78 NOTES ON ESSEX DIALECT AND FOLK-LORE.
skin.1 Morant mentions this barbarous custom in connection with
the church at Copford, "that the building was robbed by the Danes
and their skins were nailed to the doors." In 1789 there was
exhibited before the Society of Antiquaries, a plate of iron from the
door of Hadstock Church, with a portion of human skin upon it.
Mr. Maynard read a paper on this subject at a meeting of the Club
at Saffron Walden, in 1889. (See Essex Naturalist, vol. iii., p. 292.)
The folk-lore of plants is considerable. The curious legend of
the "Holy Thorn," in connection with Woodham Ferrers, has al-
ready been detailed in The Essex Naturalist (vol. vii., pp. 48-50),
and there is a thorn of the same kind in Coggeshall.
Other plants around which legends hover are the maiden-hair
fern, rosemary, broom, lilac, laburnum, etc., etc.
Interesting beliefs concerning birds and insects are current
throughout the county.
Robins if allowed to die in the hand cause that hand to shake always.
The wren is considered the wife of the robin, and in many places it is thought
unlucky to kill or injure it.
" The robin and the wren
Are God Almighty's cock and hen."
" The martin and the swallow
Are the next two birds that follow."
It is considered highly unlucky to kill a swallow from, perhaps the idea of its
being a breach of hospitality, these birds being in the habit of taking refuge in
houses. If they fly low and often touch the water with their wings they are
said to foretell rain. Thus Gay sings :
" When swallows fleet soar high in air,
He told us that the welkin would be clear."
"There are no nightingales at Havering-atte-Bower," runs the legend,
because Edward the Confessor, being interrupted by them in his meditations,
prayed that their song might never be heard again ; but the Rev. R. Fauikener,
who was Incumbent of Havering for over twenty-five years, says : "Their sweet
notes are still heard chanting their Maker's praise amongst the shady groves of
this pretty village."
In Essex the peasants have a rhyme on the crow. If crows fly towards you,
then "One's unlucky, two's lucky, three is health, four is wealth, five is sickness,
and six is death."
Magpies are considered unlucky, and an old tradition believed in by many in
our county is "that it was the only bird that refused to enter the ark with Noah
and his folk, preferring to perch itself on the roof of the ark, and to jabber over
the drowning and perishing world." Ever since, it has been regarded as unlucky
to meet this defiant and rebellious bird.
1 It is possible that another explanation may be given of expressions in the Saxon codes—such
as that an offender "shall pay with his hide." This may mean that he may be scourged ; and
Mr. Fisher, in his "Forest of Essex," quotes from another Anglo-Saxon code the words, "If any
one put his hide in peril, and flee to a church, be the scourging forgiven him."—Ed.