ound a rock in the middle of the stream, while at
night it came forth from the river and harried the country side. It
sucked the cows' milk, devoured the lambs, worried the cattle, and
frightened all the women and girls of the district, and then it would
retire for the rest of the night to the hill, still called the Worm
Hill, on the north side of the Wear, about a mile and a half from
Lambton Hall.

This terrible visitation brought young Lambton, of Lambton Hall, to his
senses. He took upon himself the vows of the Cross, and departed for the
Holy Land, in the hope that the scourge he had brought upon his district
would disappear. But the grisly Worm took no heed, except that it
crossed the river and came right up to Lambton Hall itself where the old
lord lived on all alone, his only son having gone to the Holy Land. What
to do? The Worm was coming closer and closer to the Hall; women were
shrieking, men were gathering weapons, dogs were barking and horses
neighing with terror. At last the steward called out to the dairy maids,
"Bring all your milk hither," and when they did so, and had brought all
the milk that the nine kye of the byre had yielded, he poured it all
into the long stone trough in front of the Hall.

The Worm drew nearer and nearer, till at last it came up to the trough.
But when it sniffed the milk, it turned aside to the trough and
swallowed all the milk up, and then slowly turned round and crossed the
river Wear, and coiled its bulk three times round the Worm Hill for the
night.

Henceforth the Worm would cross the river every day, and woe betide the
Hall if the trough contained the milk of less than nine kye. The Worm
would hiss, and would rave, and lash its tail round the trees of the
park, and in its fury it would uproot the stoutest oaks and the loftiest
firs. So it went on for seven years. Many tried to destroy the Worm, but
all had failed, and many a knight had lost his life in fighting with
the monster, which slowly crushed the life out of all that came near it.

At last the Childe of Lambton came home to his father's Hall, after
seven long years spent in meditation and repentance on holy soil. Sad
and desolate he found his folk: the lands untilled, the farms deserted,
half the trees of the park uprooted, for none would stay to tend the
nine kye that the monster needed for his food each day.

The Childe sought his father, and begged his forgiveness for the curse
he had brought on the Hall.