General Knowledge Questions

faun weekly prize of one guinea for the best thirteen Questions submitted is awarded this week to Alan F. Mackenzie, 25 Windsor Place, Cardiff, for the following :—

Questions on the Weather

1. What is the supposed origin of the expression : " As the devil said to Noah, ' It's bound to clear up ' " ?

2. Who used the expression : " plaguy twelve-penny weather," and to what does it allude ?

3. To what date in the year does the following refer : " St. Bliattho take thy hopper and sow," and where is this quotation to be found

4. From what English county does the phrase " A plum year, a dumb year " originate, and what does the word " dumb ' here mean ?

5. Give proverbs having reference to (a) a churchyard, (b) a mad dog, (c) snarls, each in connexion with the weather. 6. Who said that " when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather " ?

7. What two things besides rain will, according to Chaucer, drive a man out of his house ? What book in the Bible has similar statements ?

8. What is supposed to happen when " the peacock loudly bawls "

9. What is supposed to happen if, on St. Paul's Day, (a) it is fine, (b) if there be winds, and (c) if there be cloud ? Who said so, and where ? On what date does the Conversion of .St. Paul fall 7

10. To what month in the year does the following refer, and where does it occur 7- "Nowe thou art hoot, now thou art colde,

Noire canst thou loude and fully blowe,

Newo amootho and stilly here the love, Nowe canst thou anowo, now canst thou heyle, And us with stormes sore assayle." 11. What are we to sow, according to a proverb, " in Candlemaas

if

Ira 7.2.' Where does the following occur 7- " It is time to cock your hay and corn When the old donkey blows his horn,"

What does the author say " the braying of an ass " indicates ?

13. Give the source of : " The weather is usually fine when people are courting."

Answers will be found on page 168.