Notes and Queries, Number 181, April 16, 1853

"THE SHEPHERD OF BANBURY'S WEATHER-RULES."

The Shepherd of Banbury's Rules to judge of the Changes of the Weather, first printed in 1670, was long a favourite book with the country gentleman, the farmer, and the peasant. They were accustomed to regard it with the consideration and confidence which were due to the authority of so experienced a master of the art of prognostication, and dismissing every sceptical thought, received his maxims with the same implicit faith as led them to believe that if their cat chanced to wash her face, rainy weather would be the certain and inevitable result. Moreover, this valuable little manual instructed them how to keep their horses, sheep, and oxen sound, and prescribed cures for them when distempered. No wonder, then, if it has passed through many editions. Yet it has been invariably stated that The Banbury Shepherd in fact had no existence; was purely an imaginary creation; and that the work which passes under his name, "John Claridge," was written by Dr. John Campbell, the Scottish historian, who died in 1775. The statements made in connexion with this book are curious enough; and it is with a view of placing the matter in a clear and correct light that I now trouble you with a Note, which will, I hope, tend to restore to this poor weather-wise old shepherd his long-lost rank and station among the rural authors of England.

I believe that the source of the error is to be traced to the second edition of the Biographia Britannica, in a memoir of Dr. Campbell by Kippis, in which, when enumerating the works of the learned Doctor, Kippis says, "He was also the author of The Shepherd of Banbury's Rules,—a favourite pamphlet with the common people." We next find the book down to Campbell as the "author" in Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica, which is copied both by Chalmers and Lowndes. And so the error has been perpetuated, even up to the time of the publication of a meritorious History of Banbury, by the late Mr. Alfred Beesley, in 1841. This writer thus speaks of the work:

"The far-famed shepherd of Banbury is only an apocryphal personage. In 1744 there was published The Shepherd of Banbury's Rules to judge of the Changes of the Weather, grounded on forty Years' Experience. To which is added, a rational Account of the Causes of such Alterations, the Nature of Wind, Rain, Snow, &c., on the Principles of the Newtonian Philosophy. By John Claridge. London: printed for W. Bickerton, in the Temple Exchange, Fleet Street. Price 1s. The work attracted a large share of public attention, and deserved it. A second edition appeared in 1748.... It is stated in Kippis's Biographia Britannica that, the real author was Dr. John Campbell, a Scotchman."

In 1770 there appeared An Essay on the Weather, with Remarks on "The Shepherd of Banbury's Rules, &c.": by John Mills, Esq., F.R.S. Mr. Mills observes:

"Who the shepherd of Banbury was, we know not; nor indeed have we any proof that the rules called his were penned by a real shepherd. Both these points are, however, immaterial; their truth is their best voucher.... Mr. Claridge published them in the year 1744, since which time they are become very scarce, having long been out of print."

Now all these blundering attempts at annihilating the poor shepherd may, I think, be accounted for by neither of the above-mentioned writers having a knowledge of the original edition, published in 1670, of the real shepherd's book (the title of which I will presently give), which any one may see in the British Museum library. It has on the title-page a slight disfigurement of name, viz. John Clearidge; but it is Claridge in the Preface. The truth is, that Dr. John Campbell re-published the book in 1744, but without affixing his own name, or giving any information of its author or of previous editions. The part, however, which he bore in this edition is explained by the latter portion of the title already given; and still more clearly in the Preface. We find authorities added, to give weight to the shepherd's remarks; and likewise additional rules in relation to the weather, derived from the common sayings and proverbs of the country people, and from old English books of husbandry. It may, in short, be called a clever scientific commentary on the shepherd's observations. After what has been stated, your readers will not be surprised to learn that one edition of the work appears in Watt's very inaccurate book under Claridge, another under Clearidge, and a third under Campbell. I will now speak of the original work: it is a small octavo volume of thirty-two pages, rudely printed, with an amusing Preface "To the Reader," in which the shepherd dwells with much satisfaction on his peculiar vaticinating talents. As this Preface has been omitted in all subsequent editions, and as the book itself is extremely scarce, I conceive that a reprint of it in your pages may be acceptable to your Folk-lore readers. The "Rules" are interlarded with scraps of poetry, somewhat after the manner of old Tusser, and bear the unmistakeable impress of a "plain, unlettered Muse." The author concludes his work with a poetical address "to the antiquity and honour of shepheards." The title is rather a droll one, and is as follows:

"The Shepheard's Legacy: or John Clearidge his forty Years' Experience of the Weather: being an excellent Treatise, wherein is shewed the Knowledge of the Weather. First, by the Rising and Setting of the Sun. 2. How the Weather is known by the Moon. 3. By the Stars. 4. By the Clouds. 5. By the Mists. 6. By the Rainbow. 7. And especially by the Winds. Whereby the Weather may be exactly known from Time to Time: which Observation was never heretofore published by any Author. 8. Also, how to keep your Sheep sound when they be sound. 9. And how to cure them if they be rotten. 10. Is shewed the Antiquity and Honour of Shepheards. With some certain and assured Cures for thy Horse, Cow, and Sheep.

