68 On Wiltshire Weather Proverbs and Weather Fallacies. 
unreasoning’ tenacity with which the Wiltshire labourer will cling to 
any old saying handed down to him from his fathers : I was opposing 
the above proverb, which an old man quoted to me at the beginning 
of the year 1854, and expressing my disbelief in it, though not at 
all to his conviction : and in the summer I recalled to his recollection 
the same proverb, remarking that we had had unusually few deaths 
in the parish that year, to which he replied, “ Wait a bit, Sir, the 
year isn’t come to an end yet: but before the end of the year, after 
the battles of Alma and Inkermann had taken place, he came to me 
with triumph in his face, and said, “I told you, Sir, the proverb 
would come true; the green Christmas last year Aas made a fat 
churchyard, for see how many poor fellows have been killed in the 
Crimea.” After this nothing more was to be said; with the rationale 
of the proverb he had nothing to do: it had come true, and that 
was all that concerned him ; and he is is now a firmer believer than 
ever in that ancient tradition. 
And now let me say a word about almanacks which pretend to 
foretell the weather. It is perfectly marvellous how gullible is 
John Bull, eager to swallow any prognostics, be they never so un- 
reliable ; if only their authors are bold enough to be decisive in their 
predictions: and when in the year 1838, by a fortuitous coincidence, 
“an adroit Hibernian” (as he has been happily styled), named 
Patrick Murphy, accurately foretold the coldest day of the season 
(which from the law of chances must occur occasionally within a 
great number of conjectures), the rage for weather almanacks rose 
to its height; the wildest predictions were hazarded ; and though 
their failures were generally manifested, nothing would convince the 
determined believer; and I myself knew of a case where an agricul= 
turalist on a small scale, with more credulity than wisdom, wrote to 
the Editor of the almanack to which he pinned his faith, and en- 
treated him to name the most fortunate day for wheat-sowing! In 
justice to Wiltshire let me hasten to add that this man was a native 
and inhabitant of Somersetshire. I suppose too it is allowable to 
presume there is a larger amount of Beotian dulness to be found in 
the more western counties, as the famous Lord Thurlow once re- 
marked, after holding an assize at Bodmin, in Cornwall, “ That the 
