(25) Beau-belly Le'stershire her attribute doth bear,
(26) And Bells and bag-pipes next, belong to Lincolnshire.
(27) Of Malt-horse Bedfordshire long since the blazon wan,
(28) And little Rutlandshire is termed Raddleman.
(29) To Derby is assign'd the name of Wool and lead,
(30) As Nottingham's of old (is common) Ale and bread.
(31) So Hereford for her says Give me woof and warp,
(32) And Shropshire saith in her That shins he ever sharp.
Lay wood upon the fire, reach hither me my harp,
And whilst the black bowl walks we merrily will carp.
(33) Old Cheshire well is known to be the Chief of men,
(34) Fair women doth belong to Lancashire again.
(35) The lands that over Ouse to Berwick forth do bear,
Have for their blazon had the Snaffle, spur, and spear."
By the Longtails of Kent (1) hang tales[1] which may perhaps bear telling once again. There is a tradition that, because the folk of Stroud[2] gave no heed to the preaching of St. Austin, but drove him out of their town with contumely and fishes' tails, a caudal judgment was appended to their posterity until such time as the sin was fully repented of. "Blyssed be Gode at this daye is no such deformyte," says an old writer, whom I am sorry only to be able to quote at second-hand. A like scandal was breathed about Stroud from the incident of the people cutting off the tails of Becket's horses; but in that case the punishment was made to match the crime by being horsy instead of fishy. It is just possible that the misdoings of these townsmen and the consequences they were supposed to have entailed may have brought reproach on a whole county; but it must be remembered that there was a time when a tail was believed by foreigners to be the natural finish of all Englishmen; and Fuller suggests that the reason why the nickname relating to it is specially reserved for Kent may be "because that county lieth nearest to France, and the French are beheld as the first founders of this aspersion." In annotating some proverbs at the end of Pegge's Alphabet of Kenticisms[3] Professor Skeat gives a remarkable passage from an old romance of Richard Cœur de Lion (ed. Weber, ii. 13) in which reference is made to our
