MARLBOROUGH COLLEGE. 121 



after a good deal of investigation on my part, I find that children, 

 whose minds are saturated with this unholy lore, invariably dread 

 being alone when darkness falls upon the scene ; although, not 

 improbably to please a strong-minded mamma or nurse, they say 

 they are not afraid. 



Every rood of ground which helps to form our village site, if it 

 could only speak, might probably tell of strange events which at 

 one time or another happened there. Those who witnessed these 

 events not improbably imagined that at least an oral record of them 

 would remain until the end of time, as in the case of the sturdy 

 porter who defended the broken bridge at Rome. But my friend, 

 the postman — with whom I often smoke the pipe of peace and 

 friendship, and who knows more about the village in what we call 

 " old days " than anyone else now living — can tell little of what 

 occurred here beyond the early part of the present century. Within 

 this limit, however, we have ample food for entertainment, and even 

 the immortal "Grouse and the gun-room" would, I honestly believe, 

 have to yield before many of my friend's stories as a frequent 

 generator of mirth ; and we certainly have laughed at them for 

 more than " twenty years." 



One tradition, however, of quite a different type to witches, has 

 been current here so long, that its origin is lost in the mist of ages. 

 It seems to have some connecting link with the Roman camp close 

 by. It has been even said that it formed a favourite theme for 

 Cneius Julius Agricola to make merry over, and that he loved to 

 hear it when, weary with slaughtering ancient Britons, he flung 

 himself upon his couch, or cuhile of those days. Some scholars, 

 finding words used by Tacitus, have attributed the story to that 

 jerky old historian. But others declare that the Latin is very 

 "Monkish and corrupt." I met with the manuscript in Colonel 

 Barrow's " Log," and on the face of it is written in schoolboy 

 hand, a brief translation, accompanied by rude sketches, which here 

 I reproduce for the benefit of those whose studies have not extended 

 go far as to be able to decipher Latin, 



