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These are odds and ends Of superstitious ways, The signs and the tokens, Of my grandmother’s days.

The first thing you will see,

At the house of rich or poor,

To keep the witches out,

A horse shoe’s o’er the door.

Bellows on the table,

Cause a row both day and night,

If there’s two knives across,

You are sure to have a fight.

There’s a stranger[11] in the grate, Or, if the cat should sneeze, Or lay before the fire, It will rain or freeze.

A cinder with a hole

In the middle is a purse,

But a long one, from the fire,

Is a coffin, which is worse:

A spider, ticking in the wall,

Is the death watch at night,

A spark in a candle,

Is a letter sure as life.

If your right eye itches,

You’ll cry till out of breath,

A winding sheet in the candle

Is a sure sign of death.

If your left eye itches,

You will laugh outright,

But the left or the right,

Is very good at night,

If your elbow itch,

A strange bed fellow found,

If the bottom of your foot itch,

You’ll tread on fresh ground:

If your knee itch, you’ll kneel.

In a church, that’s a good’un,

And if your belly itch,

You’ll get a lot of pudden.

If your back should itch,

I do declare,

Butter will be cheap,

When the grass grows there:

If the dog howl at night,

Or mournfully cry,

Or if the cock should crow,

Some one will die.

If you stumble upstairs,

Indeed, I’m no railer,

You’ll be married to a snob,

Or else to a tailor.

A speck on your finger nail,

Is a gift that’s funny,

If your hand itch in the middle,

You will get some money.

Spilling of the salt

Is anger outright,

You’ll see a ghost, if the door

Should rattle in the night.

If your sweetheart

Dreams of bacon and eggs,

She’ll have a little boy

That has got three legs.

The cat washing her face,

The wind will blow,

If the cat licks her foot

It is sure for to snow.

Put your gown, or your jacket

On inside out,

You will change your luck,

And be put to the rout.

If your nose itches,

You’ll get vexed till you jump;

If your great toe itches,

You’ll get kicked on the rump.

If a girl snaps one finger,

She’ll have a child it deems,

And if she snaps two,

She’s sure to have twins;

And if she snaps eight,

Nine, ten, or eleven,

It’s a chance if she don’t

Have twenty and seven.

If you lay with your head

Underneath the clothes,

You’ll have an ugly old man,

What has got no nose.

If you see a star shoot,

You’ll get what you wish,

If a hair get’s in your mouth,

You’ll get as drunk as a fish.

If your little toe itch,

You’ll be lost in a wave,

If you shiver, there’s somebody

Going over your grave.

If you go under a ladder,

You’ll have bad luck and fall,

And some say that bad luck

Is better than none at all.

So to please all outright,

I have told you in rhyme,

The great superstitions

Of the olden time.

Ballads exemplifying the first half of the present Century would be incomplete without some mention of coaching. It was essentially a horsey age, for railways were not, at least during the first quarter, the first (Stockton and Darlington) being opened September 27, 1825, so that people were obliged to rely on horses for their means of locomotion to any distance. Great improvement had been made in the construction of the stagecoaches, and they were very well horsed; in fact, with the exception of their being larger, they were very much like those which now run to Brighton, Guildford, etc.

Bob Logic, who is supposed to have written the subjoined ballad, was the companion of Corinthian Tom and Jerry Hawthorn, whose pranks were so graphically described by Pierce Egan in his “Life in London.” The George Shillibeer who is sung in the last verse was a large coach proprietor, even letting out hearses and mourning-coaches.—Nay, almost everything on wheels. To him is due the introduction of the Omnibus, the first of which ran from the Yorkshire Stingo, Marylebone Road, to the Bank of England, on July 4, 1829.