bably take care that he does not cross the Ferry after dark. 

 As reasons in plenty are always found for not marrying on a 

 Friday, so it is said to be impossible, somehow or other, to 

 get over the Ferry Nab in the ferry-boat, except by daylight. 

 Thus if you should arrive at the Nab too late, you may call 

 all night for a boat, and it will not come. The traveller may 

 judge for himself, how much of the local tale may be true. 

 He may, probably have heard of the Crier of Claife, whose 

 fame has spread far beyond the district ; but if not, he should 

 hear of the Crier now, while within sight of the Ferry Nab. 

 If he asks who the Crier was, — that is precisely what no- 

 body can tell him, though everybody would be glad to know: 

 but we know all how and about it, except just what it really 

 was. It gives its name to the place now called ' The Crier 

 of the Claife,' — the old quarry in the wood, which no man 

 will go near at midnight. It was about the time of the 

 Reformation, when a party of travellers were making merry 

 at the Ferry House, — then a humble tavern, — that a call 

 for a boat was heard from the Nab. A quiet, sober boat- 

 man obeyed the call, though the night was dark and fearful. 

 When he ought to be returning, the tavern guests stepped 

 out upon the shore, to see whom he would bring. He re- 

 turned alone, ghastly and dumb v/ith horror. Next morning 

 he was in a high fever ; and in a few days he died without 

 having been prevailed upon to say what he had seen at the 

 Nab. For weeks after, there were shouts, yells, and bowl- 

 ings at the Nab on every stormy night, and no boatman 

 would attend to any call after dark. The Reformation had 

 not penetrated the region ; and the monk of Furness, who 

 dwelt on one of the islands of the lake, was applied to to 

 exorcise the Nab. On Christmas day, he assembled the in- 

 habitants of Chapel Island, and performed in their presence, 

 services which should for ever confine the ghost to the quarry 



