 |
| Wild Daffodils at Steps Bridge in Devon - by Derek Harper [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons |
"A damp warm March will bring much harm to the farm.
Snow in March is bad for fruit and grape wine.
If it does not freeze on the loth of March, a fertile year may be expected.
When flies swarm in March, sheep come by their death.
March dust and March wind, bleach as well as Summer's sun.
March flowers make no Summer bowers.
March borrows three days of April,
The first brings sleet,
The second brings snow, and
The third is the worst day that ever blew.
The first brings sleet,
The second brings snow, and
The third is the worst day that ever blew.
In a very old magazine I found the following, which leads one to suppose that the cuckoo arrives in March :
In March the giikii begin'th to sarch.
In Aperal he begin'th to tell,
In May he begin'th to lay
In Aperal he begin'th to tell,
In May he begin'th to lay
In July away he do fly."
Hewett 1900
[Again I am unsure that Hewett collected all her rhymes in Devon - I don't know whether her "Very old magazine" would have specified a Devon origin. This rhyme sounds like quite a widespread one now - my dad, who grew up in Northamptonshire, learned "The cuckoo comes in April / and sings its song in May / June it builds its little nest / July it flies away / August / Go it must"]
No comments:
Post a Comment