LOUGH DERG. 241 



hole can, to this day, hear plainly and dis- 

 tinctly the whole octave peal." 



" And this is the sort of story wherewith 

 you humbug the natives ?" said the Captain. 



" It is no humbug at all," said the Parson. 

 " The legend of the bell-hole in Chichester 

 Harbour is as I tell vou ; and as for the 

 lost tenor, I have heard it myself." 



" Bravo, Parson ! the Squire was not far 

 wrong." 



" Stop a moment," said the Parson. " I 

 said that this story bore all the marks of a 

 true legend : it is strictly local, — that is to 

 say, it will fit no other place in the world. 

 There is at the confluence of Chichester 

 Harbour and Bosham Creek that curious 

 whirlpool. There are, no doubt, natural 

 causes why it should be so round and deep — 

 deeper, in fact, than the rest of the har- 

 bour ; but these causes are not evident. 

 Moreover, if you stand there when the bells 

 are ringing, you do hear the octave bell, 

 which bell does not now exist in the Bosham 

 peal, and which, tradition says, was taken 

 from them by the Danes. Now remember, 

 what I call a true legend is an attempt 

 made by an imaginative people to account 



R 



