BALA TO SHREWSBURY. 211 



tlon foon reached them that Elkes had fled towards 

 London. Two horfemen were therefore hnmedi- 

 ately difpatched in purfuit of him. Thefe men were 

 riding along the road near South Mims in Hertford- 

 fliire, when they were furprized by the fmgular 

 actions of <-wo ravens, that were perched on a cock 

 of hav in an adjoining field. The birds made an 

 unuiual noife, and furioufly pulled about the hay with 

 their beaks. Curiofity alone, the men faid, induced 

 them to alight, and fee what could be the caufe of 

 fijch fingular adions. They threw down the heap 

 of hay, and were aftonifhed to difcover beneath it 

 the man of whom they were in fearch. He aflerted 

 that, thefe two birds had followed him mceflantly, 

 from the time that the murder had been committed. 

 This unhappy victim of avarice was conveyed to 

 Shrewfbury, tried, condemned, and afterwards hung 

 in chains on Knochin heath*. 



Kynaston's Cave, 



A few miles from Knochin I paflfed under a high 

 rock of red free- (lone., called Nefs Cliff. In the 

 fouth-eafl fide of this rock there is a cave, which 

 has the name of Kynafton's Cave. This was a 

 place of occalional retreat to Humphrey, the fon of 

 fir Roger Kynaflon, conftable of Harlech caftle, and 

 IS. party of his mad companions. He was outlawed 

 jn the fixth year of the reign of Henry VII,, wasi 



* Phillips's Hiftory of Shrewfbury. App. 233. 



p J par- 



