Here thou shalt be,
And here thou shalt stand,
And thou shalt be called
The church of Ley-land.
Leyland church stands on an eminence at the east side of the village. The ancient tower is still standing, but the body of the church is modern.
[HUGH OF LINCOLN.]
He tossed the ball so high, so high,
He tossed the ball so low;
He tossed the ball in the Jew's garden,
And the Jews were all below.
Oh, then out came the Jew's daughter,
She was dressed all in green;
Come hither, come hither, my sweet pretty fellow,
And fetch your ball again.
These lines refer to the well-known story of the murder of a child at Lincoln by a Jewess. The child was playing at ball, and threw it into the Jew's garden. She enticed him into the house to recover it, killed him, and, to conceal her guilt, threw the body into a deep well. According to the ballads on the subject, the spirit of the boy answers his mother's inquiry from the bottom of the well, the bells ring without human aid, and several miracles are accomplished. The above fragment of some old ballad on the subject was given me by Miss Agnes Strickland as current in the country nursery.
[CUCKSTONE.]
If you would go to a church miswent,
You must go to Cuckstone in Kent.
So said because the church is "very unusual in proportion." Lelandi Itin. ed. 1744, ii. 137.
[SAINT LEVAN.]
When with panniers astride
A pack-horse can ride
Through St. Levan's stone,
The world will be done.