WARWICKSHIRE SUPERSTITIONS.
[To TEE EDITOR OF TIE " SPECTATOR."3 Si,—Inland though the county of Warwickshire is, it seems as though the word " urchin " as a synonym for " hedgehog " had got as far as the coast, for that prickly shell called the sea-urchin is doubtless nothing but sea-hedgehog. The superstition about the robin, too, is not confined to Warwick- shire. In Nottinghamshire I was warned in my childhood against taking a robin's nest by a ploughboy, who, in an awed voice, repeated the lines :— "The robin and the wren
Are God Almighty's cock and hen."
I am surprised, too, that no mention is made in your article of the superstitions about bees, which superstitions, I thought, were met with throughout England. In Essex, if a death occurs in a house, even in the middle of the night, the first duty is to go into the garden and tell the bees ; otherwise another death will take place within the year I have frequently seen crape tied to the hives at such times. In Essex, forty years ago, if a nail pierced the " frog " of a horse's foot, its driver would do nothing to the foot, but carefully grease the nail and place it on a shelf in the stable lest the foot should fester. As an instance of the vague notions with which the rustic mind was content, I asked a hedger and ditcher why he always went to a certain wise man in the village to have his hand " blessed " if he got a thorn in it. "To prevent it festering," was his answer. All I could get out of him by way of reason was that he supposed it had something to do with the Saviour's crown of thorns.—' am, Sir, &c., 10 Burns Avenue, Nottingham. W. P. 11118811112.
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