Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/28

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TWO FOLK-TALES.


formed by the saint for their confinement is still shown on the common west of the village, and bears the denomination of the 'Crow Pound' to this day: it contains about a quarter of an acre of land surrounded by a mound of earth."

I learn from the Vicar of St. Neots, who has kindly written me on the subject during the present month, that the enclosure known as the "Crow Pound" is still discernible, and that the older inhabitants still call it by that name.

Torquay, 10th December, 1883.


TWO FOLK-TALES,

Told by a Herefordshire Squire, 1845-6.

WHEN I was a child," writes his daughter (27 June, 1882), "my father used to tell me the stories of Kentsham Bell and the King of the Cats, as they were told him by his nurse, who is now living near Ross, and is upwards of ninety years of age."


Kentsham Bell.

Great Tom of Kentsham was the greatest bell ever brought to England, but it never reached Kentsham safely, nor hung in any English tower. Where Kentsham is I cannot tell you, but long, long ago the good folk of the place determined to have a larger and finer bell in their steeple than any other parish could boast. At that time there was a famous bell-foundry abroad, where all the greatest bells were cast, and thither the Kentsham people sent to order their famous bell, and thither too sent many others who wanted greater bells than could be cast in England. And so it came to pass at length that