WILD DARELL 175 



The story, which first became widely known through 

 a footnote appended to Sir Walter Scott's " Rokeby," 

 is of a midwife summoned from the village of ShefFord, 

 seven miles away, on a false pretence of attending 

 Lady Knyvett, of Charlton, near by, and of her being 

 blindfolded and led on horseback in the darkness of 

 the night to quite another house, in one of whose 

 stately rooms lay a mysterious masked lady for whom 

 her services were required. The horrid legend then 

 goes on to say that a tall, slender gentleman, a 

 lowering and ferocious-looking man, " havinge uppon 

 hym a goune of blacke velvett," entered the room 

 with some others, and, without a word, took the 

 child from her arms and threw it upon a blazing fire 

 in an ante-room, crushing it into the flaming logs 

 with his boot-heel, so that it was presently consumed. 



A prime horror, this, and rich in ferocity, mystery, 

 and all the incertitude that comes of age and con- 

 flicting testimony. Masked lady, blmdfolded nurse, 

 burnt baby, taciturn and horrible stranger, what 

 lurid figures are these ! and how royally abused for 

 the possession of an over-imaginative mind Avould be 

 that novelist who should dare conceive incidents so 

 romantic ! 



Scott gleaned his traditions from the weird legends 

 current in the country-side. They had, when he first 

 printed them, been the fireside gossip of that district 

 for over two hundred years, and of course in that 

 length of time had lost nothing in the repetition. 

 For that reason we are asked nowadays to discredit 

 them altogether. We cannot, however, do that, 

 because there came to light some years ago the actual 



