Notes and Queries, No. 181, April 16, 1853 | Page 2

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 {374} 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,