By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 



6? 



" When the wind veers against the sun 

 Trust it not, for back 'twill run." 



Not so accurate, I think, is another, though it is the exclusive 

 property of the inhabitants of this count}', and was certainly im- 

 plicitly believed in by our ancestors : — 



" When the hen doth moult before the cock, 

 The winter will be as hard as a rock ; 

 But if the cock moult before the hen, 

 The winter will not wet your shoes' seame ; " 



a proverb as poor in rhyme as in reason, though doubtless to be 

 honored for its antiquity, as also because it belongs to Wiltshire. 



Highly poetical too are some of our weather-proverbs, and betoken 

 no little sentiment in the minds of those who use them ; such is 

 the really beautiful notion : — 



" The dews of the evening industriously shun, 



They're the tears of the sky for the loss of the sun." 



And again : — 



" The sun sets weeping in the lowly^West 

 Witnessing storms to come, woe and unrest." 



Such again is the saying, when it rains on All Souls Day ; — 1 

 " The dead are weeping." 



And the apostrophe to April may be mentioned : — 



" Hail, April, true Medea of the year, 

 That makes all nature young and fresh appear." 



There is also a saying current in this county, as elsewhere, to the 

 effect that " a green Christmas makes a fat churchyard." 2 This I 

 believe to be wholly a mistake, and that on the contrary the milder 

 the Christmas the more healthy for the human race, as was indeed 

 triumphantly proved by the returns of the Registrar- General in the 

 winter of 1872-3. But to show the pertinacity, and I may say the 



1 November 2nd; O.S. November 14th. 



2 In Germany this proverb is applied to May, " Heissen Mai macht den 

 Kirchhof fett," and is another instance of the suspicion with which a prema- 

 turely early summer was regarded. 



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