A collection of proverbs and popular sayings relating to the seasons, the weather, and agricultural pursuits / gathered chiefly from oral tradition. By M.A. Denham.
- Denham, M. A. (Michael Aislabie), -1859.
- Date:
- 1846
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A collection of proverbs and popular sayings relating to the seasons, the weather, and agricultural pursuits / gathered chiefly from oral tradition. By M.A. Denham. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![When Candlemas day is come and gone, The snow lies on a hot stone. February fill-dike, be it black or be it white, But if it be white, it’s the better to like. If Candlemas-day be dry and fair, The half of winter’s to come and mair [more]. If Candlemas-day be wet and foul, The half of winter’s gone at Yule.* February, if ye be fair, The sheep will mend, and nothing mair; February, if ye be foul,t The sheep will die in every pool. okl prognostication.” Bishop Hall, in a sermon on this day, remarks, that “ it hath been an old (I say not how true) note, that hath been wont to be set on this day, that if it be clear and sun-shiny, it portends a hard winter to come; if cloudy and louring, a mild and gentle season ensuing.” Browne, in his Vulgar Errors, says, that “ there is a general tradition in most parts of Europe that inferreth the coldness of the succeeding winter from the shining of the sun on Candlemas day, according to the proverbial distich:— “ Si sol splendescat Maria purificante, Major erit glacies post festum quam fuit ante. The Germans say, “ The badger peeps out of his hole on Candlemas-day, and if he finds snow he walks abroad ; if lie sees the sun shining, he draws back again into his hole.” The French have a similar saying of the bear. * Christmas. t i. e. rainy, not snowy.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2931253x_0039.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
