FOLK LORE.
Three Maids.—There is a spot on the road from Winchester to Andover called the "Three Maids." They are I believe nameless. Tradition says that they poisoned their father, and were for that crime buried alive up to their necks. Travellers passing by were ordered not to feed them; but one compassionate horseman as he rode along threw the core of an apple to one, on which she subsisted for three days. Wonderful is it to state that three groups of firs sprung up miraculously from the graves of the three maids. Thus their memories have been perpetuated. The peasantry of Winchester and its neighbourhood for the most part accredit the story, and I see no reason for disbelieving the first part of it myself. Does any one know of a like punishment being awarded in olden times, when the tender mercies of the law were cruel and arbitrary?
Mother Russel's Post.—Whilst I am on the subject of folk lore I may as well add, that on the road to Kings Sombourn, of educational renown, there is a spot where four roads meet. Report says that a certain Mother Russel, who committed suicide, was buried there. A little girl in this village was afraid to pass the spot at night on account of the ghosts, which are supposed to haunt it in the hours of darkness. The rightful name of the place is "Mother Russel's Post."
Eustace W. Jacob.
Crawley.
Shrove Tuesday Custom (Vol. ix., p. 65.).—The Shrove Tuesday custom mentioned by Mr. Elliott as existing at Leicester, and an account of which he quotes from Hone's Year-Book, has been abolished within the last few years. There is, I believe, still a curious custom on that day at Ludlow, the origin and meaning of which has never, so far as I am aware, been discovered and stated.
"The corporation," I quote from a history of the town, "provide a rope, three inches in thickness, and in length thirty-six yards, which is given out at one of the windows of the Market House as the clock strikes four, when a large body of the inhabitants, divided into two parties, commence an arduous struggle, and as soon as either party gains the victory by pulling the rope beyond the prescribed limits, the pulling ceases, &c.
"Without doubt this singular custom is symbolical of some remarkable event, and a remnant of that ancient language of visible signs, which, says a celebrated writer, 'imperfectly supplies the want of letters to perpetuate the remembrance of public or private transactions.' The sign in this instance has survived the remembrance of the occurrence it was designed to represent, and remains a profound mystery. It has been insinuated that the real occasion of this custom is known to the corporation, but that, for some reason or other, they are tenacious of the secret."
The local historian then mentions an "obscure tradition," but as it is not in agreement with my own opinion, I omit it.
S. P. Q.