Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/245

 When ability faileth friendship decayeth.

He shall find my frowns lie buried with his follies, and my favours to be revived with his good fortunes.

'Bout's bare, but it's yeasy. Bout, Lancashire for without, i.e., he that is without money is bare, but it is easy [safe] travelling—he has no fear of robbery. John Byrom quotes this proverb in a letter after noticing an alarm about highwaymen, and adding—"This is a terror that poor folks know nothing on."

POPULAR RHYMES AND PROVERBS. take the following, which relate to the north-eastern and north-western borders of Lancashire, from a paper, by Mr A. C. Gibson, Esq., F.S.A., on "Popular Rhymes and Proverbs." As to the prosperous and beautiful village of Bowness, on Windermere—

The Vale of Troutbeck opens upon Windermere about midway between Bowness and Ambleside, and is divided into three Hundreds, each of which maintains a bridge over the stream, a bull for breeding purposes, and a constable for the preservation of order,—severally known as "the Hundred Bridge," &c. Hence the men of Troutbeck are given to astonish strangers by boasting that their little chapelry possessed "three hundred bridges, three hundred bulls, and three hundred constables." It is probable that some revengeful victim of this quibble perpetrated the following:—