOK on the wall, and it will not bite you.

Spoken in jeer to such as are bitten with mustard.
A Scotch warming-pan. i. e. A wench.

The story is well known of the gentleman travelling in Scotland, who desiring to have his bed warmed, the servant-maid doffs her clothes, and lays herself down in it a while. In Scotland they have neither bellows, warming-pans, nor houses of office. She's as quiet as a wasp in one's nose. Every man in his way. Water bewitch'd, i. e. very thin beer. Eat and welcome : fast, and heartily welcome. I am very wheamow, (i. e. nimble,) quoth the old woman,

when she stepped into the milk bowl. Yorksh. A white-livered fellow. How doth your whither go you? i. e. Your wife. To shoot wide of the mark. Wide, quoth Wilson. To sit like a wire-drawer under his work. Yorksh. He hath more wit in his head than thou in both thy shoulders. He hath played wily beguiled with himself. You may truss up all his wit in an egg-shell. Hold your tongue, husband, and let me talk, that have all the

wit. The wit of you, and the wool of a blue dog, will make a good

medley.
This is the world, and the other is the country.
When the devil is dead, there's a wife for Humphry.
To wrap it up in clean linen.

To deliver sordid or uncleanly matter in decent language.
A point next the wrist.

Y.

He has made a younger brother of him.
The younger brother hath the more wit.
The younger brother is the ancienter gentleman.
Old and tough, young and tender.

62

MISCELLANEOUS PROVERBIAL SAYINGS.

a

right up

Pot a miller, a weaver, and a tailor, in a bag, and shake thein,

the first that comes out will be a thief. Harry's children of Leigh, never an one like another. A seaman, if he carries a mill-stone, will have a quail out of

it. Spoken of the common mariners, if they can come at things that may

be eaten or drank. Go here away, go there away, quoth Madge Whitworth, when

she rode the mare in the tedder. There's struction (i. e. destruction) of honey, quoth Dunkinly,

when he lick’d up the hen-t-d. I kill'd her for good will, said Scot, when he killed his neigh

bour's mare. Gip with an ill rubbing, quoth Badger, when his mare kicked.

This is a ridiculous expression, used to people that are pettish and froward. He's a hot shot in a mustard-pot when both his heels stand Three dear years will raise a baker's daughter to a portion,

'Tis not the smallness of the bread, but the knavery of the baker. I hope better, quoth Benson, when his wife bid him come in,

cuckold. One, two, three, four, are just half a score. He answers with monosyllables, as Tarleton did one who out

ate him at an ordinary, My name is Twyford ; I know nothing of the matter. The Spaniards say, No se nada, de mis vinas vengo.—Span.

When a man will not know or be concerned in what has happened, he pleads that he has been absent at his vineyard. Read, try, judge, and speak as you find, says old Suffolk. I'll make him fly up with Jackson's hens. i. e. undo him.

So, when a man is broke, or undone, we say he is blown up. I'll make him water his horse at Highgate.

i. e. I'll sue him, and make him take a journey up to London. What have I to do with Bradshaw's windmill ? Leicest. 1 What have I to do with other mens' matters ? He's at would have good luck in horses, must kiss the parson's