London: printed and are to be sold by John Hancock, Junior, at the Three Bibles in Popes-head Ally, next Cornhill, 1670."

In the Preface he tells us that—

"Having been importun'd by sundry friends (some of them being worthy persons) to make publique for their further benefit what they have found by experience to be useful for themselves and others, I could not deny their requests; but was willing to satisfie them, as also my own self, to do others good as well as myself; lest I should hide my talent in a napkin, and my skill be rak'd up with me in the dust. Therefore I have left it to posterity, that they may have the fruit when the old tree is dead and rotten. And because I would not be tedious, I shall descend to some few particular instances of my skill and foreknowledge of the weather, and I shall have done.

"First, in the year 1665, at the 1st of January, I told several credible persons that the then frost would hold till March, that men could not plow, and so it came to pass directly.

"2. I also told them that present March, that it would be a very dry summer, which likewise came to pass.

"3. The same year, in November, I told them it would be a very open winter, which also came to pass, although at that time it was a great snow: but it lasted not a week.

"4. In the year 1666, I told them that year in March, that it would be a very dry spring; which also came to pass.

"5. In the year 1667, certaine shepheards ask'd my councel whether they might venture their sheep any more in the Low-fields? I told them they might safely venture them till August next; and they sped very well, without any loss.

"6. I told them, in the beginning of September the same year, that it would be a south-west wind for two or three months together, and also great store of rain, so that wheat sowing would be very difficult in the Low-fields, by reason of wet; which we have found by sad experience. And further, I told them that they should have not above three or four perfect fair days together till the shortest day.

"7. In the year 1668, in March, although it was a very dry season then, I told my neighbours that it would be an extraordinary fruitful summer for hay and grass, and I knew it by reason there was so much rain in the latter end of February and beginning of March: for by that I ever judge of the summers, and I look that the winter will be dry and frosty for the most part, by reason that this November was mild: for by that I do ever judge of the winters.

"Now, I refer you unto the book itself, which will sufficiently inform you of sundry other of my observations. For in the ensuing discourse I have set you down the same rules which I go by myself. And if any one shall question the truth of what is here set down, let them come to me, and I will give them further satisfaction.

"Hanwell, near Banbury."

It appears, from inquiries made in the neighbourhood, that the name of Claridge is still common at Hanwell, a small village near Banbury—that "land o'cakes,"—and that last century there was a John Claridge, a small farmer, resident there, who died in 1758, and who might have been a grandson of the "far-famed," but unjustly defamed, "shepherd of Banbury."

Apropos of the "cakes" for which this flourishing town has long been celebrated, I beg to inform your correspondent Erica (Vol. vii., p. 106.) and J. R. M., M.A. (p. 310.) that there is a receipt "how to make a very good Banbury cake," printed as early as 1615, in Gervase Markham's English Hus-wife.

NOTES ON SEVERAL MISUNDERSTOOD WORDS

To miss, to dispense with. This usage of the verb being of such ordinary occurrence, I should have deemed it superfluous to illustrate, were it not that the editors of Shakspeare, according to custom, are at a loss for examples:

The Tempest, Act I. Sc. 2. (where see Mr. Collier's note, and also Mr. Halliwell's, Tallis's edition).

"All which things being much admirable, yet this is most, that they are so profitable; bringing vnto man both honey and wax, each so wholesome that we all desire it, both so necessary that we cannot misse them."—Euphues and his England.

Beaumont and Fletcher, The Mad Lover, Act II. Sc. 1.

The second Maiden's Tragedy, Act V. Sc. 1.

"All three are to be had, we cannot miss any of them."—Bishop Andrewes, "A Sermon prepared to be preached on Whit Sunday, A.D. 1622," Library of Ang.-Cath. Theology, vol. iii. p. 383.

"For these, for every day's dangers we cannot miss the hand."—"A Sermon preached before the King's Majesty at Burleigh, near Oldham, A.D. 1614," Id., vol. iv. p. 86.

"We cannot miss one of them; they be necessary all."—Id., vol. i. p. 73.

