small pursued one of the bulls being madded with noise and multitude clean through the town This sight so pleased the said Earl that he gave all those meadows called the castle meadows where first the Bull duell begin for a common to the butchers of the Town after the first grass was eaten on condition they find a mad Bull the day six weeks before Christmas day for the continuance of that sport every year He was born at little Wittham Little Wittham is a village in this County It is applied to such as are not overstock't with acuteness being a nominal allusion of the like whereto we have many current among the vulgar Grantham gruel nine grits and a gallon of water It is appliable to those who in their speeches or actions multiply what is superfluous or at best less necessary either wholly omitting or less regarding the essentials thereof They hold together as the men of Marham when they lost their common Some understand it ironically that is they are divided with several factions which ruines any cause Others use it onely as an expression of ill success when men strive and plot together to no purpose Middlesex MIddlesex clowns Because Gentry and Nobility are respectively observed according to their degree by people far distant from London less regarded by these Middlesexians frequency breeds familiarity because abounding there abouts It is generally true where the common people are richer there are they more surly and uncivil as also where they have less dependence on the Gentry as in places of great trade He that is at a low ebb at Newgate may soon be aflote at Tiburn M r Bedwell descript of Tottenham Chap. 3. When Tottenham wood is all on fire Then Tottenham street is nought but mire That is when Tottenham wood standing on an high hill at the west end of the Parish hath a foggy mist hanging over it in manner of a smoke then generally foul weather followeth Idem ibid. Tottenham is turned French It seems about the beginning of the reign of King Henry the eighth French mechanicks swarmed in England to the great prejudice of English artisans which caused the insurrection in London on ill May-day A. D. 1517. Nor was the City onely but the Countrey villages for four miles about filled with French fashions and infections The Proverb is applied to such who contemning the customes of their own Countrey make themselves more ridiculous by affecting forreign humours and habits London A London Jury hang half and save half Some affirm this of an Essex others of a Middlesex Jury and my charity believes it equally true that is equally untrue of all three It would fain suggest to credulous people as if Londoners frequently impannel'd on Juries and loaded with multiplicity of matters aim more at dispatch then justice and to make quick riddance though no hast to hang true men acquit half and condemn half Thus they divide themselves in aquilibrio between justice and mercy though it were meet the latter should have the more advantage c. The falseness of this suggestion will appear to such who by perusing history do discover the London Jurors most conscientious in proceeding secundùm allegata probata always inclining to the merciful side in saving life when they can find any cause or colour for the same London lick-penny The countrey man coming up hither by his own experience will easily expound the meaning thereof London bridge was made for wise men to goe over and fools to goe under A London Cockney This nickname is more then four hundred years old For when Hugh Bigot added artificial fortifications to his naturally strong Castle of Bungey in Suffolk he gave out this rhythme therein vaunting it for impregnable Were I in my castle of Bungey Upon the river of Waveney I would ne care for the King of Cockney Meaning thereby King Henry the second then quierly possessed of London whilst some other places did resist him though afterwards he so humbled this Hugh that he was fain with large sums of money and pledges for his loyalty to redeem this his Castle from being rased to the ground I meet with a double sence of this word Cockney 1. One coaks'd and cocquer'd made a wanton or Nestle-cock delicately bred and brought up so as when grown up to be able to endure no hardship 2. One utterly ignorant of countrey affairs of husbandry and housewivery as there practised The original thereof and the tale of the citizens son who knew not the language of a Cock but called it neighing is commonly known Billings-gate language Billings was formerly a gate and as some would make us believe so called from Belinus the brother of Brennus it is now rather portus a haven then porta Billings-gate language is such as the fishwives and other rude people which flock thither use frequently one to another when they fall out Kirbes castle and Megses glory Spinola's pleasure and Fishers folly These were four houses about the City built by citizens large and sumptuous