There are those, it is said, who affirm to having met it, but it is looked upon as of evil augury. The death of some one in the neighbourhood, or of some member of the family of the person who has the misfortune to fall in with it, is believed to follow close upon the appearance of the headless company.[134]
[133] Editor’s Note.—It was bought by Joshua Le Marchant from the heirs of Pierre Henry, June 3rd, 1674.
[134] From Mr. Denys Corbet.
Editor’s Note.—In Mr. Paul Sebillot’s Traditions et Superstitions de la Haute Bretagne, Tome I., p. 270, we meet with nearly the same superstition. “Un jour un homme de la Ruèe était à dire ses prières. Il vit un enterrement qui passait à quelque distance de lui; un homme portait la croix, puis venait la chasse, les prêtres et des hommes. Huit jours après, un homme qui était né à la Ruèe mourut, et son enterrement eut lieu comme celui que l’homme avait vu.”
Editor’s Notes.
“Le Coin de La Biche.”
There is a lane leading from the post-box at the “Carrefour David,” on the Saints’ Bay Road to “La Marette,” at the Villette, which was formerly supposed to be haunted by a spectre in the form of an enormous nanny-goat.
As you go along the lane to the Villette, you will see on your right hand side a triangular corner overgrown with weeds and brambles, and, although between two fields, not included in either. This corner is known as “Le Coin de la Biche”—the Corner of the Nanny Goat.
Tradition marks it as one of the proposed sites for St. Martin’s Church, but, they say, when the building was commenced, materials, tools, etc., were moved by unknown hands, in the course of the night, to La Beilleuse, its present site, and all attempts to build it there had to be abandoned. Ever since then this corner has borne a bad reputation, and none of the neighbouring proprietors will include it in their fields for fear of ill-luck.
One evening, towards the close of the last century, Mr. Mauger, of the Villette, and some other men, were returning home from vraiking at Saints’ Bay. In those days, the road leading to the bay was a water-lane with a very narrow footway and a deep rocky channel, down which the water rushed to the sea. High hedges were on either side, bordered with trees, so that it was a laborious journey for carts to go up and down. When the present road was made, the trees were cut down, and the earth from the hedges used to fill up the waterway. Accordingly, this cart had harnessed to it three oxen and two horses, but even then progress was slow, and it was getting late as they turned into the lane. As they did so, one man said to the other:—