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."