Notes and Queries, Number 181, April 16, 1853

Оглавление

Various. Notes and Queries, Number 181, April 16, 1853

Notes

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

NOTES ON SEVERAL MISUNDERSTOOD WORDS

LORD COKE

SHAKSPEARE CORRESPONDENCE

Minor Notes

Queries

BISHOP KEN

Minor Queries

Minor Queries with Answers

Replies

GRUB STREET JOURNAL

STONE PILLAR WORSHIP

AUTOGRAPHS IN BOOKS

GRINDLE

ROGER OUTLAWE

PROSPECTUS TO CIBBER'S "LIVES OF THE POETS."

PIC-NIC

PETER STERRY AND JEREMIAH WHITE

PHOTOGRAPHIC NOTES AND QUERIES

Replies to Minor Queries

Miscellaneous

NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES

WANTED TO PURCHASE

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS

Отрывок из книги

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:

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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.

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