Godalming, April 11. 1850.
[In Brand's Popular Antiquities (ed. Ellis). vol. iii. 188-9, it is stated that the key is placed upon the 50th Psalm.]
Weather Proverb.—Weather proverbs are among the most curious portions of popular literature. That foul or fair weather is betokened according as the rainbow is seen in the morning or evening, is recorded in the following German "saw," which is nearly identical with our well-known English Proverb:
Regenbogen am Morgen
Macht dem Schäfer sorgen;
Regenbogen am Abend
Ist dem Schäfer labend.
In Mr. Akerman's recently published volume called Spring Tide, a pleasant intermixture of fly-fishing and philology, we have a Wiltshire version of this proverb, curious for its old Saxon language and its comparatively modern allusion to a "great coat" in the third and sixth lines, which must be interpolations.
"The Rainbow in th' marnin'
Gies the Shepherd warning'