Dr. Goldsmith, in his “Vicar of Wakefield,” among the omens of his hero’s daughters, tells us “purses bounded from the fire.” In some parts of England, the cinders that bound from the fire are carefully examined by old women and children, and according to their respective forms are called either coffins or purses; and consequently thought to be presages of death or wealth.
A coal, says Grose, in the shape of a coffin, flying out of the fire towards any particular person, betokens their death not far off.
Cowper alludes to this superstition in the following lines in his “Winter Evening:”
“Me oft has fancy, ludicrous and wild,
Sooth’d with a waking dream of houses, towers,
Trees, churches, and strange visages express’d
In the red cinders, while with poring eye
I gazed, myself creating what I saw.
Nor less amused have I quiescent watch’d
The sooty films that play upon the bars,