THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 255
ing from 27 to 31 feet, are obviously of great antiquity, and it is thought by
some that an indirect allusion to them may be traced in Domesday. These were
noticed in a "Report on the Flowering Plants of the Neighbourhood of Col-
chester" (Essex Nat., i., 34), by Mr. J. C. Shenstone, who possesses excellent
photographs of the venerable relics. It was observed that the hollies about
Thorington appeared to be remarkably spineless, and among other interesting
plants noticed were the Cotton Thistle (Onopordon acanthium) and the great
abundance of the Lesser Calamint (Calamintha nepeta).
From Thorington the party was driven to the village of St. Osyth, of which
the Saxon name (Chich or Chic) is of doubtful derivation, and which is one of the
most interesting resorts in Essex. Numerous ancient homesteads exist in the
parish, as is evident from the large number of "wicks" in their designations,
but time would not permit a visit on this occasion to any of these manors, nor
were the party able to inspect the beautiful Flower Farm of Messrs. Carter and
Co., of High Holborn, which adjoins the vicarage, permission to visit which had
been given by the firm. The present name of the village refers to Lady Osgith
or Osith (daughter of King Frithwald), of whose career there are various
traditions. According to Morant she was born at Quarendon, near Aylesbury.
Her father endeavoured to persuade her to marry Sighere, the Christian king of
the East Angles ; but she had made a vow of virginity, and her intended husband
at last consented to her wearing the veil and gave her his village of Chic, where
she founded a church dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul. She also instituted a
nunnery here of the Order of the Holy Trinity. The monastery was plundered
by the Danes under Inguar and Hubba, who caused St. Osyth's head to be cut
off near the spring in Nun's Wood, where she used to bathe with her virgins.
Other legends say that, at an early age, she was sent to visit a sister cf King
Alfred at St. Modwen, and then fell off a bridge into the river and was drowned,
but was restored to life by the fervent prayers of St. Modwen. Tradition also
relates that she refused to change her religion at the time the monastery was
despoiled, and that where she was beheaded a spring of water burst forth from the
ground, while the saint picked up her head and carried it in her hand as far as
the church. This legend has many counterparts in other places—notably, at
Holywell, in Wales, where an almost precisely similar story is told. After the
death of St. Osyth, her body was removed to Aylesbury, where it remained forty-
six years for fear of the Danes. It was then brought back to the parish, "and in
those days," says Aubrey de Vere, "when people went to bed they did rake up
the fire and make a cross in the ashes and prayed to God and St. Osyth to deliver
them from fire and water and all misfortune,"
At St. Osyth the church was first inspected, the vicar, Rev. J. E. Potts,
accompanying the party and pointing out the most interesting features of the
edifice, which has evidently undergone extensive alterations in the past. It was
originally a cruciform structure, and in fourteenth century documents is alluded
to as the minster of St. Peter and St. Paul. From an inventory of the goods and
effects of the church and priory made by the King's commissioners after the
dissolution, it appears that the church had a chapel on the south side, a chapel
and vestry on the north, and a chapter-house and chapel at the west end. The
vicar gave a quaint narrative relative to some ships' companies of pious Danes,
who in days of yore landed at St. Osyth, and kneeling in the church offered up
prayers for a favourable voyage to their native land. Upon concluding his
orisons, one of the sea-captains purloined a valuable piece of marble from the