“No more sib (akin) than sieve and riddle that grew in a wood together.” “If he were as long as a lither, he might thatch a house without a ladder.” “It would make a dog doff his doublet.” “She hath broken her elbow at the Church door.” _A woman grown idle after marriage._ “Score twice before you cut once.” _Used by curriers. Holmes’ “Academie of Armourie.”_ _Don’t cut your leather until you feel sure you have selected the right place._ “Stoppord law, no stake no draw.” _Stockport or Stopport--only those who contribute to an undertaking may reap benefit from it._ “You may know a Mobberley man by his breeches.” _An allusion to poachers in the neighbouring Tatton Park. They made their breeches of buckskin._ “The Mayor of Altrincham lies in bed while his breeches are mending.” “The Mayor of Altrincham, and the Mayor of Over, The one is a thatcher, the other a dauber.” _These places were small and unimportant, and the mayors were therefore sometimes chosen from men in humble ranks of life._ “A Stopport (Stockport) chaise.” _Two women riding sideways on one horse._ “As thrunk as three in a bed.” _Thrunk = crowded._ “It is time to yoke when the cart comes to the caples.” “_In some part of England they call a horse a caple._”--Chaucer. Latin = _Caballus_. “Good to fetch a rich man sorrow and a dead man woe.” “As much wit as three folks--two fools and a madman.” “She hath been to London to call a strea a straw, and a waw a wall.” _Adopting the London pronunciation and forgetting, or being ashamed of, the county dialect._ “To come home like the parson’s cow, with a calf at her foot.” “To look a strained hair in a can.” “To shed riners with a whaver.” “_To surpass anything skilful or adroit by something still more so._”--Wilbraham. _Riner_ = _a toucher used at quoits_. “Too-Too will in two.” _Strain a thing too much and it will not hold._ “Well, well, is a word of malice.” “You been like Smithwick, either clemed or bossten.” _Too little or too much._ “Afraid of far enough.” “Afraid of him that died last year.” _Of that which is never likely to happen._ LOCAL RHYMES Holt liars, Farndon bears, Churton greyhounds, Aldford hares. In Stoak there are but few good folk, In Stanney--hardly any. Gobbinshire, Gobbinshire from Gobbinshire Green, The ronkest oud beggar as ever was seen. _Gobbinshire was a name of the lower portion of the Wirral peninsula._ Sir Randle Crewe, the Lord of this manor, Was born in Nantwich, the son of a Tanner.