Old Sayings,Anecdotes,Related to Wildlife

[posie]

Originally Posted by k4t3

Loripo, n'ere cast a clout...always brought up to believe this was clothes stay on till the may blossom out, not the month gone..but thats Yorkshire n may b different in other regions

Down here in hampshire we go by the May, or hawthorn blossom generally, but you'd be surprised how many **people** think it is the month, they probably have heard the saying but don't even know that Hawthorn blossom is called 'May'.............Just for interest, the Hawthorn has leaves before blossom, whereas Blackthorn has blossom before leaves(the fruit is sloes)

[posie]

Originally Posted by davecatt

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

So true Dave, I think that is one of the most-used sayings round here.Poe.

[loripo]

How about
March winds and April showers
bring forth May's flowers

[posie]

And if there are lots of berries(particularly Holly) on the trees and bushes we are in for a hard winter (I presume it means that *nature* supplies the birds and animals with good food supply for hard winter because they use up more calories keeping warm)

[Geoff F]

Here is an old song about the Cuckoo. It is written in the Dartmoor Dialect so I will try to retype it correctly.

The gugu es a purty bird.
Er zingeth as er vlieth;
Er bring'th gude tidins,
Er tell'th naw lies;
Er zucketh swate vlowers
Tu kaype er voice clear,
An' whan er zingeth gugu
The zummer draeth near.

Hope you can understand that.

[Cheryl]

Originally Posted by Geoff F

Here is an old song about the Cuckoo. It is written in the Dartmoor Dialect so I will try to retype it correctly.

The gugu es a purty bird.
Er zingeth as er vlieth;
Er bring'th gude tidins,
Er tell'th naw lies;
Er zucketh swate vlowers
Tu kaype er voice clear,
An' whan er zingeth gugu
The zummer draeth near.

Hope you can understand that.

I got the gist of it Geoff I have a different version of the second half though - not in Dartmoor Dialect I'm sorry to say - but it goes

She sucks little birds eggs
To make her voice clear
And never cries Cuckoo
Till spring time of the year

[posie]

Thats lurvly Geoff, yes I managed to translate it, we have what is called a 'cuckoo sale' a little way from here, I don't remember why it's called that. any ideas?:confused ..EDIT..Actually I think it is the 'Cuckoo Fair' and it might be at or near Landford out the New Forest way...Ian Beekeeper would know...

[Beekeeper]

I knew a elderly farmers wife who died recently aged just over 100.
One day i was having a cup of tea in her kitchen, she looked out of the windows and said " them crows are nesting up high this year, going to be a hot summer"

If i remember correctly she was wrong as it tipped down for weeks on end

ian

[Cheryl]

Originally Posted by posie

Thats lurvly Geoff, yes I managed to translate it, we have what is called a 'cuckoo sale' a little way from here, I don't remember why it's called that. any ideas?:confused ..EDIT..Actually I think it is the 'Cuckoo Fair' and it might be at or near Landford out the New Forest way...Ian Beekeeper would know...

I was going to say it is probably Cuckoo Fair but you edited your post juat as I was thinking of commenting [/i]

There are lot of stories linking cuckoos to rural fairs apparently - (I'm just reading them from my book ) and in many parts of the country there were Cuckoo Days - I could type it all out but it covers the best part of 4 pages +

[Cheryl]

Originally Posted by Beekeeper

One day i was having a cup of tea in her kitchen, she looked out of the windows and said " them crows are nesting up high this year, going to be a hot summer"

ian

That wasn't in Wales was it? Apparently in Wales an indication of strong winds is given by Ravens and crows flapping their wings and flying at great heights, while sunshine will follow if they are seen flying towards the sun

Right - I'm putting my book away

[tcvarlh]

Not 100% country based but they'll do :

Two women in one house, two cats and one mouse, two dogs and one bone, will never agree for long.

A woman, a dog, and a Walnut tree, The more you beat them the better they be

Don't spoil the ship for a h'aporth of tar (pron. Sheep)

Number two is pretty good, I've had a Walnut tree, a dog and one of those other things. The tree was the best part of the deal!

[posie]

Ian, do you know of the local 'Cuckoo Fair'?

[Bwrack]

How about this one liner from Benjamin Franklin, all round geezer:-
"Some are weather-wise, some are otherwise", don't know what he means but it sounds profound !

[loripo]

It does I must remember that one...
How about

The spring is sprung
the grass is riz I wonder where the birdies is?
They say the bird is on the wing,
But that's absurd,
because the wing is on the bird!

or Boid if you prefer

[richnfamous]

Originally Posted by loripo

Ne'er cast a clout, 'til may be out...

the month or the flower?

The flower. I spose you know what a 'clout' is?