above their estates He that would know any thing more of the builders of these houses let him consult the Authour He was born within the sound of Bow-bell This is the Periphrasis of a Londoner at large This is called Bow-bell because hanging in the steeple of Bow Church and Bow Church because built on bows or arches saith my Author But I have been told that it was called from the cross stone arches or bows on the top of the steeple S t Peters in the poor Where no Tavern Alehouse or sign at the door Under correction I concelve it called in the Poor because the Augustinian friers professing willful poverty for some hundreds of years possessed more then a moiety thereof Otherwise this was one of the richest Parishes in London and therefore might say Malo pauper vocari quà m esse How ancient the use of signs in this city on private houses is to me unknown sure I am it was generally used in the reign of King Edward the fourth Good manners to except my Lord Major of London This is a corrective for such whose expressions are of the largest size and too general in their extent I have dined as well as my Lord Major of London That is though not so dubiously or daintily on variety of costly dishes yet as comfortably as contentedly according to the Rule Satis est quod sufficit Enough is as good as a feast and better then a surfet As old as Pauls or as Pauls steeple Different are the dates of the age thereof because it had two births or beginnings one when it was originally cofounded by King Ethelbert with the body of the Church Anno 610. another when burnt with lightning and afterwards rebuilt by the Bishops of London 1087. He is onely fit for Ruffians-hall West Smithfield now the house-market was formerly called continuer of Stows annals Ruffians-hall where Ruffians met casually and otherwise to try masteries with sword and buckler A
then a great trade and severall statutes made about it So that if his cap were made of wooll was as much as to say most certainly As sure as the clothes on his back Dr Fuller They may cast their caps at him When two or more run together and one gets ground he that is cast and despairs to overtake commonly casts his hat after the foremost and gives over the race So that to cast their caps at one is to despair of catching or overtaking him He carries fire in one hand and water in the other Alterâ manu sert aquam alterâ ignem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Plutarch Il porte le feu l'eau Gall. Alterâ manu sert lapidem alterâ panem ostentat Plaut To set a spoke in ones cart To set the cart before the horse Currus bovem trahit Metter il carro inanzi aibuoi Ital. La charrue va devant les boeufs Gall. The cat's in the cream-pot This is used when People hear a great noise and hubbub amongst the good wives of the town and know not what it means but suppose that some sad accident is happened as that the cat is faln into the cream-pot or the like Before the cat can lick her ear You shall have that the cat left i th' malt-heap They are not catercousins He hath good cellarage That char is char'd as the good wife said when she had hang'd her husband A char in the Northern dialect is any particular business affair or charge that I commit to or entrust another to doe I take it to be the same with charge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To go cheek by jowl with one To chew the cud upon a thing i. e. To consider of a thing to revolve it in ones mind to ruminate which is the name of this action is used in the same sense both in Latine and English The child hath a red tongue like its father Children to bed and the goose to the fire I cannot conceive what might be the occasion nor what is the meaning of this saying I take it to be senseless and nugatory A chip of the old block Patris est silius He is his fathers own son taken always in an ill sense Like a chip in a pottage-pot doth neither good nor harm It goes down like chop 't hay I 'll make him know churning days To clip ones wings Pennas incidere alicui He hath a cloak for his knavery He is in the cloth-market i. e. in bed To carry coals to Newcastle Soli lumen mutuari coelo stellas ranae aquam Crocum in Ciliciam ubi sc maximè abundat Noctuas Athenas Porter de fueilles au bois Gall. To carry leaves to the wood Alcinoo poma dare To set cook on hoop This is spoken of a Prodigal one that takes out the spigget and lays it upon the top of the barrel drawing out the whole vessel without any intermission His cockloft is unfurnished i. e. He wants brains Tall men are commonly like high houses in which the uppermost room is worst furnished To have a colis tooth in his head It is usually spoken of an old man that 's wanton and petulant To cut ones comb As is usually done to cocks when gelded to cool ones courage They 'll come again as Goodyers pigs did i. e. never Come and wellcome go by and no quarrel Command your man and do 't