W. H. K.
Burning the Bush.
—While in Herefordshire last spring, I noticed a singular custom in the agricultural districts. When the wheat is just springing out of the ground, the farmer's servants rise before daybreak, and cut a branch of thorn of a particular kind. They then make a large fire in the field, in which they burn a portion of it; the remaining part is afterwards hung up in the house. They do this to prevent the smut, or mildew, affecting the wheat.
J. B. ROBINSON.
Belper.
Essex Superstition.
—An uncle of mine, who has a large farm near Ilford, tells me, that observing a horse-shoe nailed to the door of one of his cow-houses, he asked the cow-keeper why he had fixed it there. The lad gravely replied, "Why, to keep the wild-horse away, to be sure." This is, to me, a new reason for the practice.
I have learned that the superstition about the bees deserting their hives on the death of one of their owner's family, is common in the same county. A lady tells me, that calling upon some poor people who lived at Hyde Green, near Ingatestone, she inquired after the bees. The old woman of the house replied, "They have all gone away since the death of poor Dick; for we forgot to knock at the hives, and tell them he was gone dead."
C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY.