Sleeping on Bones

The Suffolk correspondent who sent Chambers his list of nursery beliefs added two more. It was thought bad for a baby to sleep upon bones, meaning on someone’s lap, which the writer allowed had some sense in it, since a child is better supported along its whole length. A new mother was not to set foot outside her own door until she went to church to be churched. The writer thought the principle a good one but said that in practice it sometimes sank into mere superstition.