The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1866-11-03 00:00:00

A SACRED SHRINE!

In a aerie. of article. In the London Standard, on the
" Wateriug.places of Entnce," we find the followlog
sketch :

Fecamp is a quaint, and at the same time a busy
and an amusing little place, combining as it does
within its limits, the peculiarities of a small seaport
a fishing village, a manufacturing town, and a water-
ing place, with all its inseparable adjuncts. We have
here, too, a sacred shine whereat miracles of the most
striking character are continually being wrought. In a
narrow and secluded street this phenomenon is to be
seen. The origin of the shrine lame well authenticated
as each events usually are. It would seem that up-
wards of eighteen centuries ago a portion of the sacred
blood shed on the Mount of Cavalry became enclosed
in a hollow tree. Thereupon the tree, mysteriously
impelled, and without any human aid, made its way
scree sixty miles of rough country, till it reached
the coast It then, without assistance of soy
kind, traversing the entire length of the Medi-
terranean, reached the Straits of Gibraltar. Res,
it made a dead bent against a strong we,
terly breeze, as well as the current always flowinz
to the eastward from the point. Having gained the
open Atlantic it bore up along the coast of Portugal.
made good weather of it in the Bay of Biscay. entered
the Chose of the Channel, probably waited a tide or so,
and finally grounded—of all places in the world—at
Fecamp Here the tree, so marvellously self -navigated,
drove its pointed extremity into the soil, and imme-
diately there burst forth from the spot a pure stream of
liquid eerital sin,ollarly, cold, and at the same time
Wonderfully efficacious in curing a great variety of
maladies. The place where the spring rises is roofed
over and railed in, and ie hung over with the offerings of
pious pilgrims who have been relleved of innumerable
maladies by this hallowed water. No rational person
can, therefore, doubt its miraculous efficacy, more
especially as a reverend pastor unanswerably
observed the other day—' If the sacred tree did not
touch the soil of France at the precise locality, how
came the spring there, and if the tree bore not the
precious freight imputed to it, how is it that
hundreds of rickety and scrofulous children are here
annually made whole?" Of comae no one could have
the hardihood to enter the lists with the reverend
orator, expatiating as he did eloquently and fitteittly
on the virtues of the water in question, and why
should anybody be desirous of dispelling the harmless
faith which, perhaps, brings in a little grist to some-
body's mill, and relieves—whether operating through
. . . .

the -imagination or otherwise matter; little—year Lv
year a vast number of invalids. It is, to be sure, said
that a large proportion of the infante plunged into
this preternaturally cold fountain yell vociferously,
and shortly after expire in convulsions; but then, be
it remembered, they were only puny and rickety
creatures, who would most probably only have been a
burden to their parents and a discredit to their
commune. After all, if there were not some such
checks oc population what would become of the
world! So that, perhaps, it is not always to be
regretted that a little of "Love's labour" should be
lost, more especially am the Fecampoises, though for
from prepossessing are proverbially prolific, aud
nothing would shake their faith in the belief that th,e,
babies who perish under the cold-water system se,
straightway admitted into the realms of bliss.