« Then to Rochester,
and there saw the Cathedral, which is now fitting for use, and the organ then
a-tuning. Then away thence, observing the great doors of the church which, they
say, was covered with the skins of the Danes. »
« Ensuite à Rochester, et là vu la cathédrale, qui est
maintenant en état, et l’orgue accordé. Ensuite partant de là, observé
les grandes portes de l’église qui, à ce qu’on dit, étaient
recouvertes de peaux de Danois. »
La note de bas de page figure à « Danes ». Elle
couvre deux pages.
Je pensais faire l’impasse lorsque je me suis
mis à la lire, ce que je n’avais pas fait
précédemment. Elle me semble malgré tout valoir la
peine d’être relevée, du moins en partie :
« Traditions similar to that at Rochester,
here alluded to, are to be found in other places in England. Sir Harry Englefield, in a
communication made to the Society of Antiquaries, 2nd July 1789, called their
attention to the curious popular tale preserved in the village of Hadstock,
Essex, that the door of the church had been covered with the skin of a Danish
pirate, who had plundered the church. At Copford, in the same county, Sir Harry
remarked that an exactly similar tradition existed. At Worcester, likewise, it was asserted that the
north doors of the cathedral had been covered with the skin of a person who had
sacrilegiously robbed the high altar. The doors have been renewed, but the
original woodwork remains in the crypt, and portions of skin may still be seen
under the ironwork, with which the doors are clamped. […] Portions of
this supposed human skin, from each of the three places above mentioned, have
recently been obtained and submitted to one of our most skilful comparative
anatomists […] who, by aid of a powerful microscope, has ascertained,
beyond question, that in each of the three cases the skin is human, and that,
in the instance of Hadstock, it was the skin of a fair-haired person […].
Another instance of the marvellous barbaric punishment of coating a door with
human skin, possibly as a vindictive monition against sacrilege, has lately
been brought under my notice, in connection with one of our noted
ecclesiastical monuments – namely, Westminster Abbey. […] »