Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/224

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POPULAR RHYMES, PROVERBS, SAYINGS, AND SIMILES.




INTRODUCTION.

The popular rhymes, proverbs, similes, &c., of Lancashire are very numerous. Many of them date from prehistoric times, and have been handed down by tradition from generation to generation with little or no variation. Some of the more common of these have found resting-places in the works of Tim Bobbin, Waugh, Brierley, Staton, Wilson, Martindale, and others, and have thus become a portion of our Lancashire literature; the rest are still current in the undisturbed nooks and corners of our county. It would require a volume to include all the folk-rhymes and wise-sayings of the peasantry of Lancashire; and hence a few only of the more curious or important are here included.