University of Virginia Library

The occasion of this prouerbe arose from a great Wood, called Tottenham Wood, of many hundred akers, upon the top of an high hill in the West end of the parish, which may easily be seene of all those which dwell elsewher in the same, as also in Edelmton, and into Essex. It is obserued, that whensoeuer a foggy thicke mist doth arise out of this Wood, and hang ouer it, or houer aboute it in manner of a smoake, that it's generally a signe of raine and foule weather; and in rayny weather, the streate lying very lowe, although gravelly, is for the most part drown'd or ouerflowed with water. This, therefore, to them, and to those adjoining neighbours, is in this case in sted of a prognostication: the like vse doe the inhabitants of Staffordshire, and other their neer neighbours, make of Snowden Hills, in Wales, and Malborne Hills, in Worcestershire.”