By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 67 
‘* When the wind veers against the”sun 
Trust it not, for back ’twill_run.” 
Not so accurate, I think, is another, though it is the exclusive 
property of the inhabitants of this county, and was certainly im- 
plicitly believed in by our ancestors :— 
‘When the hen doth moult before the cock, 
The winter will be as hard as a rock; 
But if the cock moult before the hen, 
The winter will not wet your shoes’ seame ;” 
a proverb as poor in rhyme as in reason, though doubtless to be 
honored for its antiquity, as also because it belongs to Wiltshire. 
Highly poetical too are some of our weather-proverbs, and betoken 
no little sentiment in the minds of those who use them; such is 
the really beautiful notion :— 
‘‘ The dews of the evening industriously shun, 
They’re the tears of the sky for the loss of the sun.” 
And again :— 
‘‘ The sun sets weeping in the lowly West 
; Witnessing storms to come, woe and unrest.” 
Such again is the saying, when it rains on All Souls Day :—! 
‘¢ The dead are weeping.” 
And the apostrophe to April may be mentioned :— 
‘¢ Hail, April, true Medea of the year, 
That makes all nature young and fresh appear.” 
There is also a saying current in this county, as elsewhere, to the 
effect that “a green Christmas makes a fat churchyard.”? This I 
believe to be wholly a mistake, and that on the contrary the milder 
the Christmas the more healthy for the human race, as was indeed 
triumphantly proved by the returns of the Registrar-General in the 
winter’ of 1872-3. But to show the pertinacity, and I may say the 
: 
t 
1 November 2nd; 0.8. November 14th. 
2In Germany this proverb is applied to May, ‘* Heissen Mai macht den 
Kirchhof fett,” and is another instance of the suspicion with which a prema- 
furely early summer was regarded. 
K 2 
