Childrey. 
Hertfordshire 
Bourne. 
Childrey. 
Yorkshire 
Vipseys. 
Richard 
Burton’s 
*« Admirable 
Curiosities, 
Rarities, and 
Wonders in 
England, 
Scotland, and 
Treland,” 
1682. 
Bourne near 
St. Albans. 
Leland’s 
“ Ttinerary,”” 
3rd edition. 
Dr. Robert 
Plot. 
Nailbourne 
near 
Canterbury. 
6 
Under the head of Hertfordshire he says : 
“« There is near St. Albans a brook called Wenmere, 
or Womere, which never breaketh out but it foretelleth 
dearth and scarcity of corn, or else some extraordinary 
dangerous times shortly to ensue, as the common people 
believe.” 
Under the head of Yorkshire, he says: 
“Near Flamborough Head (saith Camden) it is 
reported that there are certain waters called Vipseys, 
which flow every other year out of blind springs, and 
run with a very violent stream through the low land, 
into the sea. They rise (they say) from many springs 
meeting together within the ground, which makes their 
When they are dry it 
is a good sign; but when they break out they say it is 
a certain sign of dearth to follow.” 
In a book called “* Admirable Curiosities, Rarities, 
and Wonders in England, Scotland, and Ireland,” by 
R. B——, published in 1682, under the head of ‘ Hart- 
‘¢ There is a Brook near St. Albans 
called Wenmere or Wo.ner which never breaketh 
stream so forcible on a sudden. 
fordshire ”’ he says : 
out but it foretelieth scarcity of corn or else some 
extraordinary dangerous times to ensue as the vulgar 
believe.” 
In the second volume of Leland’s ‘ Itinerary,” 3rd 
edition, page 168, a notice of Dr. Robert Plot’s account 
of a designed journey through England and Wales is 
given, in which he speaks as matters for consideration, 
‘of the Nailbourn near Canterbury ; a Rivulet which 
they have but once in seven or ten years, it’s Channel 
is always apparent and has a bridge or two over it, but 
there never runs any water (though there fall great 
Rains) but once in seven or ten years which is a notorious 
Truth,”’ 
