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Page 13
A very similar tradition exists at Brent Pelham, Hertfordshire, with
reference to the tomb of Pierce Shonke, which was also in the wall. He
is said to have died A.D. 1086. Under the feet of the figure {514} was
a "cross flourie, and under the cross a serpent" (Weever, p. 549.), and
the inscription is thus translated in Chauncy's _Hertfordshire_, p. 143:
"Nothing of Cadmus nor St. George, those names
Of great renown, survives them, but their fames;
Time was so sharp set as to make no bones
Of theirs nor of their monumental stones,
But _Shonke_ one serpent kills, t'other defies,
And in this wall as in a fortress lyes."
Whilst in the north wall of Rouen Cathedral is the tomb of an early
archbishop, who having accidentally killed a man by hitting him with a
soup ladle, because the soup given by the servant to the poor was of an
inferior quality, thought himself unworthy of a resting-place within the
church, and disliking to be buried without, was interred in the wall
itself.
_Miraculous Cures for Lameness._--The holy well _Y fynnon fair_, or Our
Lady's Well, near Pont yr allt G�ch, close to the Elwy, has to this day
the reputation of curing lameness so thoroughly, that those who can
reach it walking on crutches may fling their crutches away on their
return home. Welsh people still come several miles over the hills to
this holy spring. A whole family was there when I visited its healing
waters last month.
The same virtue is ascribed at Rouen to a walk to the altar at St.
Katherine's Church, at the top of St. Katherine's Hill, where the
cast-off crutches have been preserved. In the latter case something less
than a miracle may account for the possibility of going away without
crutches; for they may be required to mount to a lofty eminence, and may
well be dispensed with on coming down: but as this supposition would
lessen the value of a tradition implicitly believed, of course all
sensible men will reject it at once.
WM. DURANT COOPER.
81. Guilford Street.
PIXEY LEGENDS.
In reference to your correspondent H.G.T.'s article on _pixies_ (Vol.
ii., p. 475.), allow me to say that I have read the distich which he
quotes in a tale to the following effect:--In one of the southern
counties of England--(all the pixey tales which I have heard or read
have their seat laid in the south of England)--there lived a lass who
was courted and wed by a man who, after marriage, turned out to be a
drunkard, neglecting his work, which was that of threshing, thereby
causing his pretty wife to starve. But after she could bear this no
longer, she dressed herself in her husband's clothes (whilst he slept
off the effects of his drunkenness), and went to the barn to do her
husband's work. On the morning of the second day, when she went to the
barn, she found a large pile of corn threshed, which she had not done;
and so she found, for three or four days, her pile of corn doubled. One
night she determined to watch and see who did it, and carrying her
intention into practice, she saw a little pixey come into the barn with
a tiny flail, with which he set to work so vigorously that he soon
threshed a large quantity. During his work he sang,
"Little Pixey, fair and slim,
Without a rag to cover him."
The next day the good woman made a complete suit of miniature clothes,
and hung them up behind the barn door, and watched to see what _pixey_
would do. I forgot to mention that he hung his flail behind the door
when he had done with it.
At the usual time the pixey came to work, went to the door to take down
his flail, and saw the suit of clothes, took them down, and put them on
him, and surveyed himself with a satisfied air, and sang
"Pixey fine, and pixie gay.
Pixey now must fly away."
It then flew away, and she never saw it more.
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