It is hardly necessary to occupy further room with more instances of so familiar a phrase, though perhaps it may not be out of the way to remark, that miss is used by Andrewes as a substantive in the same sense as the verb, namely, in vol. v. p. 176.: the more usual form being misture, or, earlier, mister. Mr. Halliwell, in his Dictionary, most unaccountably treats these two forms as distinct words; and yet, more unaccountably, collecting the import of misture for the context, gives it the signification of misfortune!! He quotes Nash's Pierce Pennilesse; the reader will find the passage at p. 47. of the Shakspeare Society's reprint. I subjoin another instance from vol. viii. p. 288. of Cattley's edition of Foxe's Acts and Monuments:

"Therefore all men evidently declared at that time, both how sore they took his death to heart; and also how hardly they could away with the misture of such a man."

In Latin, desidero and desiderium best convey the import of this word.

To buckle, bend or bow. Here again, to their great discredit be it spoken, the editors of Shakspeare (Second Part of Hen. IV., Act I. Sc. 1.) are at fault for an example. Mr. Halliwell gives one in his Dictionary of the passive participle, which see. In Shakspeare it occurs as a neuter verb:

"For, certainly, like as great stature in a natural body is some advantage in youth, but is but burden in age: so it is with great territory, which, when a state beginneth to decline, doth make it stoop and buckle so much the faster."—Lord Bacon, "Of the True Greatness of Great Britain," vol. i. p. 504. (Bohn's edition of the Works).

And again, as a transitive verb:

"Sear trees, standing or felled, belong to the lessee, and you have a special replication in the book of 44 E. III., that the wind did but rend them and buckle them."—Case of Impeachment of Waste, vol. i. p. 620.

On the hip, at advantage. A term of wrestling. So said Dr. Johnson at first; but, on second thoughts, referred it to venery, with which Mr. Dyce consents: both erroneously. Several instances are adduced by the latter, in his Critique of Knight and Collier's Shakspeare; any one of which, besides the passage in The Merchant of Venice, should have confuted that origin of the phrase. The hip of a chase is no term of woodman's craft: the haunch is. Moreover, what a marvellous expression, to say, A hound has a chase on the hip, instead of by. Still more prodigious to say, that a hound gets a chase on the hip. One would be loth to impute to the only judicious dramatic commentator of the day, a love of contradiction as the motive for quarrelling with Mr. Collier's note on this idiom. To the examples alleged by Mr. Dyce, the three following may be added; whereof the last, after the opinion of Sir John Harington, rightly refers the origin of the metaphor to wrestling:

"The Divell hath them on the hip, he may easily bring them to anything."—Michael and the Dragon, by D. Dike, p. 328. (Workes, London, 1635).

"If he have us at the advantage, on the hip as we say, it is no great matter then to get service at our hands."—Andrewes, "A Sermon preached before the King's Majesty at Whitehall, 1617," Library of Ang.-Cath. Theology, vol. iv. p. 365.

In some editions, the fourth line is printed "namely to get," &c., with other variations in the spelling of the rest of the stanza.

LORD COKE

Turning over some old books recently, my attention was strongly drawn to the following:

"The Lord Coke, his Speech and Charge, with a Discouerie of the Abuses and Corruptions of Officers. 8vo. Lond. N. Butter, 1607."

This curious piece appears to have been published by one R. P. 1, who describes himself, in his dedication to the Earl of Exeter, as a "poore, dispised, pouertie-stricken, hated, scorned, and vnrespected souldier," of which there were, doubtless, many in the reign of James the Pacific. Lord Coke, in his address to the jury at the Norwich Assizes, gives an account of the various plottings of the Papists, from the Reformation to the Gunpowder Treason, to bring the land again under subjection to Rome, and characterises the schemes and the actors therein as he goes along in the good round terms of an out-and-out Protestant. He has also a fling at the Puritans, and all such as would disturb the church and hierarchy as by law established. But the most remarkable part of the book is that which comes under the head of "A Discouerie of the Abuses and Corruption of Officers;" and believing an abstract might interest your readers, and furnish the antiquary with a reference, I herewith present you with a list of the officials and others whom my Lord Coke recommends the Jurie to present, assuring them, at the same time, that "by God's grace they, the offenders, shall not goe unpunished for their abuses; for we have," says he, "a COYFE, which signifies a scull, whereby, in the execution of justice, wee are defended against all oppositions, bee they never so violent."

1. The first gentleman introduced by Lord Coke to the Norwich jury is the Escheator, who had power to demand upon what tenure a poor yeoman held his lands, and is an officer in great disfavour with the judge. He gives some curious instances of his imposition, and concludes by remarking that, for his rogueries, he were better described by striking away the first syllable of his name, the rest truly representing him a cheator.

2. The Clarke of the Market comes in for his share of Lord Coke's denouncements. "It was once," he says, "my hap to take a clarke of the market in his trickes; but I aduanst him higher than his father's sonne, by so much as from the ground to the toppe of the pillorie" for his bribery.

