J. F. Campbell Collection > Popular rhymes of Scotland

POPULAR REPROACHES. 71
of the diflPerent sides of the British Channel or the Pyre-
nees. This has given rise in Scotland to an infinite number
of phrases expressive of vituperation, obloquy, or contempt,
which are applied to the inhabitants of various places by
those whose lot it is to reside in the immediate vicinity.
Some of these are versified, and have the appearance of
remnants of old songs ; others are merely couplets or sing-le
lines, generally referring to some circumstance in the his-
tory of the place mentioned. Almost all the counties of
England have such standing jokes against each other. For
instance, the men of Wiltshire are called Moon-rakcrs, in
commemoration, it is said, of a party of them having once
seen the moon reflected in a pool, and attempted to draw it
to the shore by means of rakes, under the idea that it was a
tangible and valuable object. Hungry Hardwicke is applied
to a parish of very poor land in Cambridgeshire.
Buckinghamshire, bread and beef;
If you beat a bush, you'll start a thief —
is an equally old reproach for that county, bearing refer-
ence to the multitude of robbers harboured in the woods
there, till they were cut down by Leofstone, abbot of St
Albans. The inhabitants of a village in Wales, where the
last prince was betrayed into the hands of Longshanks, are
still called Traitors by way of reproach. It is well known
that to call the people of Kent Kentish Men, is considered a
disparagement, while the phrase Meii of Kent has a con-
trary sense.
Amongst the rural people of France there are many pro-
verbial expressions characterising the inhabitants of par-
ticular districts, sometimes in a satirical manner, sometimes
otherwise : for example, this as to the haute noblesse de
Provence —
Riche de Chalon,
Noble de Vienne,
Fier de Neuchatel,
Preux de Vergy,
Eons Barons de Beaufremont.
One popular in the thirteenth century was as follows : —
Li Cuveors d'Auxerre,
Li Musarts (fanieants) de Verduix,
Li Usuriers de Metz,