p>Notes and Queries, Number 181, April 16, 1853 / A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Notes
"THE SHEPHERD OF BANBURY'S WEATHER-RULES."
The Shepherd of Banbury's Rules to judge of the Changes of the Weather, first printed in 1670, was long a favourite book with the country gentleman, the farmer, and the peasant. They were accustomed to regard it with the consideration and confidence which were due to the authority of so experienced a master of the art of prognostication, and dismissing every sceptical thought, received his maxims with the same implicit faith as led them to believe that if their cat chanced to wash her face, rainy weather would be the certain and inevitable result. Moreover, this valuable little manual instructed them how to keep their horses, sheep, and oxen sound, and prescribed cures for them when distempered. No wonder, then, if it has passed through many editions. Yet it has been invariably stated that The Banbury Shepherd in fact had no existence; was purely an imaginary creation; and that the work which passes under his name, "John Claridge," was written by Dr. John Campbell, the Scottish historian, who died in 1775. The statements made in connexion with this book are curious enough; and it is with a view of placing the matter in a clear and correct light that I now trouble you with a Note, which will, I hope, tend to restore to this poor weather-wise old shepherd his long-lost rank and station among the rural authors of England.
I believe that the source of the error is to be traced to the second edition of the Biographia Britannica, in a memoir of Dr. Campbell by Kippis, in which, when enumerating the works of the learned Doctor, Kippis says, "He was also the author of The Shepherd of Banbury's Rules,—a favourite pamphlet with the common people." We next find the book down to Campbell as the "author" in Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica, which is copied both by Chalmers and Lowndes. And so the error has been perpetuated, even up to the time of the publication of a meritorious History of Banbury, by the late Mr. Alfred Beesley, in 1841. This writer thus speaks of the work:
"The far-famed shepherd of Banbury is only an apocryphal personage. In 1744 there was published The Shepherd of Banbury's Rules to judge of the Changes of the Weather, grounded on forty Years' Experience. To which is added, a rational Account of the Causes of such Alterations, the Nature of Wind, Rain, Snow, &c., on the Principles of the Newtonian Philosophy. By John Claridge. London: printed for W. Bickerton, in the Temple Exchange, Fleet Street. Price 1s. The work attracted a large share of public attention, and deserved it. A second edition appeared in 1748.... It is stated in Kippis's Biographia Britannica that, the real author was Dr. John Campbell, a Scotchman."
In 1770 there appeared An Essay on the Weather, with Remarks on "The Shepherd of Banbury's Rules, &c.": by John Mills, Esq., F.R.S. Mr. Mills observes:
"Who the shepherd of Banbury was, we know not; nor indeed have we any proof that the rules called his were penned by a real shepherd. Both these points are, however, immaterial; their truth is their best voucher.... Mr. Claridge published them in the year 1744, since which time they are become very scarce, having long been out of print."
Now all these blundering attempts at annihilating the poor shepherd may, I think, be accounted for by neither of the above-mentioned writers having a knowledge of the original edition, published in 1670, of the real shepherd's book (the title of which I will presently give), which any one may see in the British Museum library. It has on the title-page a slight disfigurement of name, viz. John Clearidge; but it is Claridge in the Preface. The truth is, that Dr. John Campbell re-published the book in 1744, but without affixing his own name, or giving any information of its author or of previous editions. The part, however, which he bore in this edition is explained by the latter portion of the title already given; and still more clearly in the Preface. We find authorities added, to give weight to the shepherd's remarks; and likewise additional rules in relation to the weather, derived from the common sayings and proverbs of the country people, and from old English books of husbandry. It may, in short, be called a clever scientific commentary on the shepherd's observations. After what has been stated, your readers will not be surprised to learn that one edition of the work appears in Watt's very inaccurate book under Claridge, another under Clearidge, and a third under Campbell. I will now speak of the original work: it is a small octavo volume of thirty-two pages, rudely printed, with an amusing Preface "To the Reader," in which the shepherd dwells with much satisfaction on his peculiar vaticinating talents. As this Preface has been omitted in all subsequent editions, and as the book itself is extremely scarce, I conceive that a reprint of it in your pages may be acceptable to your Folk-lore readers. The "Rules" are interlarded with scraps of poetry, somewhat after the manner of old Tusser, and bear the unmistakeable impress of a "plain, unlettered Muse." The author concludes his work with a poetical address "to the antiquity and honour of shepheards." The title is rather a droll one, and is as follows:
"The Shepheard's Legacy: or John Clearidge his forty Years' Experience of the Weather: being an excellent Treatise, wherein is shewed the Knowledge of the Weather. First, by the Rising and Setting of the Sun. 2. How the Weather is known by the Moon. 3. By the Stars. 4. By the Clouds. 5. By the Mists. 6. By the Rainbow. 7. And especially by the Winds. Whereby the Weather may be exactly known from Time to Time: which Observation was never heretofore published by any Author. 8. Also, how to keep your Sheep sound when they be sound. 9. And how to cure them if they be rotten. 10. Is shewed the Antiquity and Honour of Shepheards. With some certain and assured Cures for thy Horse, Cow, and Sheep.
An Almanack is out at twelve months day,
My Legacy it doth endure for aye.
But take you notice, though 'tis but a hint,
It far excels some books of greater print.
London: printed and are to be sold by John Hancock, Junior, at the Three Bibles in Popes-head Ally, next Cornhill, 1670."
In the Preface he tells us that—
"Having been importun'd by sundry friends (some of them being worthy persons) to make publique for their further benefit what they have found by experience to be useful for themselves and others, I could not deny their requests; but was willing to satisfie them, as also my own self, to do others good as well as myself; lest I should hide my talent in a napkin, and my skill be rak'd up with me in the dust. Therefore I have left it to posterity, that they may have the fruit when the old tree is dead and rotten. And because I would not be tedious, I shall descend to some few particular instances of my skill and foreknowledge of the weather, and I shall have done.
"First, in the year 1665, at the 1st of January, I told several credible persons that the then frost would hold till March, that men could not plow, and so it came to pass directly.
"2. I also told them that present March, that it would be a very dry summer, which likewise came to pass.
"3. The same year, in November, I told them it would be a very open winter, which also came to pass, although at that time it was a great snow: but it lasted not a week.
"4. In the year 1666, I told them that year in March, that it would be a very dry spring; which also came to pass.
"5. In the year 1667, certaine shepheards ask'd my councel whether they might venture their sheep any more in the Low-fields? I told them they might safely venture them till August next; and they sped very well, without any loss.
"6. I told them, in the beginning of September the same year, that it would be a south-west wind for two or three months together, and also great store of rain, so that wheat sowing would be very difficult in the Low-fields, by reason of wet; which we have found by sad experience. And further, I told them that they should have not above three or four perfect fair days together till the shortest day.
"7. In the year 1668, in March, although it was a very dry season then, I told my neighbours that it would be an extraordinary fruitful summer for hay and grass, and I knew it by reason there was so much rain in the latter end of February and beginning of March: for by that I ever judge of the summers, and I look that the winter will be dry and frosty for the most part, by reason that this November was mild: for by that I do ever judge of the winters.
"Now, I refer