By Tre, Pol, and Pen,
You shall know the Cornish men.
Surnames beginning with these syllables—e.g., Trelawney, Polwhele, Penrose—are originally Cornish.
A Scottish man and a Newcastle grindstone travel all the world over.
Newcastle grindstones were long reputed the best of their kind. Another version of the proverb associates them with rats and red herrings, things which are very widely diffused over the globe, but not more so than Scotchmen.
Three great evils come out of the north—a cold wind, a cunning knave, and a shrinking cloth.
He's an Aberdeen's man; he may take his word again.—Scotch.
An Aberdeen's man ne'er stands to the word that hurts him.—Scotch.
The people of Normandy labour under the same imputation: "A Norman has his say and his unsay."[792] This proverb is said to have arisen out of the ancient custom of the province, according to which contracts did not become valid until twenty-four hours after they had been signed, and either party was at liberty to retract during that interval.
Gotham is a village in Nottinghamshire, declared by universal consent, for reasons unknown, to be the head quarters of stupidity in this country, on whose inhabitants all sorts of ridiculous stories might be fathered. The convenience of having such a butt for sarcasm has been recognised by all nations. The ancient Greeks had their Bœotia, which was for them what Swabia is for the modern Germans. The Italians compare foolish people to those of Zago, "Who sowed needles that they might have a crop of crowbars, and dunged the steeple to make it grow."[793] The French say, "Ninety-nine sheep and a Champenese make a round hundred,"[794] the man being a stupid animal like the rest. The Abbé Tuet traces back the origin of this story to Cæsar's conquest of Gaul. Before that period the wealth of Champagne consisted in flocks of sheep, which paid a rate in kind to the public revenue. The conqueror, wishing to favour the staple of the province, exempted from taxation all flocks numbering less than a hundred head, and the consequence was that the Champenese always divided their sheep into flocks of ninety-nine. But Cæsar was soon even with them, for he ordered that in future the shepherd of every flock should be counted as a sheep, and pay as one.