The English language is rich with many old
saying that began life as 'word pictures' many
centuries ago.
Country folk lived in oak framed cottages with
walls of wattle and daub, the floor was beaten
earth, their roofs were thatched extending beyond
the walls protecting them from water dripping off
the edge so someone trying to hear a conversation
inside under the pretext of taking shelter they
were said to be ...
"eavesdroppers who reckoned never to
hear good of themselves."
Sayings summed up the common sense, general
knowledge and experience of hundreds of
generations - don't let them fade away. Remember
these ...
"fine words butter no parsnips"
which means promises and flattery don't pay
the bills.
"you can lead a horse to water but
you cannot make it drink" which means
you cannot force people to take advantage of
good opportunities.
"As hungry as a hunter", "as
prickly as a hedgehog", "as shy as
a fox", "as mad as a March hare"
or "as happy as a pig in clover".
Others conjure up different mental pictures
...
"as sweet as a nut", "as
fleet as a deer", "as calm as a
millpond", "as fresh as a daisy",
"as quiet as a ram" and "as
beautiful as a May morning". Of course
they were not all nice, you might hear
someone described ...
"as thick as a board in a barn door"
or "as thick as two short planks".
All wonderfully descriptive word pictures
with many regional variations.
Did you know small boys living by the sea
would go around the streets with carts of sand
taken straight from the beach but as the
publicans usually paid them in horns of ale, they
were soon "as happy as a sandboy".
Proverbs arise in particular situations. For
example ...
"the early bird gets the worm"
and of course ...
"a bird in the hand is worth two in
the bush". That means don't risk what
you have in an attempt to double it. If you
ignore this advice and ...
"get your fingers burned"
remember ...
"it's no use crying after spilt milk".
Poetry was invented long before writing
because rhyme and rhythm help you remember the
history of your family and your tribe. For
example, parts of the Bible were actually handed
on by word of mouth for 200 generations before
being written down.
"Red sky at night, shepherds delight;
red sky in the morning, shepherds warning"
which is usually true !
That's one of a whole group of proverb all in
rhyming couplets.
Another, about magpies differs from one county
to another. In Kent it starts off "one for
sorrow and two for mirth, three for a letter,
four for a birth" but in the Berkshire area
its "one for sorrow, two for a joy, three
for a girl and four for a boy".
The jealous man may say of his neighbour ...
"one of these days his pigeons will
come home to roost". And if he makes a
fuss ...
"that's put the fox in the hen house".
When it came to farmwork the ploughman had to
…
"plough on regardless", he could
not afford to put off ploughing because of
bad weather.
At the sawmill, wooden flails to separate the
….
"wheat from the chaff", which
means now to separate truth from fiction.
The blacksmith had to ...
"strike while the iron was hot"
because iron can only be shaped while its
glowing.
Unexpected guests took …
"pot luck" which used to mean
helping yourself to the stew in the stockpot.
But if you weren't welcome, your host
might give you the ...
"cold shoulder". It meant that
when the family sat down to a cooked meal all
you got was a cold shoulder of mutton.
In the good old days folk used to plaster
themselves with tallow or goose grease in the
autumn and keep the same garments on without
washing until the following spring.
"Ne'er cast a clout until may is out
"meant you didn't take off any clothes
until the may trees came into blossom because
by then there won't be any more frost. Even
then they did not bathe, just rubbed
themselves down with bundles of herbs on
Sweetening Day.
In the Middle Ages the Crown controlled the
sale of various things from wine to pins. New
pins were important because most women had to
make all the families clothes but in the 14th
century pins were only sold on the 1st and 2nd of
January. So on New Years Eve husbands always had
to give their wives enough money to buy a whole
years supply. When the monopoly was broken many
wives didn't tell their husbands so the yearly
allowance continued. That's why for 650 years any
spare cash a housewife has at her disposal has
been known as ...
"pin money".
The Elizabethans would say ...
"a dumb husband and a blind wife make
a happy couple".
And indeed ...
"if skills could be acquired by
watching, every dog would be a butcher".
Some will make you think; all are based on the
way simple country folk went about their daily
business and described things in the way that was
familiar to them.
This summary is very much abbreviated and
there is a fuller version available; so if you
would like to learn more please contact 
.
with any queries
