CRIER OF CLAIFE. 41 



the lake, peeping out of the evergreen woods. 

 There he obtains fine views, up and down the lake ; 

 and may mark on the way up, the largest laurels 

 he has ever seen. His driver, or some resident, will 

 probably take care that he does not stay till it is 

 more than reasonably dusk. 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 to the Ferry Nab in the ferry-boat, except by 

 daylight. And if you should arrive at the Nab too 

 late, you may call all night for the boat, and it will 

 not come. The traveller must judge for himself how 

 much of the local tale may be true. He may pro- 

 bably 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 Ferry Nab. If he asks who 

 or what the Crier was, — that is precisely what 

 nobody can tell, though everybody would be glad 

 to know : but we know all how and about it, 

 except just what it really was. It gave its name 

 to the place now called the Crier of Claife, — the 

 old quarry in the wood, which no man will go near 

 at midnight. It was about the time of the Reform- 

 ation, when a party of travellers were making 

 merry at the Ferry House, — then a humble tavern, 

 — that a call for the boat was heard from the Nab. 

 A quiet, sober boatman 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 

 returned alone, ghastly and dumb with horror. 

 Next morninfr he was in a high fever : and in a 

 few days he died, without having been prevailed 



