78 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
"simple saint, Edward the Confessor, who took great delight in it,
"as being woody and solitary, fit for his private devotions. The
''legend says it abounded with warbling Nightingales ; that they
"disturbed him at his prayers ; and he earnestly desired of God
"their absence. Since which time, as the credulous neighbouring
"swains believe, never Nightingale was heard to sing in the park,
"but many without the pales as in other places." The Rev. R. R.
Faulkner, who was incumbent of Havering, in a work entitled
"The Grave of Emma Vale at Havering Bower," writes:
"Their sweet notes are still heard chanting their Maker's praises
"amidst the shady groves of this pretty village." Havering was
not the only place to be shunned by Nightingales for the same
superstition existed regarding St. Leonard's Forest, Sussex.
The following rhyme is placed by Swainson under the Robin,
but it refers also to the Wren, Swallow and Martin. This
author writes that they say in Essex:
"The Robin and the Redbreast,
The Robin and the Wren
If ye take out of the nest
Ye'll never thrive again.
The Robin and the Redbreast.
The Martin and the Swallow,
If ye touch one of their eggs,
Bad luck will sure to follow."
This is treated as being peculiarly Essex.
Swainson states that Henderson, in his "Folklore of the
"Northern Counties," p. 125, writes that in Essex at Christmas-
tide boys are accustomed to kill Wrens and take them round
in furze bushes from house to house, asking a present, and
singing the verse :
The Wren, the wren, the king of all birds,
S. Stephen's Day was caught in the furze ;
Although he is little, his family's great,
I pray you, good landlady, give us a treat.
My box, it would speak, if it had but a tongue,
and two or three shillings would do it no wrong,
Sing, holly, sing ivy—sing ivy, sing holly,
A drop just to drink would drown melancholy.
And if you draw it of the best
I hope your soul in heaven may rest ;
But if you draw it of the small.
It won't agree with the wren-boys at all."