The Cow in Cheshire

Abstract

AS an important dairying county it is not surprising that Cheshire should have quite a developed folklore of cows, and a good number of proverbial sayings about them, for men usually draw for their proverbs on what is familiar and important in their daily lives. So through the centuries Cheshire people used such picturesque turns of phrase as 'As much use as a cow has for side pockets', 'As surly as a cow's husband', 'You'll have to wait till the cows come up for it' (used perhaps by the debtor who doesn't intend to pay). The girl who returned home with an addition to the family 'came home like the parson's cow with a cauf at her foot', and the person who kept asking questions was put off with 'The old brown cow laid an egg'. 'To lick one's caufover again' was to do work a second time, and no doubt it was the labour involved in caring for a herd which gave rise to the saying, 'Who would keep a cow when he can have a pottle of milk for a penny?' The habits of cattle were used to foretell the weather, for it was always believed that when cows lay down together in the morning it was a sure sign of rain. The legend that the cows fall on their knees in their stalls at midnight on Christmas Eve, in memory of the stable at Bethlehem, is fairly widespread through the country as a whole (though purists insist that this of course applies to Old Christmas Eve). Perhaps not every place had the pleasant custom observed at Ashton Hayes on the fringe of Delamere Forest, where each cow was given a sheaf of corn on Christmas Eve-no doubt much appreciated by the recipient. On the subject of cows' fodder, the Cheshire poet, Rowland EgertonWarburton, remarked,