d from the park, which feat she will
not be able to effect till the end of the world. Mr Dyer also goes on to
say that in the hamlet of Dean Combe, Devon, there once lived a weaver
of great fame and skill, who the day after his death was seen sitting
working away at the loom as usual. A parson was promptly fetched, and
the following conversation took place.

"Knowles!" the parson commanded (not without, I shrewdly suspect, some
fear), "come down! This is no place for thee!" "I will!" said the
weaver, "as soon as I have worked out my quill." "Nay," said the vicar,
"thou hast been long enough at thy work; come down at once." The spirit
then descended, and, on being pelted with earth and thrown on the ground
by the parson, was converted into a black hound, which apparently was
its ultimate shape.

Some years ago, Mr Dyer says, there was an accident in a Cornish mine
whereby several men lost their lives, and, rather than that their
relatives should be shocked at the sight of their mangled remains, some
bystander, with all the best intentions in the world, threw the bodies
into a fire, with the result that the mine has ever since been haunted
by a troop of little black dogs.

According to the _Book of Days_, ii. p. 433, there is a widespread
belief in most parts of England in a spectral dog, "large, shaggy, and
black," but not confined to any one particular species. This phantasm is
believed to haunt localities that have witnessed crimes, and also to
foretell catastrophes. The Lancashire people, according to Harland and
Wilkinson in their _Lancashire Folk-lore_, call it the "stuker" and
"trash": the latter name being given it on account of its heavy,
slopping walk; and the former appellation from its curious screech,
which is a sure indication of some approaching death or calamity. To the
peasantry of Norfolk and Cambridgeshire it is known as "the shuck," an
apparition that haunts churchyards and other lonely places. In the Isle
of Man a similar kind of phantasm, called "the Mauthe dog," was said to
walk Peel Castle; whilst many of the Welsh lanes--particularly that
leading from Mowsiad to Lisworney Crossways--are, according to Wirt
Sikes' _British Goblins_, haunted by the gwyllgi, a big black dog of the
most terrifying aspect.

Cases of hauntings by packs of spectral hounds have from time to time
been reported from all parts of the United Kingdom; but mostly from
Northumberland, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumberland, Wales,