“What is it that never freezeth?—Boiling water.
“What is it that never was and never will be?—A mouse’s nest in a cat’s ear.
“How many straws go to a goose’s nest?—Not one, for straws, not having feet, cannot go anywhere.
“How many calves’ tails would it take to reach from the earth to the sky?—No more than one, if it be long enough.
“What man getteth his living backwards?—A ropemaker.
“Why doth a dog turn round three times before he lieth down?—Because he knoweth not his bed’s head from the foot thereof.
“Why do men make an oven in a town? Because they cannot make a town in an oven.
“How may a man discern a cow in a flock of sheep?—By his eyesight.
“What is the worst bestowed charity that one can give?—Alms to a blind man; for he would be glad to see the person hanged that gave it to him.”
An industry of considerable interest from a domestic point of view came to the front in 1542; this was the manufacture of pins. These useful articles were originally made abroad, but the English pinners took to making them, and on their engaging to keep the public well supplied at reasonable prices, an Act of Parliament was passed in the year just named, forbidding the sale of any sort of pins excepting “only such as shall be double-headed, and have the heads soldered fast to the shank of the pin, well smoothed, the shank well shaven, the point well and round filed, canted and sharped.”