3. "A certaine ruffling officer" called a Purveyor, who is occasionally found purveying money out of your purses, and is therefore, says Lord Coke, "on the highway to the gallowes."

4. As the next officer is unknown in the present day, I give his character in extenso:

"There is also a Salt-peter-man, whose commission is not to break vp any man's house or ground without leaue. And not to deale with any house, but such as is vnused for any necessarie imployment by the owner. And not to digge in any place without leauing it smooth and leuell: in such case as he found it. This Salt-peter-man vnder shew of his authoritie, though being no more than is specified, will make plaine and simple people beleeue, that hee will without their leaue breake vp the floore of their dwelling house, vnlesse they will compound with him to the contrary. Any such fellow, if you can meete with all, let his misdemenor be presented, that he may be taught better to vnderstand his office: For by their abuse the country is oftentimes troubled."

5. There is another troublesome fellow called a Concealor, who could easily be proved no better than a cosioner, and whose pretensions are to be resisted.

6. A Promoter, generally both a beggar and a knave. This is the modern informer, "a necessarie office," says Lord Coke, "but rarely filled by an honest man."

7. The Monopolitane or Monopolist; with these the country was overrun in James' reign. "To annoy and hinder the public weale, these for their own benefit have sold their lands, and then come to beggarie by a starch, vinegar, or aqua vitæ monopoly, and justly too," adds his lordship.

8. Lord Coke has no objection to those golden fooles, the Alcumists, so long as they keep to their metaphisicall and Paracelsian studies; but science is felony committed by any comixture to multiply either gold or silver; the alchymist is therefore a suspected character, and to be looked after by the jury.

9. Vagrants to be resolutely put down, the Statute against whom had worked well.

10. The stage-players find no favour with this stern judge, who tells the jury that as they, the players, cannot perform without leave, it is easy to be rid of them, remarking, that the country is much troubled by them.

11. Taverns, Inns, Ale-houses, Bowling Allies, and such like thriftless places of resort for tradesmen and artificers, to be under strict surveillance.

12. Gallants, or riotous young gents, to be sharply looked after, and their proceedings controlled.

13. Gentlemen with greyhounds and birding-pieces, who would elude the statutes against gunnes, to be called to account "for the shallow-brain'd idlenesse of their ridiculous foolery."

14. The statute against ryotous expence in apparel to be put in force against unthriftie infractors.

There is room here for a few Queries, but I content myself with asking for a further reference to No. 4., "The Salt-peter-man."

SHAKSPEARE CORRESPONDENCE

Dogberry's Losses or Leases.—Much Ado about Nothing, Act IV. Sc. 4.:

"Dogberry. A rich fellow enough, go to: and a fellow that hath had losses; and one that hath two gowns, and everything handsome about him."

I can quite sympathise with the indignation of some of my cotemporaries at the alteration by Mr. Payne Collier's mysterious corrector, of "losses" into "leases." I am sorry to see a reading which we had cherished without any misgiving as a bit of Shaksperian quaintness, and consecrated by the humour of Gray and Charles Lamb, turned into a clumsy misprint. But we must look at real probabilities, not at fancies and predilections. I am afraid "leases" is the likelier word. It has also a special fitness, which has not been hitherto remarked. Many of the wealthy people of Elizabeth's reign, particularly in the middle class, were "fellows that had had leases." It will be recollected that extravagant leases or fines were among the methods by which the possessions of the church were so grievously dilapidated in the age of the Reformation. Those who had a little money to invest, could not do so on more advantageous terms than by obtaining such leases as the necessity or avarice of clerical and other corporations induced them to grant; and the coincident fall in the value of money increased the gain of the lessees, and loss of the corporations, to an extraordinary amount. Throughout Elizabeth's reign parliament was at work in restraining this abuse, by the well-known "disabling acts," restricting the power of bishops and corporations to lease their property. The last was passed, I think, only in 1601. And therefore a "rich fellow" of Dogberry's class was described, to the thorough comprehension and enjoyment of an audience of that day, as one who "had had leases."

May I be allowed a little space in the pages of "N. & Q." to draw Mr. Collier's attention to some passages in which the old corrector appears to me to have corrupted, rather than improved, the text? Possibly on second thoughts Mr. Collier may be induced to withdraw these readings from the text of his forthcoming edition of our great poet. I give the pages of Mr. Collier's recent volume, and quote according to the old corrector.

Can for am spoils the sense; it was introduced unnecessarily to make a perfect rhyme, but such rhymes as am and man were common in Shakspeare's time. Loving for lovely is another modernism; lovely is equivalent to the French aimable. "Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives," &c. The whole passage, which is indeed faulty in the old copies, should, I think, be read thus:

Thus crept in after censure from the next line but one. In Julia's speech, grammar requires on for of.