Your most obedient servant,
Nelson and Bronte.
Walton Churchey, Esq.,
Brecon, S. Wales.
FOLK LORE.
Devonshire Superstitions.—Seeing that you sometimes insert extracts from newspapers, I forward you a copy of a paragraph which appeared in The Times of March 7, 1854, and which is worth a corner in your folk-lore columns:
"The following gross case of superstition, which occurred as late as Sunday se'nnight, in one of the largest market towns in the north of Devon, is related by an eye-witness:—A young woman, living in the neighbourhood of Holsworthy, having for some time past been subject to periodical fits of illness, endeavoured to effect a cure by attendance at the afternoon service at the parish church, accompanied by thirty young men, her near neighbours. Service over, she sat in the porch of the church, and each of the young men, as they passed out in succession, dropped a penny into her lap; but the last, instead of a penny, gave her half-a-crown, taking from her the twenty-nine pennies which she had already received. With this half-crown in her hand, she walked three times round the communion-table, and afterwards had it made into a ring, by the wearing of which she believes she will recover her health."
Haughmond St. Clair.
Quacks.—In the neighbourhood of Sevenoaks, Kent, a little girl was bitten by a mad dog lately. Instead of sending for the doctor, her father posted off to an old woman famous for her treatment of hydrophobia. The old woman sent a quart bottle of some dark liquid, which the patient is to take twice or thrice daily: and for this the father, though but a poor labourer, had to pay one pound. The liquid is said by the "country sort" to be infallible. It is made of herbs plucked by the old woman, and mixed with milk. Its preparation is of course a grand secret. As yet, the child keeps well.