66 On Wiltshire Weather Proverbs and Weather 'Fallacies. 



grafts nor young shoots will come to their full growth. So we have 

 the Wiltshire proverb : — 



" Leap year 

 Never was a good sheep year." • 



I need scarcely say that these are all popular delusions, founded 

 on no reliable basis, though doubtless they do occasionally, however 

 unfrequently, by accident, come true ; and then they attract un- 

 merited attention, and are held up to admiring disciples as infallible 

 weather-guides. 



One thing however seems quite certain, and that is that if our 

 obervations are recorded through a long period of time, there will 

 be found to be a balance of averages, both as regards heat and cold, 

 and wet and dry weather : and in short the general average through 

 the whole period will be found to be maintained. 



So true is another Wiltshire proverb 



" No one so surely pays his debt, 

 As wet to dry, and dry to wet ; " 



or, as they have it in Scotland : — 



" Lang foul, lang fair." 



More or less accurate too, as generally founded on experience, are 

 other common proverbs we have with reference to rain and wind ; 

 thus : — 



" The winds of the day time wrestle and fight 

 Longer and stronger than those of the night." 



" A sunshiny shower 

 Never lasts half- an -hour." 



" Sunshiny rain 

 Will soon go again." 



" When the wind is in the South 

 It is in the rain's mouth." 



* In France we find the pithy proverb : - 



"Ann6e bissextile 

 Ann6e infertile." 



