AND SHORT-EARED OWL IN ESSEX,
181
with interest. The first is from Ralph Holinshed's "Chronicles of
England" (1586), page 1315 :—
"About Hallowntide last past [1580], in the marishes of Daneseie Hundred, in
a place called Southminster, in the Countie of Essex, a strange thing happened.
There suddenlie appeared an infinite multitude of mice, which overwhelming the
whole earth in the said marishes, did sheare and gnaw the grasse by the roots,
spoiling and tainting the same with their venemous teeth, in such sort that the
cattell which grased thereon were smitten with a murreine and died thereof.
Which vermine by policie of man could not be destroied, till now at the last it
came to passe that there flocked togither all about the same marishes such a
number of owles, as all the shire was not able to yeeld ; whereby the marsh holders
were shortlie delivered from the vexation of the said mice."
Again, in "The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain, &c.," by
John Speed (1611), we find another allusion to this occurrence :—
" But least we should exceed measure in commending, or the people repose
their trust in the soyle ; behold what God can doe to frustrate both in a moment,
and that by his meanest creatures : for in our age and remembrance, the yeare
of Christ 15S1 an Army of Mice so over-rane the Marshes in Dengey Hundred,
neare unto South-minster in this Countie, that they shore the grasse to the very
roots, and so tainted the same with their venemous teeth, that a great Murraine
fell upon the Cattle which grazed thereon, to the great losse of their owners."
And in the "History of the Worthies of England" by Thomas
Fuller (1662), page 348, we read :—
"I wish the sad casualties may never return, which lately have happened in
this County. The one 1581 in the Hundred of Dengy (Stow Chron. anno citat)
the other 1648 in the Hundred of Rochford and Isle of Foulness (rented in part
by two of my credible Parishoners, who attested it, having paid dear for the truth
thereof,) when an Army of Mice, nesting in Ant-hills, as Conies in Burroughs,
shaved off the grass at the bare roots, which withering to dung was infectious to
Cattle. The March following, numberless flocks of Owls from all parts flew
thither, and destroyed them, which otherwise had ruined the Country, if con-
tinuing another year. Thus though great the distance betwixt a Man and a
Mouse, the meanest may become formidable to the mightiest creature by their
multitudes; and this may render the punishment of the Philistines more clearly
to our apprehensions, at the same time pestered with (I Sam. vi, 11) Mice in their
barns, and pained with Emerods in their bodies."
The same phenomenon was also registered by Joshua Childrey
in his "Britannia Baconica, or, the natural rarities of England,
Scotland, and Wales, according as they are to be found in every
shire. Historically related, according to the precepts of Lord Bacon ;
methodically digested; and the causes of many of them philo-
sophically attempted ; with observations upon them, and deductions
from them, &c.," London, 1661, page 1008:—
"In the year 1580 at Alhallantide an Army of Mice so over-run the Marshes
8 Quoted by Samuel Dale, under the "Horn-owl," in his Appendix to Silas Taylor's 'History
and Antiquities of Harwich and Dovercourt," 1730, p. 397.