2 1 8 Collectanea.
A young woman here (Kirton-in-Lindsey) has been troubled because her baby might see itself in the looking-glass at the back of her sideboard before it was a year old. Her mother, a native of Nottinghamshire, long resident in Lincolnshire, said by way of comfort, — "Just seeing itself by chance does not count. It is showing the baby its own reflection which is unlucky."
Mabel Peacock.
Middlesex. When my servant, D. J., spent a day last summer with a friend who has lived since her marriage in Teddington, she was told that "in the gardens of Hampton Court Palace there is a lake in which there are the stone figures of a woman and her seven children.* Years ago a woman really drowned herself and her seven children in this lake. This is quite a true story, and well- known in the neighbourhood of Hampton Court."
E. Wright.
Oxfordshire.
The following items have been obtained, with many others more universal in their distribution, from my servant D. J., as current in her native village, Maidensgrove, about eight miles from Henley. They are noted in her own words, and are all firmly believed by her.
To prevent whooping cough, you roll up a loaf of bread in a cloth and dig a large hole and bury it for twenty-four hours. You then take it out and the rest of the family eat some, and then they will not take the whooping cough. The bread will be quite moist and nice, and you need not be afraid to eat it. (This was done by her mother when D. J. was a child.)
Anyone suffering from consumption should walk around a sheepfold early in the morning and as many times in the day as possible.
To kill a slow-worm you must crush the head. No matter how many pieces you cut the worm into, it will join together again unless the head is crushed.
A bed should never be turned on a Friday.
•• This is the bronze figure of Diana on a marble pedestal, encircled by eight smaller figures, in the centre of Diana Water in Bushey Park.
