dorset weather lore. 139 



Candlemas. 



(i.) If Candlemas Day (2nd February) is a fine day, 

 winter is to come ; if it's a middling day, winter is 

 half over ; if it's a very rough day, winter is 

 past, 

 (ii.) Another and rhythmical form of this belief was 

 sent to me years ago, together with several other 

 interesting items of Dorset folk-lore, by the late 

 Rev. W. K. Kendall, of East Lulworth, himself an 

 early member of this Club. 



" If Candlemas Day be fair and fine, 

 Half the winter is left behin'. 

 If Candlemas Day do bluster and blow, 

 The winter is o'er, as all good people do know." 



(iii.) Yet another instance of mild weather at Candlemas 

 being taken as a harbinger of something more severe 

 later on is furnished by the old saying that " as 

 much ground as the sun shines on on Candlemas 

 Day will be covered with snow before Lady 

 Day." 



The late Mr. Hugh Norris, of South Petherton, 

 for many years Somerset Editor of our excellent 

 contemporary, " The Somerset and Dorset Notes and 

 Queries " (Vol. I., pp. 160-162), gives a list of some 

 West Country weather proverbs, from which I 

 extract his version of the above saying, clothed in a 

 rich vernacular — perhaps a little more Somerset 

 than Dorset — " Za much groun' as ez cove'd wi' 

 " zun 'pon Cannelmas Day '11 be cove'd wi' znaw 

 " avore Laady Day." 



(iv.) In the following instance relating to Candlemas, 

 furnished to " Notes and Queries " in 1872 (4th 

 S. X. 82) by F.C.H. (the well-known Roman 

 Catholic ecclesiastical authority, the late Dr. F. C. 

 Husenbeth), attention is called to the alteration in 

 these old dates — a fact, I am afraid, generally 



