96 THE LEGEND OF THE ABBEY TOWER. 



intimate their suspicions, that the said mason and plumber are at 

 least participators in delusion, if not propagators of deceit. Be this 

 as it may, both parties are equally bold in approaching the spirit's 

 haunt ; and if the vicar and his friends have failed in their argu- 

 ments to prove that ghosts are now entirely out of date, the mason 

 and his party have never afforded any accounts to the contrary, be- 

 yond what a series of portentous shrugs, ominous side-long glances, 

 and incoherent articulations, garnished with a few fearful starts of 

 suspicious fear might supply. The mason I have seen and con- 

 versed with. He is a sharp witted fellow, and stood firmly under 

 my cross questioning, though I fancied he occasionally turned away 

 for a moment, as if to conceal a somewhat traitorous smile. Mark- 

 ing the tone of his language, and (considering his station in life) the 

 culture of his mind, I was not much surprised at finding a volume 

 of Shakespeare in his best parlour ; and I fancied that, in the depth 

 of my perceptive sagacity, I had obtained some clue to the truth in 

 a strong nail mark against the following passages in Richard the 

 Third :— 



Glocester. — Come, cousin; canst thou quake and change thy 

 colour? 

 Murder thy breath in middle of a word? 

 And then again begin — and stop again — 

 As if thou wert distraught and mad with terror? 



Buckingham.— Tut, 1 can counterfeit the deep tragedian : 



Speak and look back and pry on every side ; 

 Tremble and start at wagging of a straw ; 

 Intending deep suspicion, &c. &c. 



If, for Glocester and Buckingham, we read Mason and Plumber, 

 there is no reason to wonder at the condition of matters among the 

 congregation of the abbey. 



The general belief with the members of that respected body, is 

 simply this, — that the phantoms of Mary, the Sexton's daughter, 

 and of her lover, have taken up permanent quarters on the leads of 

 the abbey tower. Upon this leading fact they are all agreed ; but 

 there are many differences of opmion and variations of statement as 

 to the minor points of the legend, which I should have found diffi- 

 cult to reconcile, but for the kindness of the parish apothecary — an 

 old gentleman of not less moral than medical sagacity — and whose 

 account is to be in every respect relied upon, inasmuch as he was 

 most intimately known to the several leading characters of the drama. 

 The apothecary evidently prided himself upon his talent at narrative, 

 and possibly cherished the abbey legend as among his most favour- 



