Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/246

 188 SOME NOTES ON THE TRADITION OF FLAYING, to obtain a fragment of the Dane's exuviae from Haclstock, in order to subject it to a similar test. Through the kindness of the Hon. Richard Neville, who had noticed the tradition preserved at that place in his interesting memorials of re- searches made by him near Chesterford and Audley End^, I obtained such a sample. The door, being much decayed, had been removed in 1846, but part of the original wood-work, with the massive nails which served to attach the skin, is in Mr. Neville's possession, as also a piece of the robber's hide, of considerable thickness, and considered to have been tanned previously to its being laid upon the wood. This relic had been given by the rector of Hadstock, the Rev. C. Towneley, to Mr. Neville, who, in a very obliging manner, supplied me with a portion to facilitate my enquiries. Again I had the satisfaction of receiving from Mr. Quekett an answer wholly corroborative of the popular tradition. His opinion was thus expressed : — " I have been again fortunate in making out the specimen of skin you last sent me to be hmuan ; I found on it three hairs which I have preserved ; I shall shortly send you a drawing of them, as compared with one from a living subject, and you will at once see their identity. I should fm*ther state that the skin Avas in all probability removed from the back of the Dane, and that he was a fair-haired person." On communicating this satisfactory verdict to Mr. Neville, he informed me that Mr. Towneley had likewise just ascer- tained the fact by scientific examination of these remains. The next step was directed by the information supplied by Morant, in relation to the church of Copford, in Essex. On communicating the object of encjuiry to the rector, the Rev. Kennett C. Bayley, he kindly sent me the following reply: " There are no remains of skin on the door at the present time. I have, however, in my possession, a short MS. account of the parish, written during the incumbency of John Dane, 1G89 — 1714, wherein is the following: 'the doors of this church are much adorned with flourished iron-work, under- neath which is a sort of skin, taken notice of in the year 1690, when an old man of Colchester, hearing Copford mentioned, said, that in his young time he heard his master say that he had read in an old history that the church was robbed by '' Antiqua Explorata, tlie result of Excavations made by Hon. R. C. Neville, &c. p. 34. Saffron Walden, 1817. 8vo.