usehold traditions, reminding us of kindred stories on the
Continent, where the so-called White Lady has long been an object of
dread.

There has, too, long been a strange notion that when storms, heavy
rains, or other elemental strife, take place at the death of a great
man, the spirit of the storm will not be appeased till the moment of
burial. This belief seems to have gained great strength on the
occasion of the Duke of Wellington's funeral, when, after some weeks
of heavy rain, and some of the highest floods ever known, the skies
began to clear, and both rain and flood abated. It was a common
observation in the week before the duke's interment, "Oh, the rain
won't give o'er till the Duke is buried!"

FOOTNOTES:

[39] "Family Romance"--Sir Bernard Burke--1853, ii., 200-210.

[40] In 1641 there was published a tract, with a frontispiece, entitled
"A True Relation of an Apparition, in the Likeness of a Bird with a
white breast, that appeared hovering over the Death-bed of some of the
children of Mr. James Oxenham, &c."

[41] This tradition has been wrought into a romantic story, entitled
"Chartley, or the Fatalist."

[42] "Popular Romances of West of England."

CHAPTER XI.

WEIRD POSSESSIONS.

"But not a word o' it; 'tis fairies' treasure,
Which, but revealed, brings on the blabber's ruin."
MASSINGER'S "_Fatal Dowry_."

From the earliest days a strange fatality has been supposed to cling
to certain things--a phase of superstition which probably finds as
many believers nowadays as when Homer wrote of the fatal necklace of
Eriphyle that wrought mischief to all who had been in possession of
it. In numerous cases, it is difficult to account for the prejudice
thus displayed, although occasionally it is based on some traditionary
story. But whatever the origin of the luck, or ill-luck, attaching to
sundry family possessions, such heirlooms have been preserved with a
kind of superstitious care, handed down from generation to generation.

One of the most remarkable curiosities connected with family
superstitions is what is commonly known as "The Coalstoun Pear," the
strange antecedent history of which is thus given in a work entitled,
"The Picture of Scotland": "Within sight of the House of Lethington,
in Haddingtonshire, stands the mansions of Coalstoun, the seat of the
ancient family of Coalstoun, whose estate passed by a series of heirs
of line into the possession of the Coun