MISCELLANEA. 



103 



BRACKENFIELD. 

 At the junction of the roads leading from Knot Cross and 

 from Tansley to Brackenfield, is a spot called Mather's Grave, 

 where a poor fellow of this name was buried about the year 17 16. 

 He committed suicide in an old barn not fai from Brackenfield 

 Green. From various entries in the Morton registers, it may be 

 concluded that owing to the cloud which hung over him on 

 account of the birth of an illegitimate daughter, who was burden- 

 some To the ratepayers, he terminated his existence. Tradition 

 relates that he was drawn to his grave by two bullocks, and on 

 the way to his resting-place a raven ominously settled on the 

 body, when the oxen came to a stand. Some years ago, at the 

 widening of the highway, the body was found and re-interred 

 beneath the wall bounding the cottage garden close by. A large 

 stone is inserted in the wall with the initials " S. M." (Samuel 

 Mather), to which a spurious date has been recently added. 



CHESTERFIELD. 

 At the junction of the road from Tapton Grove with the high- 

 way from Chesterfield to Staveley a suicide was interred many 

 years ago. 



NOTTS. 

 There is a wayside grave at the junction of three roads between 

 Winkbourn and Hockerton, a few miles north-east of Southwell. 

 The story connected with this interment is a sad one. A poor 

 young packman accustomed to travel through that neighbour- 

 hood was waylaid by one Standley, the son of a gamekeeper to 

 " Squire " Pegg, of Winkbourn, and was struck down by a blow 

 on his head with a spade. The villain then interred the youth in 

 a wood close by, and no more was heard of the packman for 

 some time afterwards. Suspicion, however, was aroused by the 

 sale of some cloth by Standley, and the body was shortly after- 

 wards found by the father of the poor fellow, to whom the exact 

 spot where his boy was buried was revealed in a remarkable 

 dream. 