[richnfamous]

Originally Posted by k4t3

Loripo, n'ere cast a clout...always brought up to believe this was clothes stay on till the may blossom out, not the month gone..but thats Yorkshire n may b different in other regions

It's about archery practice, which all men were required to do. The 'clout' is a flag or cloth target which they'd shoot at in order to learn different ranges.

People think it's about taking yer togs off but that's not right

[richnfamous]

Originally Posted by tcvarlh

A woman, a dog, and a Walnut tree, The more you beat them the better they be

If you beat a walnut tree, it bruises the cambium and produces the varied colours in the wood so there's a factual basis. Don't do it with dogs and women, though, cos they bite

How about this - a sowing rhyme about seeds:

"One for the rook
One for the crow
One to die
And one to grow"

[posie]

Yes I thought clout was togs, so if it's the archery do-dah, what is the significance of not casting it til'.... Is that when they started the Archery for the summer, I did not know that it is a seasonal sport. This thread is very educational, or should I say 'informative'...

[loripo]

So does that mean they would go back to their jobs in farming once the May had blossomed? I know all the men had to be able to bear arms when called upon, but wasn't sure if that meant year round practice or seasonal, so as not to interfere with planting and harvests

[richnfamous]

Originally Posted by loripo

So does that mean they would go back to their jobs in farming once the May had blossomed? I know all the men had to be able to bear arms when called upon, but wasn't sure if that meant year round practice or seasonal, so as not to interfere with planting and harvests

I'm guessing it's so they could get the sowing done. I'm pretty sure that it's to do with archery, though.

[david156]

This archery bit is interesting. We've a car park near here called the buttlands and this was where there archery practice was held. I always thought clout ment clothes but you live and learn. You can learn a lot on this old website

[richnfamous]

Originally Posted by posie

Yes I thought clout was togs, so if it's the archery do-dah, what is the significance of not casting it til'.... Is that when they started the Archery for the summer, I did not know that it is a seasonal sport. This thread is very educational, or should I say 'informative'...

I think the phrase you're looking for is "we're still confused, but at a higher level"

[david156]

Hi all.
Might not have anything to do with archery. Just found this on the internet

"Origin

'Ne'er cast a clout till May be out' is an English proverb. The earliest citation is this version of the rhyme from Dr. Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732, although it probably existed in word-of-mouth form well before that:

"Leave not off a Clout Till May be out.

Meaning

Let's look first at the 'cast a clout' part. The word 'clout', although archaic, is straightforward. Since at least the early 15th century 'clout' has been used variously to mean 'a blow to the head', 'a clod of earth or (clotted) cream' or 'a fragment of cloth, or clothing'. It is the last of these that is meant in 'cast a clout'. This was spelled variously spelled as clowt, clowte, cloot, clute. Here's an early example, from the Early English Miscellanies in Prose and Verse, circa 1485:

"He had not left an holle clowt, Wherwith to hyde hys body abowte."

So, 'ne'er cast a clout...' simply means 'never discard your [warm winter] clothing...'.

The 'till May be out' part is where the doubt lies. On the face of it this means 'until the month of May is ended'.

There is another interpretation. In England, in May, you can't miss the Hawthorn. It is an extremely common tree in the English countryside, especially in hedges. Hawthorns are virtually synonymous with hedges. As many as 200,000 miles of hawthorn hedge were planted in the Parliamentary Enclosure period, between 1750 and 1850. The name 'Haw' derives from 'hage', the Old English for 'hedge'.

The tree gives its beautiful display of flowers in late April/early May. It is known as the May Tree and the blossom itself is called May. Using that allusion, 'till May is out' could mean, 'until the hawthorn is out [in bloom]'. "

David

[richnfamous]

Originally Posted by david156

This archery bit is interesting. We've a car park near here called the buttlands and this was where there archery practice was held. I always thought clout ment clothes but you live and learn. You can learn a lot on this old website

Types of Archery: Field and Clout Archery

Clout archery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

About Clout Archery

There's a field near Stadhampton called 'The Clouts' which was about 400 yds long, and legend has it was used for archery in the old days.

[loripo]

I found this...
The English Archery Law of the 13th century ensured that English men would be come experts with the bow and arrow. In 1252 the 'Assize of Arms' ensured that all Englishmen were ordered, by law, that every man between the age of 15 to 60 years old should equip themselves with a bow and arrows. The Plantagenet King Edward III took this further and decreed the Archery Law in 1363 which commanded the obligatory practice of archery on Sundays and holidays! The Archery Law "forbade, on pain of death, all sport that took up time better spent on war training especially archery practise". King Henry I later proclaimed that an archer would be absolved of murder, if he killed a man during archery practise
I wonder if that law has ever been revoked