to Worcester to buy something that had neither top nor bottom, but which could hold flesh, blood, and bones.—A wedding ring.
(From Mansell Jones, Wedbley, aged 81.)
Monmouthshire.
I am indebted to Mr. Illtyd Gardner, of Abergavenny, for the following notes:
Underground Passages.—Several places in Monmouthshire have the well-known legend of an underground passage leading generally to the church, and most of these supposed and non-existent passages have the equally universal and persistent story of a dog having been put in at one end and having come out days (or even weeks) later at the other terribly emaciated and with his skin nearly torn off. Fifty years ago this was alleged of Llanthony, where the passage went right under the mountain to Longtown, of Raglan Castle, and of Hostrey Court, near Usk; and up to much more recent times of Abergavenny Castle. The latter had steps leading underground, and I knew a man who swore he had been down the passage "more than 100 yards." Careful examination, in which I took part, about 1885, proved this to be a large wine cellar, with no passage except its entrances.
Sites.—The Two Sisters Story is often told in various forms about churches near together. It is connected with Llangwm Isha and Llangwm Usha, and about the two naves of Pakefield Church, in Suffolk. Various reasons are given for the rivalry between the sisters.
Llanfair Kilgeddin Church is in a most inconvenient position in a bend of the Usk, far from the inhabitants, and surrounded by water at every high flood. When my father, born in 1811, was a boy an old man told him that the church was to have been built on a much better and higher site, near the house now called St. Mary's. But all that was built in the day was knocked down by the Devil at night, until an angel directed that the building should be recommenced on the present site, and even carried the stones there for the builders. Possibly the present site, being surrounded by running water, prevented the Devil from having power there: it is an island at flood times now.