your self Ask my companion if I be a thief In the North they say Ask my mother if my father be a thief Demanda al hosto s' egl'ha buon vino Ital. Ask your host if he have good wine To complain of ease To outrun the Constable To spend more then ones allowance or income You might be a Constable for your wit Cook-ruffian able to scald the devil in 's feathers To cool ones courage He 's corn-fed A friend in a corner To take counsell of ones pillow La nuict donne conseil Gall. Noctu urgenda consilia Inde nox 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 La notte e madre di pensieri Ital. The night is the mother of thoughts Counsel's as good for him as a shoulder of mutton for a sick horse What is got in the County is lost in the hundred What is got in the whole sum is lost in particular reckonings or in generall what is got one way is lost another Court holy-water Eau beniste de la cour Gall. Fair words and nothing else One of the Court but none of the Counsell All the craft is in the catching To speak as though he would creep into ones mouth He hath never a cross to bless himself withall i. e. No money which hath usually a cross on the averse side To have crotchets in ones crown You look as if you were crow-trodden You look as if you would make the crow a pudding i. e. die I have a crow to pluck with you You need not be so crusty you are not so hard baked Here 's a great cry and but a little wooll as the fellow said when he shear'd his hogs Assai romor poca lana Ital. A sinum tondes Parturiunt montes c. You cry before you 're hurt Let her cry she 'll piss the less To lay down the cudgels His belly cries cupboard To curse with bell book and candle To be beside the cushion Aberrari a janua To stand for a cypher D. TO take a dagger and drown ones self To be at daggers drawing To look as if he had suckt his dam through a hurdle To dance to every mans pipe or whistle To burn daylight Dead in the nest To deal fools dole To deal all to others and leave nothing to himself Good to send on a dead bodies errand To work for a dead horse or goose To work out an old debt or without hope of future reward Argent receu le bras rompu Gall. The wages had the arm is broken Chi paga inanzi è servito indietro Ital. He that pays beforehand is served behindhand Chi paga inanzi tratto Trova il lavor mal fatto Ital. If thou hadst the rent of Dee-mills thou would'st spend it Chesh Dee is the name of the river on which the city Chester stands the mills thereon yield a great annual rent the biggest of any houses about that city As demure as if butter would not melt in 's mouth Some add And yet cheese will not choke him To get by a thing as Dickson did by his distress That is over the shoulders as the vulgar usually say There is a coincidence in the first letters of Dickson and distress otherwise who this Dickson was I know not Hold the dish while I shed my pottage To lay a thing in ones dish He claps his dish at a wrong mans door To play the Devil i' th' bulmong i. e. corn mingled of pease tares and oats If the Devil be a vicar thou wilt be his clerk Do and undoe the day is
loyal heart may be landed under Traitors bridge This is a bridge under which is an entrance into the Tower over against Pink-gate formerly fatal to those who landed there there being a muttering that such never came forth alive as dying to say no worse therein without any legal trial The Proverb importeth that passive innocence overpower'd with adversaries may be accused without cause and disposed at the pleasure of others To cast water into the Thames That is to give to them who had plenty before which notwithstanding is the Dole general of the world He must take a house in Turn-again Lane This in old Records is called Wind-again Lane and lieth in the Parish of S t Sepulchres going down to Fleetdike having no exit at one end It is spoken of and to those who take prodigal or other vicious and destructive courses He may whet his knife on the threshold of the Fleet. The Fleet is a place notoriously known for a prison so called from Fleet-brook running by it to which many are committed for their contempts more for their debts The Proverb is appliable to such who never owed ought or having run into debt have crept out of it so that now they may triumphare in hostico defie danger and arrests c. All goeth down Gutter-lane Guttur-lane the right spelling whereof is Guthurn-lane from him the once owner thereof is a small Lane inhabited anciently by gold-beaters leading out of Cheap-side East of Foster-lane The Proverb is applied to those who spend all in drunkenness and gluttony meer belly gods Guttur being Latine for the throat As lame as S t Giles Cripple-gate S t Giles was by birth an Athenian of noble extraction but quitted all for a solitary life He was visited with a lameness whether natural or casual I know not but the tradition goes that he desired not to be healed