I 



MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 155 



glee, protected by the mighty name of the Badger. — One of these tangled 

 banks was immediately below an ancient place of sepulture, where, previous- 

 ly to the Reformation, there had been a little chapel. This place was still 

 the burial-ground for the barony ; and it was a place not altogether free from 

 the suspicion of things unearthly. There was a large equisetum-tufted pool, 

 between the knoll of which the cemetry occupied the summit and the higher 

 grounds above; and ignesfatiii sometimes sported on its margins, under the 

 suspicious name of " elfin candles." Besides, immediately under the south- 

 west angle of the little enclosure, there flowed a fountain of pure and spark- 

 ling water, so abundant that it would have sufficed permanently to turn a 

 mill. This fountain abated not a jot of its quantity and altered not a degree 

 of its temperature, summer or winter, wet or dry ; and while all around was 

 coated with snow to the depth of two or three feet, this fountain not only 

 remained "clear in the eye," but the stream from it flowed smoking along 

 an open channel, proof alike against the powdering snow and the curdling 

 frost. The springs of these things, fountain and all, lay deeper than the rus- 

 tic philosophy, and thus, as the general custom is, they were sent to the 

 limbo of superstition, and all who dwelt immediately thereabout along with 

 them. The sod upon some graves, one summer, sunk deeper than had ever 

 been known to proceed from the mere insatiate yawning of that " daughter 

 of the Horse-leech" for the relatives of the occupant ; and the suspicion of 

 foul play — to the brim of horror's deep chalice — fell upon the Badgers. The 

 " landwehr" were summoned ; and they came girt with fierceness or with 

 fear, and armed with spades, mattocks, and pitchforks, to take by sap and 

 mine the stronghold of the grey -pates, and let the light of heaven shine upon 

 the den of their secret abominations. One party plied the work with mattock 

 and spade, while another stood with their arms prepared in case the besieged 

 should make a hostile sortie, or attempt escape ; and to guard against the lat- 

 ter some dozen of curs had been brought as auxiliaries At length they 



came to a little chamber, in which thei'e was a small quantity of withered 

 gi'ass, but not a single vestige of bone or other animal remains. Again 

 they worked away ; and soon the male Badger made his appearance and his 

 escape, the opening ranks on either side greatly contributing to speed the 

 latter, and one man declared, with " ecce signum" display, that the monster 

 had " dinted his steel spade with only a passing snap." Two or three griev- 

 ous whines from the curs gave proof that the Badger could "dint" some- 

 thing else, and soon a most trivunphant flourish of yelping announced that 



he was fairly in the next cover and the danger over It was now resolved to 



change the mode of attack, and proceed by fire and smoke. When these 

 were continued till all within must be either roasted or suffocated, they be- 

 gan to dig anew, and after passing another chamber which contained only 

 grass as before, they came to a third, containing the bodies of a suffocated fe- 

 male and three cubs, the latter very small in size, and two of them clinging 

 to the teats of their mother. These bodies were not treated with that de- 

 corum which became a generous foe in the hour of victory. It was found 

 that the excavation reached no farther than the entrance and the three 

 chambers, so that the Badgers could have had no subterraneous communica- 

 tion with the graves, whicli rendered the sunken appearance more a matter 

 of alarm than ever. Throughout the whole burrow, there was not the small- 

 est vestige of any animal remains — nothing but " beddings" of grass, rather 



