This proposition is commonly quoted as a flagrant example of bad logic, illustrating the fallacy of the reference post hoc, ergo propter hoc. A very quaint account of its origin is given in these words in one of Latimer's sermons:—"Mr. Moore was once sent with commission into Kent, to try out, if it might be, what was the cause of Goodwin's Sands, and the shelf which stopped up Sandwich Haven. Thither cometh Mr. Moore, and calleth all the country before him; such as were thought to be men of experience, and men that could of likelihood best satisfy him of the matter concerning the stopping of Sandwich Haven. Among the rest came in before him an old man with a white head, and one that was thought to be little less than an hundred years old. When Mr. Moore saw this aged man he thought it expedient to hear him say his mind in this matter; for, being so old a man, it was likely that he knew most in that presence, or company. So Mr. Moore called this old aged man unto him, and said, 'Father, tell me, if you can, what is the cause of the great arising of the sands and shelves here about this haven, which stop it up so that no ships can arrive here. You are the oldest man I can espy in all the company, so that if any man can tell the cause of it, you of all likelihood can say most to it, or at leastwise more than any man here assembled.' 'Yea, forsooth, good Mr. Moore,' quoth this old man, 'for I am well-nigh an hundred years old, and no man here in this company anything near my age.' 'Well, then,' quoth Mr. Moore, 'how say you to this matter? What think you to be the cause of these shelves and sands, which stop up Sandwich Haven?' 'Forsooth, sir,' quoth he, 'I am an old man; I think that Tenterton steeple is the cause of Goodwin's Sands. For I am an old man, sir,' quoth he; 'I may remember the building of Tenterton steeple, and I may remember when there was no steeple at all there. And before that Tenterton steeple was in building there was no manner of talking of any flats or sands that stopped up the haven; and therefore I think that Tenterton steeple is the cause of the decay and destroying of Sandwich Haven.'"
After all, this is not so palpable a non sequitur as it appears, for, says Fuller, "One story is good till another is told; and though this be all whereupon this proverb is generally grounded, I met since with a supplement thereunto: it is this. Time out of mind, money was constantly collected out of this county to fence the east banks thereof against the irruption of the sea, and such sums were deposited in the hands of the Bishop of Rochester; but because the sea had been quiet for many years without any encroaching, the bishop commuted this money to the building of a steeple and endowing a church at Tenterden. By this diversion of the collection for the maintenance of the banks, the sea afterwards broke in upon Goodwin Sands. And now the old man had told a rational tale, had he found but the due favour to finish it; and thus, sometimes, that is causelessly accounted ignorance of the speaker which is nothing but impatience in the auditors, unwilling to attend to the end of the discourse."
A loyal heart may be landed under Traitors' Bridge.
Every one who has passed down the Thames from London Bridge knows that archway in front of the Tower, under which boats conveying prisoners of state used to pass to Traitors' Stairs.
A knight of Cales, a gentleman of Wales, and a laird of the north countree;
A yeoman of Kent, with his yearly rent, will buy them out all three.
"Cales knights were made in that voyage by Robert, Earl of Essex, to the number of sixty, whereof (though many of great birth) some were of low fortunes; and therefore Queen Elizabeth was half offended with the earl for making knighthood so common. Of the numerousness of Welsh gentlemen nothing need be said, the Welsh generally pretending to gentility. Northern lairds are such who in Scotland hold lands in chief of the king, whereof some have no great revenue. So that a Kentish yeoman (by the help of a hyperbole) may countervail," &c.—(Fuller.) "A Spanish don, a German count, a French marquis, an Italian bishop, a Neapolitan cavalier, a Portuguese hidalgo, and a Hungarian noble make up a so-so company" (Italian).[795]
The Italians are wise before the fact, the Germans in the fact, the French after the fact.—Italian.[796]
The Italians are known by their singing, the French by their dancing, the Spaniards by their lording it, and the Germans by their drinking.—Italian.[797]
Where Germans are, Italians like not to be.—Italian.[798]
Italy, heads, holidays, and tempests.—Italian.[799]
A gentleman, who visited Dublin in the O'Connell times, gave it as the result of his experience there that Ireland was a land of groans, grievances, and invitations to dinner.
He that has to do with a Tuscan must not be blind.—Italian.[800]