Birmingham.
_Drills presaging Death_ (Vol. vii., p. 353.).--Your correspondent asks if
the superstition he here alludes to in Norfolk is believed in other parts.
I can give him a case in point in Berkshire:--Some twenty years ago an old
gentleman died there, a near relative of my own; and on going down to his
place, I was told by a farm overseer of his, that he was certain some of
his lordship's family would die that season, as, in the last sowing, he had
missed putting the seed in one row, which he showed me! "Who could
disbelieve it now?" quoth the old man. I was then taken to the bee-hives,
and at the door of every one this man knocked with his knuckles, and
informed the occupants that they must now work for a new master, as their
old one was gone to heaven. This, I believe, has been queried in your
invaluable paper some time since. I only send it by the way. I know the
same superstition is still extant in Cheshire, North Wales, and in some
parts of Scotland.