So NOTES ON ESSEX DIALECT AND FOr.K-I.ORE 



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 ist 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 j'ou." 



Gooseberry-pie 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 rot 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 DIVIMNG-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, 1 89 1, 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- 



