“The Essex tradition is that St. Osyth, when the convent was attacked by the Danes [A.D. 635], fled down the park to a thicket, since called ‘Nun’s Wood,’ where she was overtaken, and her head cut off; and that on the spot where the head fell, a spring of water burst forth, which flows to this day. Another local tradition asserts that on one night in each year St. Osyth revisits the scene of her former abode, walking with her head under her arm. It is this legend which probably gave rise to the sign of the ‘Good Woman,’ at Widford, near Chelmsford,--of whom, by the way, I may remark that she is currently said to be the only good woman in Essex.” Larwood and Hotten say that the sign was largely used by oilmen, which makes it very probable that the device has some reference to the “heedless virgins” who had no oil in their lamps when the bridegroom came--_heed_ and _head_ having formerly been pronounced alike, according to those authors. The sign is not uncommon on the Continent also. A writer in _Notes and Queries_ (Fifth Series, vol. iv. p. 337) very ingeniously explains the origin of this sign. He says: “In the days of old it was _la bone fame_, with a meaning the same as that of _la bonne renommée_ in later times. According to Virgil, Fame walks on the earth while her head is concealed in the clouds-- ‘Ingrediturque solo, et caput inter nubila condit.’ Consequently _la bone fame_ was represented by a headless woman--at times, no doubt, very roughly drawn. By degrees the word _fame_ dropped out of the French language, and then people read _la bonne femme_, correcting what they deemed an orthographical error. But [then arose the question] why should the ‘good woman’ have no head? The explanation was, of course, suggested by some hen-pecked cynic at the wineshop.”