SUPERSTITIOUS PEAR OP RAVENS. 
evenings lie observed the same thing repeated. This set the great 
general considering, and no donbt made him uneasy ; for in those 
days great folks as well as small had unbounded faith in “ augurs ” 
and foreshadowings, and the raven, even at that early period, 
was regarded with considerable awe. Caesar, however, came to 
the sensible conclusion that possibly the bird came there to 
drink, so he ordered the spot to be examined, and the result 
was the discovery of a spring, and the thirst of his soldiers was 
satisfied. The spring was at once named Ravensbourne, or 
Ravensbrook ; and hence the river Ravensbourne got its name. 
In the 'same ancient volume I read, that once upon a time 
there lived at Middle, in Shropshire, one Thomas Elkes. Elkes 
was left guardian to his eldest brother’s child who was an 
infant. The infant stood between Thomas Elkes and a large 
estate, so he hired a boy to entice his little nephew into a corn- 
field to gather flowers. Sending home the decoy he took his 
little ward in his arms, carried him to a pond at the further 
end of the field, and there drowned him. The child was, shortly 
after, missed, and suspicion falling on Elkes, he fled and took the 
road to London. Mounted officers were despatched in pursuit 
of him, and as the pursuers were speeding along the high road 
near South Mims, in Middlesex, they saw two ravens sitting 
on a cock of hay, scattering it about with their feet and beaks, 
and making a loud croaking. Beneath the hay-cock lay the 
murderer, who at once confessed that the ravens had followed 
him ever since he had done the murder. He was brought back 
to Shrewsbury, condemned to death, and hung in chains on 
Khockin heath. 
It is a curious fact that a bird of so grave and sedate a de- 
meanour, should so affeet inns and taverns. Whether it is that 
being burthened with an evil conscience, he seeks there to drown 
it, not by indulging in intoxicating liquor, but rather in the row 
and riot consequent on its absorption by mortals, or whether, 
being of a cynical turn, he delights in the contemplation of folks 
doing the same thing from the most opposite reasons, — drink- 
ing, because they are jolly, because they are miserable, because 
they can afford it, and because they are so wretchedly poor, — 
is more than I can say. I only know that of the few remaining 
ravens left in London, at least one half are attached to public- 
houses, and nearly always to such houses as adhere to the old 
custom of sign-posts and water-troughs. 
Some years ago there was attached to a tavern at Stoke New- 
ington, a raven whose great antipathy was grey, or white horses. 
37 
