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ignored-caused by the introduction of the New Style. He says:

"In Dorsetshire people anxiously look for the dew-drops hanging thickly on the thorn-bushes on Candlemas morning. When they do, it forebodes a good year for peas. But these weatherwise seers are apt to forget that all these old saws were adapted to the Old Style, according to which what used to be Candlemas is now St. Valentine. N'importe, the weather prophet coolly moves on his peg and goes on predicting with equal confidence."

The following forecasts as to the kind of weather to be expected are based upon what has already obtained in particular months of the year

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(ii.)

Isn't worth a pin " (or, in West Dorset, "is good for no-thing.")

Mr. Norris renders this latter version in the vernacular as follows:-" A January spring edd'n good vur noo-thing;" because crops then become too forward,-" winter proud," as it is called,-and are liable to be damaged by later cold weather. Another version has :

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(iii.)

February

(i.)

And a West Dorset variant of this last runs :
"A January Spring

Makes a February ring" (i.e. a ringing frost
-the reverberation on the hard, frosty
surface).

If a mild January was considered unseasonable and undesirable, similar weather during the following month of February seemed even less to the

(ii.)

March

(i.)

(ii.)

taste of the Dorset agriculturist, if we may judge from a couplet sent in 1889 to the Somerset and Dorset N. and Q. (Vol. I., p. 269) by G.W.F., under which initials it is not difficult to recognise Mr. G. W. Floyer, another old member of the Club

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According to Mr. Norris this month shares, in slightly different terms, the epithet given to it by many other counties of "Veb'uary vell-ditch."

The following proverb is no doubt common to many counties besides Dorset-" If March comes in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb," and vice versa. It is widely believed that March and the two following months afford the greatest trial to a weakly constitution, owing to their often rapid change of temperature. It is thus expressed in Dorset"March wull särch,

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(iv.)

"March winds and April showers

Will bring forth May flowers."

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The value to agriculturists of a dry March is well recognised in the proverbial sayings of many counties. In West Dorset I find the somewhat unusual form of "A bushel of March dust is worth a King's ransom when do vall on thornen leaves," given by a correspondent in Notes and Queries (5th S. I. 505), who suggests that the March dust is valuable at the close of the month when the thorn begins to unfold its leaves rather than at an earlier period.

(v.)

(vi.)

EASTER.

May(i.)

(ii.)

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Mr. Norris is responsible for the following:'Zoo many vogs en Maärch, zoo many vrausts (or, var. " vloods ") en May."

Also for the statement that when in Spring snow lies for some time on the hill-sides and under hedges the popular belief is that ""Tes awaitin' vur mōōa."

The following quatrain speaks for itself

"Sun Easter Day,

Little grass, but good hay.

Rain Easter Day,

Good deal of grass, but bad hay."

The changeable weather usually experienced in the month of May is neatly expressed in one of Mr. Norris's contributions: "May's ha'f zumma 'n ha’f wenta."

"A Zunny May 'n a drepping June

'll put all things en good tune."

A comforting thought, as Mr. Norris says, for a late
Spring.

MIDSUMMER.

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A dry Summer never goes begging."

Or, a West Dorset variant,

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A dry Summer never begs its bread."

Meaning thereby that fine dry weather in summer time is good for corn crops, particularly wheat.

MICHAELMAS.

The unseasonable effects of early frosts are shewn by the following lines :

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CHRISTMAS. (i.)

(ii.)

(iii.)

(iv.)

(v.)

(vi.)

Similar to the last is one referable to Christmas: "If the ice will bear a horse before Christmas it won't bear a duck after.”

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"A light Christmas, light harvest. "Light" here presumably refers to a mild Christmas. The same consequences of unseasonably mild weather, as already expressed as prevailing at Candlemas (iii.) is, with regard to Christmas, shewn by the following:-" If the sun shines on Christmas Day it will snow on Candlemas Day."

The same idea is more graphically expressed, perhaps, in this variant of the aphorism: "How far the sun is within the stall on Christmas Day, so far the snow will be on Candlemas Day."

As a West Country variant of the common saying that "A green Christmas makes a fat churchyard," Mr. Norris gives the following as indicating the fatal effects of a trying spring on the constitutions of the sick and aged who have survived a mild winter- Ev a chich'ard da look lik' a pastur' vēēl 'pon C'ursmas Day 'll look lik' a plow'd vēēl avoa Medzumma Day."

66 9.

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He also gives the following:-" Dree whit' vrauses (frosts) vollerin' avore C'ursmas 'll bring rain," a saying not by any means peculiar to Dorset or even the West Country.

PARTICULAR DAYS OF THE WEEK.

(i.)

(ii.)

The weather obtaining on particular days of the week has been made the subject of note or observation. In Dorset it is said that "Friday and the rest of the week are never alike," referring to the exceptionable weather usually met with on a Friday.

And sometimes it takes the form, in connection with other counties, of "Like Friday, like Sunday."

The former expression would appear to be at least as old as Chaucer. See the Knighte's Tale, 681 (Skeat's edition), "Selde is the Friday al the wyke i-lyke." This is referred to in a note by Miss C. S. Burne in her "Shropshire Folk-lore," p. 261.

MOON WEATHER LORE.

The various phases of the moon in most counties bear a large part in their weather lore, and amongst these the time of the new moon is predominant.

(i.)

(ii.)

(iii.)

(iv.)

(v.)

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In 1874 I sent to "Notes and Queries (5th S., i., 48) an illustration of this from a Dorset source, wherein I stated that I had been informed by an old Dorset shepherd that "a Saturday's new moon once in seven years was once too often for sailors,' meaning thereby that sailors have a special dread of a new moon falling upon that day of the week. And I mentioned in illustration of this that the new moon for the previous August had fallen upon a Saturday, and that both the weather and sea had been unusually rough for that time of year.

Hence the proverb: "A Saturday's moon is the sailor's dread."

This is intensified should the full moon also fall on a Sunday, as is shown by the following couplet : "A Saturday's moon and Sunday's full

Never did good and never wull."

A variant of this from West Dorset was sent in 1856 to "Notes and Queries" (2nd S., ii., 516) by Clericus Rusticus (Rev. H. Rawlinson, Rector of Symondsbury) :—

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A Saturday's change and a Sunday's full
Comes too soon whenever it wool."

When the moon is "cupped" (i.e., has her horns turned directly upwards), it is popularly supposed

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