Part 30 (2/2)

To this was returned the following answer from the Shrewsburians:

Whereas we've rescued you, Ingrate, From handcuff, horror, and from hate, From h.e.l.l, from horse-pond, and from halter, And consecrated you in altar; And placed you, where you ne'er should be, In honour and in honesty; We deem your pray'r a rude intrusion, And will not mend our elocution.

JACK ROBINSON.

There are few proverbial expressions more common than the saying, ”As soon as you can say Jack Robinson,” implying excessive rapidity. I have seen the phrase with the name of _d.i.c.k Robinson_, but failed to take a memorandum of it. It has since occurred to me that it may have originated in some way or other with the actor of that name mentioned by Ben Jonson. If, however, the following quotation from an ”old play,”

given by Carr, be genuine, this conjecture must fall to the ground:

A warke it ys as easie to be doone, As 'tys to saye, Jack! robys on.

WRANGHAM.

Swing'em, sw.a.n.g'em, bells at Wrangham, Three dogs in a string, hang'em, hang'em.

A hit at the Ches.h.i.+re provincial p.r.o.nunciation of the _ng_.

LEICESTERs.h.i.+RE.

Higham on the hill, Stoke in the vale; Wykin for b.u.t.termilk, Hinckley for ale.

BROCKLEY-HILL.

No heart can think, nor tongue can tell, What lies between Brockley-hill and Penny-well.

Brockley-hill lies near Elstree, in Hertfords.h.i.+re, and Penny-well is the name of a parcel of closes in the neighbourhood. See Stukeley's Itin.

Cur. 1776, i. 118. This distich alludes to the quant.i.ty of old coins found near those places.

STANTON DREW.

Stanton Drew, A mile from Pensford, Another from Chue.

A Somersets.h.i.+re proverb, mentioned by Stukeley, in the work above quoted, ii. 169.

SEVERN.

Blessed is the eye, That's between Severn and Wye.

Ray gives this proverb, but appears to misunderstand it, the first line not alluding to the prospect, but to an islet or ait in the river, though I have not met with the word _eye_ used in this sense. There can, however, be no doubt as to its meaning; probably from A.-S. ea.

SHERSTON MAGNA.

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