pper-in to the Bilsdale hounds, who related in all good faith how he
with his hounds had once hunted a witch in the shape of a hare that
escaped by a cundy, or underground drain, into a barn. When Dawson
entered, there was the witch in the form of an old woman lying panting
on the hay.

Again, the writer has in his possession the copy of an '_Old Charm to
make Brave_,' which was transcribed by Mr. R. Blakeborough, author of
_Yorkshire Wit, Character, Folklore, and Customs_, from the MS. book of
one David Naitby, a Bedale schoolmaster, during the early days of 1800.
It may interest the reader to quote a few lines therefrom:

'_We hid there (on the mountain top) in the shadow of the moon.
We left there an acorn yet green in its cup,
We left also a firchatt upon the great stone hurled by Thor;
To a fir branch we tied with a fine whang drawn from a bear we slew
The wing feather of an eagle which span towards us,
Yet it fell not to the earth, we twain caught it,
The one by the quill, the other by the feather part._'

After this the tale of 'In the Cliff Land of the Dane' may appear to be
not so very improbable.

Once more, the uprising of the thrawn corpse from the coffin in
'Ill-Steekit Ephraim' was narrated to the writer and his companion by a
bed-ridden but very intelligent moorland 'wife' some years ago when
walking along the Roman Wall beside Hot Bank farm or cottage. Finally,
he can still remember his early thrills over strawberries and cream when
told of the appearances of 'the Silky' or 'little grey lady' at Denton
Hall, which suggested the harsher variant of 'In my Lady's Bedchamber.'

In conclusion, it might perhaps be mentioned that the altar to Sylvanus
alluded to in 'Apud Corstopitum' is preserved at Stanhope Rectory on the
Wear, and that the writer possesses an altar dedicated--Deo (Mithras),
by L. Sentius Castus of the 6th Legion, which was formerly excavated at
Rutchester Camp, North Wylam, and is now at Otterburn.

* * * * *

Sir Walter Scott once said that no one had made more use of ghosts than
himself, but that he did not believe in them. Another authority
expressed his disbelief in them, 'because he had seen too many of them.'

Professor George Sinclair wrote his book, _Satan's Invisible World
Discovered_, to prove 'against the Saducees and Atheists of the present
age, that there are Devils, Spirits, Witches, and Apparitions, from
Authen