* * * * *

Wescote (View of Devonshire:  Exeter, 1845 (reprint), p. 348.) has a curious story of the Tamar and Torridge.  It is worth comparing with a local rhyme given by Chambers, p. 26.:  “Annan, Tweed, and Clyde,” &c.

* * * * *

    “When Haldon hath a hat
     Kenton may beware a skat.”

This often quoted saying is curiously illustrated by a passage from the romance of Sir Gawaya and the Grene Knicht (Madden’s Sir Gawaya, p. 77.): 

    “Mist muged on the mor, malt on the mountes,
     Uch hille hadde a hatte, a myst-hakel huge.”

In the note on this passage Sir Frederick quotes two proverbs like the Devonshire one above.  They are, however, well known, and there is no lack of similar sayings.

* * * * *

    “When Plymouth was a furzy down,
     Plympton was a borough town.”

* * * * *

When Brutus of Troy landed at Totnes, he gave the town its name; thus,—­

    “Here I sit, and here I rest,
     And this town shall be called Totnes.”

* * * * *

    “Crocker, Cruwys, and Coplestone,
     When the Conqueror came, were found at home.”

* * * * *

    “Who on the Sabbath pares his horn,
    ’Twere better for him he had never been born.”

    “At toto Thori die hominibus ungues secare minime licuit.” 
    —­Finn Magnusen, Lex.  Edd., s.v. Thor.

In the district of Bohnsland, in Sweden, in the middle of the eighteenth century, it was not thought proper to fell wood on the afternoon of Thursday. (Id.)

* * * * *

    “Many slones [sloes], many groans,
     Many nits [nuts], many pits.”

* * * * *

    “When the aspen leaves are no bigger than your nail,
     Is the time to look out for truff and peel.”

* * * * *{512}

Margaret’s Flood.—­Heavy rain is expected about the time of St. Margaret’s day (July 20th).  It is called “Margaret’s flood.”

* * * * *

“Widdecombe folks are picking their geese,
Faster, faster, faster.”

A saying among the parishes of the south coast during a snow-storm.  ‘Widdecombe’ is “Widdecombe in the Dartmoors.”

* * * * *

“Quiet sow, quiet mow.”

A saying with reference to land or lease held on lives.  If the seed is sown without notice of the death of the life, the corn may be reaped, although the death took place before the sowing.

* * * * *

Bees.—­

    “If they swarm in May,
     They’re worth a pound next day. 
     If they swarm in July,
     They’re not worth a fly.”