80 NOTES ON ESSEX DIALECT AND FOLK-LORE.
the most nauseating description, and would rather aggravate the com-
plaint than otherwise, but yet around them hang the hoar-
frost of superstition and antiquity.
Several curious sayings and customs are connected with Colchester.
Amongst them may be noted the following. It has been the habit
of the Town Crier at Colchester, on the 1st of every December, thus
to proclaim the birth of that month in various parts of the town in
the early hours of the morning :
" Cold December has come in,
Poor men's clothes are very thin,
Trees are bare, and birds are mute,
A pot and a toast would very well suit."
" Past 12 o'clock and a cold, frosty morning. Good morning, masters and
mistresses all, and God bless you."
Gooseberry-pic day.—The origin or this curious name reaches so
far back that it is not easy to say who was first responsible for it.
For a great many years past the expression has been applied by the
people of Colchester to signify the day on which the Society of
Friends have an annual religious gathering of an extensive character,
which is followed by a repast at which gooseberry pie figures on the
menu. It was also considered that the berries were not to be bought
cheaply until after that particular day. In Colchester, also, it was
held that mackerel were not fit to eat till the chapter concerning
Balaam and Barak was read as the first lesson in church (second
Sunday after Easter), but no reason can be given for this strange
saying.
THE DIVINING-ROD.
A notice appeared in the daily press in December, 1893, "That
a good spring of water has just been found at Thremhall Priory,
Essex, the residence of Mrs. Archer Houblon, by means of a
divining rod," etc.
This is by no means the first time that this practice has been
resorted to in our county ; a similar search for water was made at
Broomfield at the instance of Mr. Christie-Miller, who, on the 12th
June, 1891, engaged Mr. Mullens, of Chippenham, to search for
water by means of the divining rod. Again, in the month of Sep-
tember in the same year, the divining rod was used by Mr. A. K.
Barlow, of Lynders' Wood, Braintree. The belief in the rod existed
from the earliest years. The Staff of Hermes was venerated by the
Greeks and Romans, and they also had their "wish rods" like our-