ST. OSYTH.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—In the Spectator of September 15th you state, in your article on " Old St. Paul's," that you " cannot claim acquaintance with St. Osyth, whose arm holding her head,. like Dante's Bertram de Born, was Cathedral property." It may be of interest, therefore, to mention that a quaint old- world village in North-Eastern Essex is still called St. Osyth, and there, in the depths of the greenwood where the- Saxon nunnery was planted, and by the fountain near which she met her death, her gracious spirit is still said by fond, tradition to hover. The gateway of the Priory (founded A.D. 1118, by Richard de Belweie, Bishop of London), still exists ; and an illustration of it, as well as of the ancient. Priory seal (showing the saint carrying her head), may be• found in Miss Sizer's " Wooing of Osyth : a Story of Saxon- Times," with excellent illustrations by M. M. Blake, published by Jerrold, of London. The original building was almost- entirely destroyed by Danes, and the legend runs that the
Nun's Well marks the spot where the martyr's head touched the ground when severed from her neck by the sword of the Danish chief, and that the water gushed forth where she fell. St. Osyth is said to have risen from the ground and carried her severed head to the church of the convent where she was buried, and the present parish church is on the site of her burial-ground.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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