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THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
underneath which is a sort of skin, taken notice of in the year 1690, when an old
man of Colchester, having heard Copford mentioned, said that in his young time
he heard his master say that he had read, in an old history, that the church was
robbed by Danes, and their skins nailed to the door, upon which some gentle-
man, being curious, went thither, and found a sort of tanned skin thicker than
parchment, which is supposed to have been human skin, nailed to the door of the
said church underneath the ironwork, some of which skin is still to be seen.'"
Mr. Bayley added, "Since writing the above, I have heard that what remained of
the skin was removed about four years ago. I heard, however, of two pieces in
the neighbourhood, and if I can succeed in procuring either of them I will forward
it to you." This obliging promise, Mr. Way says, "was fulfilled the ensuing day.
The fragment had been taken by a carpenter in the parish from underneath the
ironwork of the door about the year 1843, when the church was under repair. He
gave it to a Mr. Eley, a miller at Copford, from whom it was procured by Mr.
Bayley." This piece was also sent to Mr. Quekett to be microscopically examined,
with the same result as in the cases of the other pieces from Worcester and
Hadstock.
The doors of Rochester Cathedral had formerly this human skin decoration, as
shown in the following curious passage from Pepy's "Diary":—"April 10,
1661—To Rochester, and there saw the Cathedral . . . . observing the great
doors of the church, as they say, covered with the skins of the Danes."
On the door of the church of Castle Hedingham are some good examples of
ancient scroll-work, hinges, &c., of the Anglo-Norman period, behind which have
been found remains of what appears to be that of parchment, and there is a
tradition in the locality which attempts to explain this by saying, "The door was
covered with the skin of a foreign robber who attempted to sack the church."
In the wall of the corridor by the entrance of the Chapter-house at the back of
Westminster Abbey is an old disused door, which, I am informed, was in former
days covered with human skin. On the 27th of August, 1886, I visited this door,
and upon searching I found portions of the skin still remaining. One of the bars
of iron that stretch across this door has sufficient space between it and the door to
admit the hand behind, thus enabling a person to feel the skin. Mr. Frank
Buckland, whose father was Dean of Westminster, says: "Not very long ago a
portion of hard, dry skin was found underneath the bossed head of a huge iron
nail that had been fixed into this door, upon this piece was found several hairs ;
this he submitted to Mr. Quekett for examination, and he recognized the skin and
the hairs upon it to be of human origin."
Beside the examples above alluded to, traditions of others occur, principally
connected with churches near the sea coast; but, as Mr. Way observes: "That so
barbarous an exhibition of summary punishment should have been permitted in
comparatively uncivilized times, in remote and defenceless villages, exposed by
their vicinity to the coast to frequent inroads of the pirates of the Baltic, may
appear less extraordinary ; but it must be admitted that the exposure of the skin
of a criminal within the walls of cathedral churches, or upon the doors of their
most frequented entrances, was a savage display of vengeance which is very diffi-
cult to comprehend." Had the barbarous punishment been inflicted as a means
of summary vengeance in a moment of popular indignation, in remote localities,
where the administration of the laws might be imperfectly maintained, it would
be less difficult to comprehend, but seeing that it must have been enforced with
the sanction of the Church, by whom the remembrance of the sanguinary deed
has been perpetuated to our time, the matter is the more inexplicable. Mr. Way