At Dudley there is a tradition that many years ago a giant lived in Dudley castle, as did also one in the castle of Birmingham. The Birmingham giant had done suit and service to the Dudley giant for many years, but growing fat he began to kick, and refused to serve the Dudley giant longer. A furious dispute thereupon broke out; the Dudley giant in his rage threw a large stone all the way from Dudley at the Birmingham giant, and demolished his castle and killed him. Some of his surviving followers erected a stone in the lane as a memento of prowess and rage, and called it the war stone, whence the name Warstone Lane. When the lord of Dudley castle began the dispute which ended in the ruin of the lord of Birmingham, the latter had a large and deep hole made in the castle yard, in the which were buried the treasures and the muniments of his house, with a full charge to his familiar spirit—every great man in those days had one—to watch over them until better days came and justice were done to him. Some years ago, as a gentleman was digging a well in his garden he came unexpectedly upon a strong box. He began to dig round it, and had got it slung in ropes for the purpose of hauling it up, when an ugly dwarf jumped upon it (no one seeing where he came from or went to), exclaiming, "That's mine." Immediately all the earth fell in the hole he had made. He tried many times to get the box, but every time the same thing occurred, so he gave up the attempt in despair. My grandmother has often told me she did not know the gentleman, but she had frequently seen the pick and spade with which the hole had been made.—J. Vernal.
St. Augustine's Oak—the celebrated tree under which the "Apostle of the English" is said to have held a conference with the British bishops—has been claimed by many places in this county as a plant of Worcestershire growth: Rock and Alfrick, a place called "The Apostle's Oak," near Stanford Bridge, the Mitre Oak at Hartlebury, and other places, have been pointed out, but the record left of the site of this famous oak is so vague that any attempt at fixing it must be mere matter of conjecture. Some have supposed that the parish of Rock, whose original name was derived from the Saxon word signifying an oak, must have been the site, as Dr. Nash informs us that there was a hollow oak there held in great veneration by the country people, and called by them "The Apostle's Oak." When the turnpike was first erected, it served as a habitation for the keeper, and through his carelessness was burnt down.
Old Customs.
THE BABES OF BETHLEHEM.
It is an ancient custom at Norton, near Evesham, on the 28th of December (Innocents' Day) to ring a muffled peal, in token of sorrow for the slaughter of the hapless "babes of Bethlehem," and, immediately afterwards, an unmuffled peal, in manifestation of joy for the deliverance and escape of the infant Saviour.