DERBYSHIRE SAYINGS.
293
"I'm very wheamow" [nimble], quo' th' old woman when she stepped into th' middle o' th' bittlin, [milkpail. Yorkshire, Ray].
Let's goo to Gilgal; i.e. get out of the way.
Like Cadman's tit, nought to be catck't, nought when it wor catch't.
[Like Chesterfield steeple, all o' one side. Charlotte Snape, Hazelwood, 1889. The spire of Chesterfield Church is out of the perpendicular.]
Mony a one lives in Hope as ne'er saw Castleton. [Hope is a mile and a half from Castleton; apparently this reflects on the stay-at-home character of the villagers.]
More pigs and less parsons.
Muckson up to the buckson; i.e. dirty up to the knuckles.
Nowght's niver i' danger.
"Now, Jack, gie it randy bacon!" an expression used by the leader of a village band when urging the drummer to play louder. (!)
One fool in a play is more than enough.
[Only fools and fiddlers sing at meals. Robin Hood could stand any cold but that of a thaw-wind. Two sayings of my Derbyshire grandfather, who died 1844. C. S. B.]
Robin Hood's pennyworths. [?]
To over-shoot Robin Hood. [Cf. "As crooked," above.]
Strike, Dakeyne! the devil's i' th' hemp. [?]
The blortin' [noisy] cow soon forgets its calf.
'Tis better to lose i' th' kit than i' th' carcase [to lose goods than to suffer bodily injury].
Weal and woman never pan.
But woe and woman can. [Ray.]
Where Meg Mutchell lost her shuf. [?]
Yo' conna spell Chesterfield steeple aright, [=neither words nor witchcraft will put it straight; see above].
