

HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. 273 



Monks'-farm, which "was formerly given to the Abbot of the Bene- 

 dictine Monastery at Shrewsbury, who had his occasional residence 

 there, as appears from the following words in the Monasticon, Vol. I. 

 p. 583 : Ricardus Dapifer Cestrice dedit abbate Benedictinorum de 

 Salop, habitationem hermeticam in Sylva de Suttond."* 



Between Sutton and Forton is a conical building of stone, origi- 

 nally a windmill, or intended as such. It was built in its present 

 form as an object to improve the view from Aqualate-hall by a for- 

 mer possessor. At the bottom of a hilly field called the Yeld, and 

 opposite to this building, is a fountain called Wins-well, which con- 

 tains several springs of excellent water. 



Mereton, or Meertown, is an hamlet, which derives its name from 

 the neighbouring lake. The manor is termed the manor of Meer 

 and Forton, and the latter was included in the former at the Con- 

 quest. Near to this hamlet is a pool called Moss-pool, respecting 

 which a superstitious notion existed in the time of Plot : the 

 rising thereof was taken for a certain sign of a dearth of corn ! f 

 Two other prognostics of a less alarming description are recorded 

 by the same author, (ch. i. sec. 50. 51.) as being a communication 

 made to Edwin Skrymsher, of Aqualat, Esq. by Samuel Taylor, a 

 person belonging to the Severn, but employed by Mr. Skrymsher 

 in making his boats, " who foretold such rains as are usual and fre- 

 quent by the winds backing to the sun, as he called it, i. e. opposing 

 its course : viz. the sun moving from east by south to west and 

 north, and so to east again ; and the wind from west by south to 

 east and north, and so to west again : ex. gr. suppose the wind now in 

 the north, if it shift thence to the east agreeable to the sun's course, 

 it most times proves fair ; but if it back to the sun, and shift westerly 

 and thence southerly, &c. so as to oppose its motion, it seldom fails 

 of bringing rain ; and so in all the other cardinal and intermediat 

 points. Much more accurat and certain was the same Samuel Taylor 

 in predicting the winds than the rains that attend them, though even 

 in this too he made use of the clouds themselves, which whenever 

 he perceived to rise in the form of the letter V. jagg'd on each 

 side, and therefore called h^ the watermen the Hartshead, he 

 forthwith concluded infallibly that the next point of the compass 

 to which the wind would shift, would be either the opposite one to 

 the most patulous part of the V. or Hartshead, (which though 

 happens but seldom) or the point to which the acute angle of the 

 * Gent. Mag. Vol. 71. p. 231. f Plot, ch. ii. sec. 29. 

 2 M 



