NOTTINGHAMSHIRE FACTS AND FICTIONS: A MISCELLANY OF PROVERBS AND RHYMES; ECCENTRICS AND ECCENTRICITIES; AND MORE LEGENDS, TRADITIONS, JOHN POTTER BRISCOE, F. R. H. S., &c., PRINCIPAL LIBRARIAN OF THE NOTTINGHAM FREE PUBLIC SECOND SERIES. NOTTINGHAM: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY SHEPHERD BROS. ANGEL ROW. - 1877. "If an Editor unites a large share of accuracy, even with a industry, and uses them with judgment; if he distinguishes between ingenuity and refinement, and separates useful in- formation from ostentatious pedantry, he will have a claim to public favour, though he should not possess the exquisite taste NOTTINGHAMSHIRE FACTS AND FICTIONS, PART IV. PROVERBS AND RHYMES. AS "Even shavings of gold are carefully to be kept."-Fuller. "6 THE LITTLE SMITH OF NOTTINGHAM, WHO DOTH THE WORK WHICH NO MAN CAN.' S early as 1622 this proverb was current, and we have reason to believe that it is of much greater age than that. Fuller, in his Worthies, states :-"England hath afforded many rare workmen in this kind, whereof he may seem an apprentice to Vulcan, and inferior only to his master (in making the invisible net), who made a lock and key, with a chain in ten links, which a flea could draw. But who this 'Little Smith' and great workman was, and where he lived, I know not; and have cause to suspect that this of Nottingham is a periphrasis of Nemo, Ou Tis, or a person who never was. And the proverb, by way of sarcasm, is applied to such, who being conceited of their own skill, pretend to the achievement of impossibilities." Deering thought there might be a little fellow in Nottingham who might so far excel all others in his branch of work as to give occasion to the proverb, which at first may have been applied to persons excelling many others in their respective handicrafts, though it is not used by way of sarcasm. This proverb must be several hundred years old, as the iron manufacture ceased to be the principal manufacture of Nottingham about 1650, after being carried on for a number of years. "NOTTINGHAM ONCE STOOD ON MAPPERLEY HILLS." This old saying has reference to the greater part of the bricks of which Nottingham is built being made at that place. "WHAT! YOU HAVE BEEN TO DUNKIRK." Between the top of the light shambles and a passage which leads from Smithy Row, Nottingham, is a space which used to be called A |