ANCIENT HOLY WELLS 217 



her head in her hands. A prayer to St. Osyth is 

 preserved amongst the Cole manuscripts in the 

 British Museum ; it is said to have been copied 

 from a manuscript of Edward IV. : ' Sancte Osithe 

 virginis et Martyris tue, Dfie, piis suppHcationibus 

 tribue nos foveri, ut cujus venerabilem solemnitatem 

 celebramus, ejus intercessionibus commendemur et 

 mentis.' Alban Butler, in his ' Lives of the Saints,' 

 corroborates most of the above records. There was a 

 special office for her at Lincoln, and she was invoked 

 with the saints. Her festival was held annually on 

 October 7, when special indulgences were granted. 

 As before stated, St. Osyth, like many other saints, 

 had a holy well dedicated to her, which Leland 

 describes ' as being at Querendune, betwixt Ayles- 

 bury and Querendune, a good mile from Ayles- 

 bury.' 



There is a well, which I remember, at Dunsome, 

 near that town, which answers to this description. 

 It rises at the back of the farmhouse, and runs 

 through the dairy. The water is of delicious quality, 

 and it never fails through winter and summer. 

 There is scant necessity to remark that ' Sise Lane,' 

 in the City of London, takes its name from St. Sise, 

 or St. Osyth. It may not be out of place to call 

 attention to the great number of wells scattered 

 throughout the kingdom which have miraculous 

 powers attributed to them, wells that are generally 

 dedicated to some saint oftentimes of local celebrity ; 

 many which I have known along the base of the 

 Chiltern Hills, of great purity, springing from the 



