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Pin's Hill," in Leigh, adjoins the field called Win's Grave," and a place called Little Towbury*, and is near Hopton †.

Win's (or Wynn's) Grave§ is supposed by some to have been the burial place of a giant of that name. Now I do not wish to rob the supposed giant of his grave, if he is entitled to it; but there may be a question, whether it was not supposed, in days of yore, that the fairy "Pin," and her neighbours "Patch," Grim," "Lull,"" Sib," and "Tib," and all the tribe at Osebury Rock, buried their sister "Win" at the spot in question.

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The fairies, although long-lived, were nevertheless supposed by some writers to be mortal. See the account of the birth and death of Oberon in Halliwell's "Fairy Mythology," pp. 102, 119; and Drayton, in his " Nymphidia," in describing the battle between Oberon and Pigwiggen, says, that they

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"Both to be slain were likely."

In the north of England, "green shady spots are pointed out by the country-folks as the cemeteries of the tiny people ||."

Some writers, however, describe them as immortals.

In connection with the name Wiggen may be mentioned that there was in Worcestershire, in the Anglo-Saxon times, a place called Uuiggangeat ¶ (Wiggingate), and Wiggen-hall, in Norfolk; Wiggin-thorpe, in Yorkshire; Wiggins-hall, near Tibs-hall, in Warwickshire; Wiggen Ash, in Much Marcle, Co. Hereford; and Wiggenton, in Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire, and Staffordshire. In the northern counties, the mountain ash is called the

by the name of "Amber," which signified any thing solar or divine. See Chap. II., Ambrosia Petræ, p. 372, &c.

*There also is a place called Great Towbury, in Leigh. See p. 64, as to Towbury Hill Camp, in Twyning, Gloucestershire.

+ Heming's "Cartulary" notices Hoptun, in Shropshire, and Hopwuda (Hopwood), in Worcestershire, see pp. 276, 610.

"Win" in Anglo-Saxon implies a battle. See Gough's "Camden," Vol. i., p. 160.

§ The word "grave" is sometimes a corruption of "grove" and vice versa. See the account of Bromsgrove, pp. 115, 118, 122.

See "Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales," a sequel to the "Nursery Rhymes of England," by Mr. Halliwell.

See" Codex Dip.," No. 570.

wiggen tree, and its anti-witching properties are there held in great esteem*.

The ash tree holds a conspicuous place in Scandinavian mythology. In the "Edda of Snorro" (Fable the 8th), it is stated that the city of the gods is under the ash, "the greatest and best of all trees;" and that "there are in heaven a great many pleasant cities, and none without a divine garrison. Near the fountain, which is under the ash, stands a very beautiful city, wherein dwell three virgins, named Urda, or the Past; Verdandi, or the Present; and Sskulda, or the Future. These are they who dispense the ages of men; they are called nornies, that is, fairiest, or destinies." Some are of celestial origin, others descend from the genii, and others from the dwarfs." "The nornies who are sprung of a good origin, are good themselves, and dispense good destinies; but those men to whom misfortunes happen, ought to ascribe them to the evil nornies or fairies."

But we must return to the parish of Leigh. There is a cross road, called "Tinker's Cross," in this parish, where formerly stood an old yew tree, said to mark the site of a criminal's grave §. This place is said to be haunted; and Mr. John Pressdee, of Worcester, has informed me that, one night about fifty years ago, one of his father's servants came home to Millham, in Alfrick, frightened almost to death, and stated that he had been to see his father, who lived in Gallows Lane, in Leigh, and as he passed "Tinker's Cross," on his return home, he saw a strange thing there, something like a lion, with eyes as big as saucers. Mr. Pressdee said, that the man appeared to

* See Hone's "Every-day Book and Table Book," Vol. iii., p. 674.

+ In the Fifth fable of the same work, it is stated that man was created out of aske, the Gothic for an ash tree; and woman out of emla, or the elm tree. Nornir (Islandic), is rather "fates" or "destinies" (parca.)

§ The traditions are very confused as to the tinker's crime. His burial in the cross road, prima facie, goes to show that he committed suicide, and some say that the yew tree was originally a stake that was driven through his body; but I am inclined to think that he committed an atrocious murder at the spot in question, and was executed there, to render the example as signal as possible; for one of the roads leading thereto is called "Gallows Lane."

be perfectly sober at the time, and that he was ill for several days afterwards, from the fright.

The unbelievers, no doubt, will say that in the gloomy shades of night he saw some harmless animal-perhaps a calf or jackass -at the dreaded spot, with wondering instead of wondrous eyes, which his heated imagination worked up into something supernatural; but believers, no doubt, will contend that it was Puck, and that the following quotation from a curious old tract by Rowlands, on Goblins," tends to identify him :

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Amongst the rest was a Good-Fellow devill,
So cal'd in kindness, 'cause he did no evill;
Knowne by the name of Robin (as we heare),
And that his eyes as broad as sawcers were,
Who came a-nights*, &c."

