146 DORSET WEATHER LORE. 



County Chronicle in March, 1898, rhythmically 

 puts it 



" When Hardy's Monument is plainly seen, 

 There'll soon be heavy rain, I ween." 



(iii.) From an illustration that has such an interesting 

 naval connection with the county I will pass on to 

 one of a more military character, namely, that 

 the playing of a German band usually brings rain. 

 A correspondent in Notes and Queries in 1887 (7th 

 S., iii., 306) states that during the haymaking 

 season in Dorset in the previous year a man was 

 heard to say, " I thought it would rain, the 

 Germingham (German) band was in the village." 

 It appears to be a firmly rooted idea in the rural 

 districts of Dorset, and also of Somerset (p. 432), 

 that the arrival of these foreign musicians changes 

 the weather for the worse. It is stated in " Folk 

 Lore " (Vol. XX., p. 348, 1909) that a candidate in 

 a recent Civil Service examination gave as a reason 

 for the decreasing number of German bands in this 

 country that people will not give them money 

 because they bring rain ! 



(iv.) The direction of the wind as indicating wet 

 weather will, I think, to most minds afford something 

 more than a merely superstitious belief in the correct- 

 ness of the following lines, which are not, I take it, 

 peculiar to this county. 



" The south wind always brings wet weather ; 

 The north wind wet and cold together ; 

 The west wind always brings in rain ; 

 The east wind blows it back again." 



The weather of the last month or two has afforded 

 ample means of testing this ! 



(v.) The face of the sky is eagerly scanned by the 

 weather-wise as indicative of bad or fine weather, 

 and the following lines represent, I think, the form 



