OLD VILLAGE JOKES AND GAMES. 7 



endeavours to trace out the origin of these nicknames, as while 

 some were willing enough to tell about the delinquencies of a 

 neighbouring village, they were as ignorant as new-born babes 

 the moment you began to question them as to the origin of the 

 sobriquet attaching to their own . 



A QUAINT DOGGRELL. 



Coming now more particularly to the subject of my paper, 

 there is an old doggrel attaching to the south side of the 

 Blackmore Vale, as follows : 



"Houghton Owls. 

 Ansty shear-dogs. 

 Mappowder hedge-pigs. 

 Haselbury Ba-lambs. 

 Buckland Nanny-goats. 

 Pulham Hogs. 

 Holwell men. 

 And Caundle dogs." 



I give the origin of these so far as I have been able to trace 

 them. 



HOUGHTON OWLS. 



It appears that one Jonathan Joyce lost his way in Houghton 

 Wood on a dark night. He wandered about in despair shouting 

 " Man Lost ! Man Lost ! " Just then an owl from a tree near 

 by cried " Hoo . . . Hoo ... !" Jonathan, thinking that it was a 

 friendly voice responding to his call, shouted back " Jonathan 

 Joyce o' Houghton, the honestest man that ever broke bread ! " 

 Thus, because Jonathan answered the owl, all his neighbours 

 were associated with that species. 



ANSTY SHEAR-DOGS. 



Ansty was celebrated for its brewery and its gang of sheep- 

 shearers. Upon a day, one of the gang took too freely of its 



