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In some places the midniglit host consists of the souls of un- 

 baptised children instead of dogs. A Devonshire legend says 

 that Sir Francis Drake once drove a hearse into Plymouth, at 

 night, drawn by headless horses and followed by a pack of yell- 

 ing hounds without heads. 



Night after night a coach whirls along the rough approach 

 to Langley Hall, Durham, drawn by black and fiery steeds. 

 The same story is also to be met with in Northumberland. 



In the Hartz mountains the wild huntsman is supposed to be 

 the Wandering Jew, and in some parts of France when a peasant 

 hears the sudden roar of the wind at night, he crosses himself 

 and mutters " the Wandering Jew." 



In an earher stage of the myth it is Oden or Woden, who 

 mounted on his milk-white steed careers nightly through the 

 woods with his legion of hell-hounds. 



We have in the wild hunter and his host a personification of 

 the storm, as it is heard sweeping over the country at night — 

 one of those nature-myths that form the basis of so much of the 

 mythology of the Aryan races. 



Peg O'Nell. 



This legend, which Mr. Eoby has worked up under the title of 

 " The Demon of the Dell," is as follows : Many years ago there 

 Hved at Waddow Hall, on the banks of the Eibble, near Clitheroe, 

 a servant maid who gives her name to the story. One winter's 

 day she quarrelled with her mistress as she was going from the 

 house, down to the spring near the river-side, to fetch some 

 water. After high words, her mistress said, in moment of anger, 

 " I hope you will slip and break your neck." The ground being 

 slippery, the poor girl did fall and her mistress's unkind words 

 were verified. After this when anything went wrong at Waddow, 

 or whenever any mishap occurred in the neighbourhood, it was 

 always said to be Peg's doing. Beyond this, once in every seven 

 years, on what was called " Peg's Night," she demanded a sac- 

 rifice, and if some animal or bird was not slaughtered at the 

 river 'side, she claimed a human being. One stormy night, in 

 the days before any bridge had been built at Brungerley, a 

 young man sought to get to Clitheroe on horseback, by fording 

 the river near the Hipping Stones. He had previously been 

 warned at the inn at Waddington of the danger of the enterprise ; 

 for not only was the night tempestuous and the river swollen, 

 but it was Peg's Night, and she had not had her victim. With 

 the headstrong daring of youth, he ridiculed their fears and set 

 out on his journey in defiance of the spirit. As was to be 

 expected, he never reached his home, and neither man nor horse 

 was ever seen again. 



