A few of the lighthearted jibes that Staffordshire folk used to make of their neighbors living over in Shropshire…

“The idea of going to live in Shropshire! Why, the Shropshire man threw down corn to [en]tice the weather-cock off the [church] steeple!” (Wednesfield, about 1890.)

“The Shropshire people put a frog in a cage, and thought it was a canary.” (F.T., gunner R.H.A., Whitsuntide, 1896.)

“That’s a Shropshire present, giving away what you don’t want yourself.” (M.N., Norbury, 1888.)

From Folklore: a quarterly review (The Transactions of the Folk-Lore Society), Vol. XX, 1909.

The latter perhaps relevant to Tolkien’s practice of giving “mathoms” in the Shire.