91 



"The Sonne of this martyr is now living in the same parish and called 

 Christopher Home, an honest poore man, beinge about 78 or 79 yeres and borne 

 in queene maries tyme about a quarter of a yere before his father suffered. His 

 mother that promised to suffer with her husband and recanted after she was con- 

 demned, was after married to one Whocke [Hooke ?] of the parish of Teynton 

 within a myle or 2 of Newent, where her first husband was borne ; et hoc ex 

 relatione ejusdem Christopheri Home. By me John Deighton. I wish for the 

 reverence I beare to the memory of Mr. Fox, whose person and place of dwelling 

 I knew, and the honor and love I beare to his works, that this small error, which 

 is none of his, were amended. "Who" (says Mr. Nichols) "Mr. John Deighton 

 was we do not know," but Strype (Eccl. Memorials, iii 463) supposes him to have 

 been a worthy minister in those parts, and adopts his account. A John Deighton, 

 a surgeon, said to have been of great attainments as such, was Sheriff of Gloucester 

 1620 and 1624. He might have seen Foxe, who died in 1587. Gentlemen of the 

 name still hold a good position in the County of Gloucester. Noiirse's M.S. 

 records, that, "old John Ashman, of [Little] Cugley, removed his house and built 

 it in another place, which, they say, ended the curse, that was on the women for 

 bringing the wood to burn Mr. Horn, who, when he was at The Swann (the Duke 

 of Marlborough, which is now) burned off ye end of his finger in the candle ; being 

 asked why he did so, answered, that he did not much feel it, and so freely would 

 he give his body to be burned tor the saek of his Saviour Jesus Christ." 2 Fos. 226. 



About the year 1665 one Fairfax, a disbanded soldier, advised by Lilly the 

 astrologer, came down from London, and opened this hole, in hopes of discovering 

 grea"; riches therein, which drew many people thither. Some of them went i^to 

 the hole, and told incredible things concerning it ; at last one Witcomb going iu 

 drunk and dying there, put an end to all further examination. 



In the year 1884 I interviewed— I believe that is the proper phrase— one 

 Mary Maj'o, a widow, then living at Newent, aged 71. She told me that the 

 cave was reached by descending a flight of 15 steps, and that she had been there 

 frequently, with other children, but although she never went far into the inner 

 passage, her two grandfatliers, Paul Apperley — who lived at Tayntou— and 

 Richard Colwell, had been more adventurous. 



They knew there was a chest of treasure aljout midway between Cugley and 

 May Hill, because after toiling through the cavern for several hours, much of the 

 distance upon their hands and knees, for want of head-room, they saw what 

 appeared to be a large box, but it was on the other side of a stream of water so 

 deep and wide that they could not cross it, and while they were deliberating the 

 last piece of the pound of candles, which they had provided and taken with them, 

 fell, accidentally, into the water and they were left in utter darkness ! The 

 dfBculties they experienced in crawling out of the cavern, and the terrors occasioned 

 thereby, prevented all further attempts at exploration. My informant stated that 

 her grandfathers were young unmarried men when they engaged in this sub- 

 terranean enquiry, and from the best information I could obtain the date of it 

 WjOuld appear to be some time early in the reign of King George III. Many 

 other similar tales are current round May Hill, but after taking considerable pains 