Patch Ham, in Lulsley, lies near the river Teme, by Puttocks or Pot-hooks-end.

Oseberrow or Osebury (vulgo Rosebury) Rock, in Lulsley, was, according to tradition, a favourite haunt of the fairies. Close by it, westward, in Knightwick, there is a well called "Black's Well;" and adjoining to it, eastward, there is a piece of land called "Black Borough;" close to it, southward, stands " Bate's Bush."

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The etymology of the first syllable in the name Oseberrow is probably the same as osier;" trees of the willow kind abounding at the foot of the rock, upon the banks of the river Teme. The provincial term "berrow" is used indiscriminately both for "burgh," a fortified place, and for "barrow," an ancient place of sepulture; however, I should think, from the character and commanding position of the rock (it being opposite to Knightsford), that in this case burgh or burrow is meant.

Black's Well used to be on the side of the Sandy Lane, by Osebury Rock; but the road having lately been made straighter at that part, it now is a few yards out of the lane, on the left

* See Halliwell's "Fairy Mythology," p. 170; and in pp. 12, 13, of the Introduction to that work it is stated that " a manuscript of the thirteenth century, in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, appears to refer to the name and pranks of Robin Goodfellow, under the name of Robinet.'"

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hand side going down. This well and Osebury Rock, Black Borough, Common Berrow, and Sherah Croft, Little Berrow, and Pen Hill, are nearly all in a line.

Bate's Bush is a large, old maple tree, which stands in the middle of the cross road by Osebury Rock. This is said to have been a stake driven through the body of a man named Bate, who committed suicide and was buried there. There are several trees spontaneously springing up round the maple, namely, an oak, a holly, a hazel, and a hawthorn; and it is to be hoped, when the venerable maple is no more, that some one of these will remain to perpetuate the bush.

The place is reported to be haunted, and the following is given as an instance of it :

As a person of the name of William Yapp was one night, about forty years ago, returning from his father's house, situated by Alfrick Chapel, to Dodenham Hall, he had to pass by Bate's Bush; when arrived there, the dog that accompanied him, and was a little in advance, came howling mysteriously back to him, out of the Sandy Lane. He, however, went on, but had not proceeded far before he saw something which he took to be a man without a head*, leaning with his back against the steep bank on the Osebury Rock side of the lane; at which he was so frightened that he did not dare to go up to it, but hurried away home as fast as he could runt.

I have also been informed how that a certain person of the name of Ball, about forty-five or fifty years ago, went from his house, near Lulsley Chapel, to see a man of the name of Broad, who lived at Wildgoose Hill, in Knightwick, and that his son, who went at night to fetch him home, was met at Bate's Bush by some strange thing, which frightened him almost to death. Also, how that a man, of the name of Parry, was one night met at the same bush by something like a black pig; and that another person, as he was one night returning home from Oldham, near the Red Cliff and the Devil's Pig-trough, to Colles or Coles

* There is a place called Headless Cross at Ipsley, Co. Warwick.

+ I had this from his surviving sister.

I had this from the son and others.

(vulgo Cold) Place*, in Lulsley, was met by a mysterious-looking black dog, who sometimes rushed close by him, then appeared again at a distance, and thus dodged him nearly all the way till he got home.

The sceptics, no doubt, will say that some mischievous wight occasionally personified Bate at the spot in question, and that the pig was nothing more than mortal, and had wandered to the bush from some neighbouring stye; that the dog (equally mortal) had lost his master, and was roving about Lulsley to find another. The believers, on the other hand, will contend that it really was Bate who thus appeared, and that although he had no head, yet that he had a tale to unfold, which those he met were not civil enough to wait to hear; and that the pig did indeed wander to the dreaded bush from a neighbouring place, but that it was from the Devil's Pig-trough †, and that he was of kin to the black dog, who was no other than the fairy Grim, who sometimes went about in the likeness of a black dog, and that Oldham was in his nightly round from Osebury Rock, Black Borough, the Red Cliff, the Devil's Pig-trough, Grimsend, and Bate's Bush, to Black's Well, where having slaked his thirst, he returned again to the rock.

This road was much more interestingly haunted at the part between Grimsend and Bates Bush, at the copse which lies between the former and Ravenhill's (vulgo Raffnal's) Green. I have been informed by a person, that as his father, about seventy or eighty years ago, was proceeding at dead of night from Patches in Alfrick to Lulsley, he saw, as it is said others also occasionally did at the same spot, a beautiful young female figure, all in white, standing by the roadside; his horse turned suddenly round, but upon being forced back again by his rider, he started off at full gallop by the enchanting vision, and never stopped till he arrived at his journey's end t.

See the section "Old Coles."

+ Grimm, in his "German Fairy Mythology," furnishes some instances of the Evil One assuming the shape of a "hog." See "Athenæum," Sept. 18, 1847, p. 982.

Horses are supposed to see ghosts, even when the ghosts are invisible to their riders. Upon my once asking a countryman whether he had ever seen a ghost, he said, "No, but my horse has."