thereof for his greater mortification Cripplegate was so called before the Conquest from cripples begging of passengers therein This Proverb may seem guilty of false heraldry lameness on lameness and in common discourse is spoken rather merrily then mournfully of such who for some sleight hurt lag behind and sometimes is applied to those who out of laziness counterfeit infirmity You are all for the Hoistings or Hustings It is spoken of those who by pride or passion are elated or mounted to a pitch above the due proportion of their birth quality or estate It cometh from Hustings the principal and highest Court in London as also in Winchester Lincoln York c. so called from the French word haulser to raise or lift up They agree like the clocks of London I find this among both the French and Italian Proverbs for an instance of disagreement Who goes to Westminster for a wife to Pauls for a man and to Smithfield for a horse may meet with a whore a knave and a jade Grayes Inne for walks Lincolns Inne for a wall The Inner Temple for a garden and the Middle for a hall Westminster THere is no redemption from Hell There is a place partly under partly by the Exchequer chamber commonly called Hell I could wish it had another name seeing it is ill jesting with edg'd tools formerly appointed a prison for the Kings debtors who never were freed from thence until they had paid their utmost due As long as Megg of Westminster This is applied to persons very tall especially if they have hop-pole height wanting breadth proportionable That there ever was such a Gyant-woman cannot be proved by any good witness I pass not for a late lying Pamphlet c. vide sis He thinks it might relate to a great gun lying in the Tower called long Megg in trouble some times brought to Westminster where for some time it continued Norfolk Norfolk dumplings This referres no◠to the stature of their bodies but to the fare they commonly feed on and much delight in A Yarmouth Capon That is a red herring more herrings being taken then capons bred here So the Italian Friers when disposed to eat flesh on Fridays call a capon piscem è corte a fish out of the coop He is arrested by the Bayliff of Mershland That is clapt on the back by an ague which is incident to strangers at first coming into this low fenny and unwholesome Countrey Gimmingham Trimmingham Knapton and Trunch North Repps and South Repps are all of a bunch These are names of Parishes lying close together There never was a Paston poor a Heyden a coward nor a Cornwallis a fool Northamptonshire THe Major of Northampton opens oisters with his dagger To keep them at a sufficient distance from his nose For this Town being eighty miles from the sea fish may well be presumed stale therein Yet have I heard saith the Doctour that oisters put up with care and carried in the cool were weekly brought fresh and good to Althrop the house of the Lord Spencer at equal distance and it is no wonder for I my self have eaten in Warwickshire above eighty miles from London oisters sent from that city fresh and good and they must have been carried some miles before they came there He that would eat a butter'd faggot let him go to Northampton I have heard that king James should speak this of Newmarket but I am sure it may better be applied to this Town the dearest in England for fuel where no coals can come by water and little wood doth grow on land One Proverb there is of this County which I wonder how Doctour Fuller being native thereof could miss unless perchance he did studiously omit as reflecting disgrace on a Market town therein Brackley breed better to hang then feed Brackley is a decayed Market town and borough in Northamptonshire not farre from Banbury which abounding with poor and troubling the countrey about with beggers came into disgrace with its neighbours I hear that now this place is grown industrious and thriving and endeavours to wipe off this scandal Like Banbury tinkers that in mending one hole make three Northumberland From Barwick to Dover three hundred miles over That is from one end of the land to the other parallel to that Scripture expression From Dan to Beer-sheba To take Hectors cloak That is to deceive a friend who confideth in his faithfulness When Thomas Percy Earl of Northumberland Anno 1569. was routed in the rebellion he had raised against Queen Elizabeth he hid himself in the house of one Hector Armstrong of Harlaw in this County having confidence he would be true to him who notwithstanding for money betrayed him to the Regent of Scotland It was observable that Hector being before a rich man fell poor of a sudden and so hated generally that he never durst go abroad Insomuch that the Proverb to take Hectors cloak is continued to this day among them in the sence above mentioned We will not lose a Scot. That is any thing how inconsiderable soever that we can save or recover During the enmity between