A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

A CHANGE is as good as a rest
□1890 A. CONAN DOYLE in Lippincott’s Monthly Mag. Feb. x. 198 Well, I gave my mind a thorough rest by plunging into a chemical analysis. One of our greatest statesmen has said that a change of work is the best rest. So it is. 1895 J. THOMAS Randigal Rhymes 59 Change of work is as good as touchpipe [a short interval of rest]. 1903 V. S. LEAN Collectanea III. 439 Change of work is rest. (Manx.) 1951 M. COLES Now or Never ii. On the principle that a change of work is a rest, we redecorated the bathroom. .. We came to the conclusion that the saying is a fallacy. 1967 O. MILLS Death enters Lists viii. There would be no fish-bits for Whiskers.. but she could buy him some fish-pieces; and a change was as good as a rest, she remembered. 1984 D. CANNELL Thin Woman xiii. Me old grandpa used to say ‘a change is as good as a rest’, and at my time of life variety don’t often come aknocking. 1994 S. SHAW Villain of Earth (1995) iv. 33 ‘No disrespect to John Quennell, but my career’s not really advancing as it ought to, and perhaps our relationship’s a little on the stale side. A change is as good as a rest, as they say.’ ^change; recreation
CHANGE the name and not the letter, change for the worse and not the better
Explained in William Henderson’s Notes on the Folk Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders (1866): ‘It is unlucky for a woman to marry a man whose surname begins with the same letter as her own’ (p. 26).
□1853 Notes & Queries 1st ser. VIII. 150 Is the following distich known in any part of England? ‘To change the name but not the letter, Is to marry for worse, and not for better.’ I met with it in an American book, but it was probably an importation. 1936 T. C. H. JACOBS Appointment with Hangman ii. 18 ‘Change the name and not the letter, change for the worse and not the better. She ought to be warned about that.’ 1950 woman from Forfar, Angus, quoted in I. OPIE & M. TATEM Oxford Dictionary of Superstitions (1996) 238 A change of name and not of letter Is a change for the worse and not the better. "marriage; superstition