“As many Leighs as fleas, Massies as asses, Crewes as crows, and Davenports as dogs’ tails.” _Some of the great Cheshire families._ “There is more than one yew bow in Chester.” _As many a Welshman had found out._ “Cheshire born and Cheshire bred, Strong i’ th’ arm and weak i’ th’ yed.” _Perhaps invented by neighbours “over the border” who had felt the strong arm._ “To grin like a Cheshire cat.” _No satisfactory explanation of this has ever been given. It has formed the subject for inquiries innumerable in “Notes and Queries.”_ _There is another version: “To grin like a Cheshire cat chewing gravel.”_ “It is better to marry over the mixen than over the moor.” _It is better to marry an honest farmer from next door whom you know, than a fine gentleman from a distance who may turn out a fraud._ “Enough and no more, like Mrs. Milton’s feast.” _Milton married as his third wife Elizabeth Minshull of Wistanstow, near Nantwich, who survived him. She was poor and proud, and her enforced economy was not to the taste of her neighbours._ “When the daughter is stolen, shut the Pepper-gate.” _Equivalent to “shutting the stable door when the steed is stolen.” This originated in a former Mayor of Chester fastening up the Pepper-gate after his daughter had eloped through it with her lover._ “If thou hadst the rent of Dee Mills--thou wouldst spend it.” _These Chester mills yielded annually a large rent._ “As fair as Lady Done.” _The wife of Sir John Done, hereditary bow-bearer of Delamere Forest. Pennant, in his “Tour from Chester to London,” says that “when a Cheshireman would express supereminent excellency in one of the fair sex, he will say, ‘There is a Lady Done for you.’”_ “Higgledy Piggledy--Malpas shot.” _All share alike._ _The well-known anecdote need not be quoted._ “All on one side, like Parkgate.” _A single street with one side only, the river being on the other side._ “Every man was not born to be Vicar of Bowdon.” _One of the most valuable livings in Cheshire._ “To pull Lymm from Warburton.” _Complete and absolute separation._ “Hanged hay never does cattle.” _Bought hay, hung and weighed in the scales, is not economical. It will not do (pronounced “doe”) cattle._ “To scold like a wych-waller.” _I.e., a “salt-boiler” at one of the wyches of Cheshire._ “To catch a person napping, as Moss caught his mare.” “I’ll tell thee, quoth Wood, If I can’t rule my daughter, I’ll rule my good.” “But when? quoth Kettle to his mare.” _Of these three worthies history is silent._ “Like Goodyer’s pig, never well but when he is doing mischief.” “He stands like Mumphazard, who was hanged for saying nothing.” “Like the parson of Saddleworth who could read no book but his own.” “Roint you witch! as Bessy Locket said to her mother.”