DORSET WEATHER LORE. 145 



to forebode a wet month. (Mr. H. Norris.) This 

 position of the moon is sometimes spoken of as 

 " lying on her back." 



(vi.) " As many days as the moon is old at Middlemas 

 (i.e., Michaelmas), so many floods before Christ- 

 mas." 



MISCELLANEOUS WEATHER FORECASTS. 



I now come to what I may term miscellaneous weather 

 forecasts, or circumstances and incidents portending wet or 

 fine weather. And first I will deal with predictions of 

 rain. 



PREDICTIONS OF RAIN. 



(i.) " Predictions of rain," says M.G.A.S. (Miss 

 Summers, of Hazelbury Bryan, a lady who often 

 contributed items of folk-lore to the Dorset Chronicle 

 Folk-lore Column], in March, 1889, " are manifold. 

 " Painful rheumatism, shooting corns, spiders 

 ' ; leaving their cobwebs and creeping about the 

 " rooms, soot falling down the chimney, stones 

 " drying quickly, cats washing over their ears with 

 " their paws. I was astonished by an exclamation 

 " I heard yesterday denoting the belief in ' weather 

 " prophets,' which still clings to Dorset. ' Dear-a- 

 " me,' says an old woman, " a we'at zummer is 

 " a' -fore us. 5 ' Bad job this year,' says her com- 

 " panion. * I didn't mind you 'twere a' tween the 

 " 18th and 20th.' " " Thus," adds Miss Summers, 

 " rain between these dates denotes a wefr summer." 

 I presume this would mean such a period in any 

 month before summer commences. 



(ii.) Another prediction of rain is probably known to 

 many here, namely, that when Hardy's Monument 

 is plainly visible from Dorchester, it is a sign of bad 

 weather, or, as another contributor to the Dorset 



