THE ESSEX ITEI.I) CI.UB. 255 



iiig from 27 to 31 feet, are obvious!}' of great antiquity, and it is thought by 

 some that an indirect allusion to them may be traced in Domesday. These were 

 noticed in a " Report on the Flowering Plants of the Neighbourhood of Col- 

 chester " (Essex Nat., i., 34), by Mr. J. C. Shenstone, who possesses excellent 

 photographs of the venerable relics. It was observed that the hollies about 

 Thorington appeared to be remarkably spineless, and among other interesting 

 plants noticed were the Cotton Thistle {Onnpordon acatithium') and the great 

 abundance of the Lesser Calamint {^Calaniintha nepeta). 



From Thorington the party was driven to the village of St. Osyth, of which 

 the Saxon name (Chich or Chic) is of doubtful derivation, and which is one of the 

 most interesting resorts in Essex. Numerous ancient homtsteads exist in the 

 parish, as is evident from the large number of "wicks" in their designations, 

 but time would not permit a visit on this occasion to any of these manors, nor 

 were the party able to inspect the beautiful Flower Farm of Messrs. Carter and 

 Co., of High Holborn, vvh'ch adjoins the vicarage, permission to visit which had 

 been given by the firm. The present name of the village refers to Lady Osgith 

 or Osith (daughter of King Frithwald), of whose career there are various 

 traditions. According to Morant she was born at Quarendon, near Aylesbury. 

 Her father endeavoured to persuade her to marry Sighere, the Christian king of 

 the East Angles ; but she had made a vow of virginit)'^, and her intended husband 

 at last consented to her wearing the veil and gave her his village of Chic, where 

 she founded a church dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul. She also instituted a 

 nunnery here of the Order of the Holy Trinity. The monastery was plundered 

 by the Danes under Inguar and Hubba, who caused St. Osyth's head to be cut 

 off near the spring in Nun's Wood, where she used to bathe with her virgins. 

 Other legends say that, at an early age, she was sent to visit a sister of King 

 Alfred at St. Modwen, and then fell off a bridge into the river and was drowned, 

 but was restored to life by the fervent prayers of St. Modwen. Tradition also 

 relates that she refused to change her religion at the time the monastery was 

 despoiled, and that where she was beheaded a spring of water burst forth from the 

 ground, while the saint picked up her head and carried it in her hand as far as 

 the church. This legend has many counterparts in other places — notably, at 

 Hol3'well, in Wales, where an almost precisely similar story is told. After the 

 death of St. Osj-th, her body was removed to Aylesbury, where it remained forty- 

 six years for fear of the Danes. It was then brought back to the parish, "and in 

 those days," says Aubrey de Vere, "when people went to bed they did rake up 

 the fire and make a cross in the ashes and pra^-ed to God and St. Osyth to deliver 

 them from fire and water and all misfortune," 



At St. Osyth the church was first inspected, the vicar. Rev. J. E. Potts, 

 accompanying the party and pointing out the most interesting features of the 

 edifice, which has evidently undergone extensive alterations in the past. It was 

 originally a cruciform structure, and in fourteenth century documents is alluded 

 to as the minster of St. Peter and St. Paul. From an inventory of the goods and 

 effects of the church and priory made by the King's commissioners after the 

 dissolution, it appears that the church had a chapel on the south side, a chapel 

 and vestry on the north, and a chapter-house and chapel at the west end. The 

 vicar gave a quaint narrative relative to some ships' companies of pious Danes, 

 who in days of yore landed at St. Osyth, and kneeling in the church offered up 

 prayers for a favourable voyage to their native land. Upon concluding his 

 orisons, one of the sea-captains purloined a valuable piece of marble from the 



