Mrs. Bray also notices that the Cricket's chirp in England, which in almost all other countries, and in that too in some families, as will be shown hereafter, is considered a cheerful and a welcome note, the harbinger of joy,--is deemed by the peasantry ominous of sorrow and evil.[283]
"In Dumfries-shire," says Sir William Jardine, "it is a common superstition that if Crickets forsake a house which they have long inhabited, some evil will befall the family; generally the death of some member is portended. In like manner the presence or return of this cheerful little insect is lucky, and portends some good to the family."[284]
Melton also says,--"17. That it is a sign of death to some in that house where Crickets have been many years, if on a sudden they forsake the chimney."[285]
The departure of Crickets from a hearth where they have been heard, is, at the present time, in England, considered an omen of misfortune.[286]
From the above statements of Mr. White, Mrs. Bray, and Sir William Jardine, we learn that in England the Cricket's chirp is not always ominous of evil, but sometimes also of good luck, of joy, and of the approach of an absent lover.
A correspondent of the "Notes and Queries" mentions the Cricket's cry as foreboding good luck.[287] So also a writer for "The Mirror," remarking, it is singular that the House-cricket should by some persons be considered an unlucky, by others a lucky, inmate of the mansion. Those who hold the latter opinion, he adds, consider the destruction of these insects the means of bringing misfortunes on their habitations.[288] Grose thus expresses this last superstition: Persons killing these insects (including the Lady-bird, before mentioned) will infallibly, within the course of the year, break a bone, or meet with some other dreadful misfortune.[289]
That the belief that the appearance of Crickets in a house is a good omen, and prognosticates cheerfulness and plenty, is pretty generally entertained in England, may be inferred also from the manner in which it has been embodied by Cowper, in his address to a Cricket
Whereso'er be thine abode, Always harbinger of good.
And again in that admirable little tale of Charles Dickens, entitled "The Cricket on the Hearth," this good and happy superstition is embodied. "It's sure to bring us good fortune, John! It always has been so. To have a Cricket on the hearth is the luckiest thing in the world," says its heroine.