Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/615

 i2s. vii. DEC. 25, 1920.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

507

A FEW WARWICKSHIRE FOLK-SAYINGS.- A sly sow eats all the wash.

^ A NOTE ON SAMUEL PEPYS'S 'DIARY.' Several references occur in the Diary to one

Hot

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'



when the leaves are as big I Nan Pepys described as of Worcestershire on - I and also as Pepys' ' ' cozen," though of course was loosely used at that period.

sons

l? hav ' nfc anv of those pretty little elves what can you do better than e a t 'em y'rselves. Want of thrift : Ilmington.

God bless Pitchitee-patch. Likewise Save-all -And the devil take Tear-all.

From Alderminster, 1912. The idle housewife :

Newbold-on-Stour, 1912. Brailes, 1912.

published pedigrees, but it is possible that some reader of ' N. & Q.' may be able to throw additional light upon her identity. In 1660 Pepys wrote : -

More dogf? than hogs more horses than cows L/'S" 8 mornin g came Nan Pepys' husband

more women than men ' ^ r ' Hall to see me being lately come to town.

"That man may get rich but the Lord knows when ? ad n ( ever seen him before - I took him to the

llmineton Swan tavern with Mr. Eghn and there drank our Snail ! snail ! put out your horn morning draught."

Then J'll give you a barley corn. Then in June, 1662 :

When 1 brew or when 1 bake AIM. T, ^ -> ,

i " a * c After I was abed and asleep, a note came

a oariey cake. Ilmington. from my brother Tom to tell me that my cozen

A much married man (he had in all three Anne Pepys of Worcestershire, her husband is

Wives, and survived), summed them up : dead and she married again, and her second

r\ i i-i T-I i. ., \ husband in in town and intends to come and see

me to-morrow. But ne did not come till three days later on a Sunday when to church in the morning and home to dinner where come my brother Tom and Mr. Fisher, my cozen Nan Pepys second husband, who I perceived is a very good-humoured man and an old cavalier. Made as much of him as I could, and were merry, and am glad she hatfc light of so good a man."

And in November, 1667, he wrote : "My cozen Boger did tell me of a bargain I may have in Norfolke that my cozen Nan Pepys is going to sell, the title whereof is very good, and the pennyworth is also good enough, but it is out of the way of my life so shall never enjoy it, nor it may be see it, and so I shall have nothing to do with It."

Evidently, therefore, Samuel Pepys was . more or less intimate with Nan Pepys, who Ihomas Harvey of Whichford possesses a sheet presumably belonged to the family of Pepys hand woven hnen. whint had^been njan_y | who held p roperty, at aU events 'from 1585

1688, at South Creake near to Fakenham pillow to match. Whsn laid "o'utThe^two'strips I m Norfolk, and were there as early as the were arranged to form a cross and served as a pall fourteenth century, a family from which lor single persons for which purpose it was borrowed Samuel Pepys himself descended. I cannot when occasion arose. Whichford. find that ^ complete pedigree of these

Churning rime spoken to the accompani- Norfolk Pepys has been published, though ment of a poker stamped on the ground : | a John Pepys married Anne, the daughter

of Terry Walpole of Houghton. It is, however, to be presumed that Nan Pepys bore the name of Pepys before her marriages. In the volume entitled ' Pepysiana ' Mr. Wheatley conjectures that Nan Pepys may

Come day go day

God send pay day.

or God send Sunday.

Apples : At Michelmas and a little before Away goes the apple, along with the core, At Christmas and a little bit arter A crab in the hedge is worth looking after.

Newbold-on-Stour.

, Early apples\lo not make y r bellv ache if they'- been christened (i.e. after St. Swithun's day). Burial custom : Halford.

Churn milk, churn, 'Come butter come

The great bull of Ban bury

Shant have none.

'Communicated by an old lady of 74, whose

mother used it.

The refusal of milk to "come "was attri- 5 ave ^ ad S0m ? c nnexio ' possibly as her

buted to bewitchment. The cure was usually au g hter W1 * h Anne f ^e wife of John

two half crowns thrown into the church, but ^ PyS f^. Pea kes of South Littleton in

in bad cases the witch was removed by a Worcestershire near to Evesham, admmis-
 * good stirring with a red hot poker. This was ' tratlon ^ whnS " " ^"^ *" *"

<Ione within living memory at Ilmington and elsewhere. Ettington and Ilmington.

J HARVEY BLOOM.

whose will was granted to her A date is given, namely May, , but it is not quite clear whether this was the date of the execution of the will or of its being proved, nor did Mr. Wheatley