This page needs to be proofread.
Collectanea. 77
- Too high for the stirrup, and not high enough for the saddle.
- Trying to keep one's dish upright, [to make both ends meet].
- The boy has gone by with the cows, [spoken of lost opportunities].
- Every generation gets weaker and wiser.
- I'll please my eye if I plague my heart, [said by a man who marries for beauty only].
- To see which way the cat jumps, [to see how things will turn out].
- To put all the bells on one horse.
- The nearer the church the further from heaven.
- I'd rather have a knave than a fool.
- To be poor, and to look poor, is the devil all over.
- A bellowing cow soon forgets her calf, [said of people who grieve noisily].
- It must be a man or a mouse, [a master or slave, usually spoken of husbands].
- I'll win the horse, or lose the saddle.
- The golden ball never goes up but once.
- In and out like a dog at a fair, [said of people or children who keep going in and out of doors].
- As peart as a maggot.
- As scarce [pronounced skes] as snow in harvest.
- As snug as a bug in a rug.
- Like a crab in a cow's mouth, [said of a small quantity of anything].
- As pleased as if the pot was on.
- Slipping about like a cat in pattens."
There were many nursery rhymes current in the neighbourhood, and the old grandmothers would keep little children and babies amused for hours by crooning ditties like the following : —
- " My good Mrs. Bond, what have you got for dinner?
- Beef in the larder, and ducks in the pond.
- Dilly, dilly, dilly, dilly, come and be killed,
- For the gentlefolks are coming and their bellies must be filled."
- " The man in the moon was caught in a trap
- For stealing the thorns out of another man's gap.
- If he had gone by, and let the thorns lie,
- He'd never been a man in the moon so high."
