Village Rhymei
One quotation in a little, a very little, anthology of traditional village doggerel has long interested me, and is of immediate interest because I was at the place the other day. It is " He who would all England win Must at Weybourne Hoop begin."
What is the origin of this? Is it the fact, as was appreciated in the time of feared invasion, that the sea is deep right up to the shore? Pevensey is another place mentioned in local rhymes as a possible site of an enemy's landing. Most, of course, of such rhymes are narrowly parochial and very often rude. None perhaps has quite the satiric brevity in which a Northamptonshire village is polished off, thus:
" Slapton, Where fools happen." We may hope that Mr. Lloyd will be supplied with more rhymes—and there are scores—for his next edition of I Went to Noke (Allenson and Co., 3s. 6d.).
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