Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales Part 28

LAZY LAWRENCE.

Lazy Lawrence, let me go, Don't me hold summer and winter too.

This distich is said by a boy who feels very lazy, yet wishes to exert himself. Lazy Lawrence is a proverbial expression for an idle person, and I possess an old chapbook, ent.i.tled "the History of Lawrence Lazy, containing his birth and slothful breeding; how he served the schoolmaster, his wife, the squire's cook, and the farmer, which, by the laws of Lubberland, was accounted high treason." A West country proverb, relating to a disciple of this hero, runs thus:

Sluggardy guise, Loth to go to bed, And loth to rise.

March will search, April will try, May will tell ye if ye'll live or die.

Sow in the sop, 'Twill be heavy a-top.

That is, land in a soppy or wet state is in a favorable condition for receiving seed; a statement, however, somewhat questionable.

A cat may look at a king, And surely I may look at an ugly thing.

Said in derision by one child to another, who complains of being stared at.

He that hath it and will not keep it, He that wanteth it and will not seek it; He that drinketh and is not dry, Shall want money as well as I.

From Howell's English Proverbs, 1659, p. 21.

Gray's Inn for walks, Lincoln's Inn for a wall; The Inner-Temple for a garden, And the Middle for a hall.

A proverb, no doubt, true in former times, but now only partially correct.

In time of prosperity friends will be plenty, In time of adversity not one amongst twenty.

From Howell's English Proverbs, p. 20. The expression _not one amongst twenty_ is a generic one for not one out of a large number. It occurs in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, v. 2.

Trim tram, Like master like man.

From an old ma.n.u.script political treatise, dated 1652, ent.i.tled a Cat may look at a King.

Beer a b.u.mble, 'Twill kill you Afore 'twill make ye tumble.

A proverbial phrase applied to very small beer, implying that no quant.i.ty of it will cause intoxication.

Lancas.h.i.+re law, No stakes, no draw!

A saying by which a person, who has lost a verbal wager, avoids payment on the plea of no stakes having been deposited.

As foolish as monkeys till twenty and more, As bold as a lion till forty-and-four; As cunning as foxes till three score and ten, We then become a.s.ses, and are no more men.

These proverbial lines were obtained from Lancas.h.i.+re. An early version occurs in Tusser, p. 199.

They that wash on Monday Have a whole week to dry; They that wash on Tuesday Are not so much agye; They that wash on Wednesday May get their clothes clean; They that wash on Thursday Are not so much to mean; They that wash on Friday Wash for their need; But they that wash on Sat.u.r.day Are clarty-paps indeed!

A North country version of these common proverbial lines, given by Mr.

Denham, p. 16. _Clarty-paps_ are dirty s.l.u.ts.

The children of Holland Take pleasure in making What the children of England Take pleasure in breaking.

Alluding to toys, a great number of which are imported into this country from Holland.

VIII.-PLACES AND FAMILIES.

This division, like the last, might be greatly extended by references to Ray and Grose.

ELTON.

The following lines are still remembered by the members of the Elton family:

_Upon Sir Abraham Elt being knighted, and taking the name of Elton._

In days of yore old Abraham Elt, When living, had nor sword nor belt; But now his son, Sir Abraham Elton, Being knighted, has both sword and belt on.

MS. Harl. Brit. Mus. 7318, p. 206.

NOEL.

N. for a word of deniance, E. with a figure of L. fiftie, Spelleth his name that never Will be thriftie.

MS. Sloane 2497, of the sixteenth century.

COLLINGWOOD.

The Collingwoods have borne the name, Since in the bush the buck was ta'en; But when the bush shall hold the buck, Then welcome faith, and farewell luck.

Alluding to the Collingwood crest of a stag beneath an oak tree.

THE CAULD LAD OF HILTON.

This fairy or goblin was seldom seen, but his gambols were heard nightly in the hall of the great house. He overturned everything in the kitchen after the servants had gone to bed, and was, in short, one of the most mischievous sprites you could imagine. One night, however, the kitchen happened to be left in great confusion, and the goblin, who did everything by contraries, set it completely to rights; and the next morning it was in perfect apple-pie order. We may be quite sure that, after this occurrence, the kitchen was not again made orderly by the servants.

Notwithstanding, however, the service thus nightly rendered by the Cauld Lad, the servants did not like it. They preferred to do their own work without preternatural agency, and accordingly resolved to do their best to drive him from their haunts. The goblin soon understood what was going on, and he was heard in the dead of night to warble the following lines in a melancholy strain:

Wae's me! wae's me!

The acorn is not yet Fallen from the tree, That's to grow the wood, That's to make the cradle, That's to rock the bairn, That's to grow to a man, That's to lay me.

He was, however, deceived in this prediction; for one night, being colder than usual, he complained in moving verse of his condition.

Accordingly, on the following evening, a cloak and hood were placed for him near the fire. The servants had unconsciously accomplished their deliverance, for present gifts to fairies, and they for ever disappear.