water ran by the side of--which laid for years--a
large stone, concerning which the following story is told: Once on a
time, a lovely blue-eyed girl, whose father was a substantial yeoman
in the neighbourhood, was wooed and won by the subtle arts of an
opulent owner of the Manor House of Buckland.

In the silence of the evening this lane was their accustomed walk, the
scene of her devoted love and of his deceitful vows. Here he swore
eternal fidelity, and the unsuspecting girl trusted him with the
confiding affection of her innocent heart. It was at such a moment
that the wily seducer communicated to her the real nature of his
designs, the moon above being only the witness of his perfidy and her
distress. She heard the avowal in tremulous silence, but her deadly
paleness, and her expressive look of mingled reproach and terror
created alarm even in the mind of her would-be seducer, and he hastily
endeavoured to recall the fatal declaration; but it was too late, she
sprang from his agitated grasp, and, with a sigh of agony, fell dead
at his feet.

When he beheld the work of his iniquitous designs, he was seized with
distraction, and drawing a dagger from his bosom, he plunged it into
his own false heart, and lay stretched by the side of her he had so
basely wronged. On the morrow, as a peasant passed over the little
stream, he saw a dark stone with drops of blood trickling from its
heart into the pure limpid water. From that day the stream retained
its untainted purity, and the stone continued its sacrifice of blood.

Soon afterwards a terrific object was seen hovering at midnight about
this fatal spot, taking its position at first upon the "bleeding
stone," but it was ousted by the lord of the manor, who removed the
blood-tainted stone to his own premises, to satisfy the timid minds of
his neighbours. But the stone still continued to bleed, nor did its
removal in any way intimidate the spectre. Connected with this
alarming midnight visitor, writes a correspondent of _The Gentleman's
Magazine_, "I remember a circumstance related to me by those who were
actually acquainted with the facts, and with the person to whom they
refer. An inhabitant of Buckland, who had attended Reigate Market and
become exceedingly intoxicated, was joked by a companion upon the
subject of the 'Buckland Shag,' whereupon he laid a wager that if Shag
appeared in his path that night he would fight him with his trusty
hawthorn. Accordingly he set f