164. As badly used as a peggy-tub bottom. Surely whilst in use nothing receives more thumps than the bottom of the peggy-tub.
165. As game as a cockroach. No insect perhaps is so pugnacious as the common roach or black clock. The encounters which take place on our hearths after we have retired to rest are many and deadly.
169. As dead as a red lobster. As the lobster must be boiled for some time before assuming the red colour, we may with some certainty conclude the crustacean has ceased to exist ere it dons its red jacket.
If many of the sayings which fall from the lips of our country folk were only dressed in classic language, they would rank amongst the wisest saws ever uttered.
Take a few illustrations picked from a considerable number which I have jotted down as they have been uttered—I may say the circumstances which called each forth were as varied as they well could be. Some, I have little doubt, were impromptu, but in the main they belong to another age. It will perhaps add interest if the illustrations are given as uttered, followed by a literal translation, adding explanatory remarks when needful.
A raffle tung an’ a race-hoss gan t’ faster t’ leeter wight tha hug. A foolish tongue and a race-horse go the faster the lighter weight they carry; there will be more foolish talk, the lighter the weight of brains carried.
Them ’at grumm’ls sae mich aboot what tha ’evn’t gitten, are maistly oot o’ love wi’ t’ things ’at tha ’ev. Those who grumble so much about what they do not possess, are mostly out of love with the things they have.
Them ’at nivver diz nowt thersens, awlus ’magines ’at ther’s nowt i’ t’ wo’lld ’at’s hard ti deea. Those who never do nothing (anything) themselves, always imagine that there is nothing in the world which is hard to do.
Him ’at’s gitten his heead screwed on t’ reet road i’ larl matters, weean’t be leykly ti shut yah e’e when he’s owt gert on hand. He who has his head screwed on the right way in little matters, will not be likely to close one eye when he has anything great on the way.
Impatience is t’ hoss fau’k saddle and gallop on ti meet their troubles. Impatience is the horse people saddle and gallop on to meet their troubles.