Vault at Richmond, Yorkshire (Vol. viii., p. 388.).—Touching the "vault," or underground passage, "that goeth under the river" of Swale, from the Castle of Richmond to the priory of St. Martin, every tradition, i. e. as to its whereabouts, is, I believe, now wholly lost.
Your Querist, however, who seems to feel an interest in that beautiful and romantic portion of the north countrie, will perhaps welcome the following mythe, which is connected, it is possible, with the identical vault which is depictured by Speed in his Plan of Richmond. It was taken down from the lips of a great-grand-dame by one of her descendants, both of whom are still living, for the gratification of your present correspondent, who, like Luther,
"Would not for any quantity of gold part with the wonderful tales which he has retained from his earliest childhood, or met with in his progress through life."
But to my legend:
Once upon a time a man, walking round Richmond Castle, was accosted by another, who took him into a vennel, or underground passage, below the castle; where he beheld a vast multitude of people lying as if they were sleeping. A horn and a sword were presented to him: the horn to blow, and the sword to draw; in order, as said his guide, to release them from their slumbers. And when he had drawn the sword half out, the sleepers began to move; which frightened him so much, that he put it back into the sheath: when instantly a voice exclaimed,
"Potter! Potter Thompson!
If thou had either drawn
The sword, or blown the horn,
Thou had been the luckiest man that ever was born."
So ends the Legend of the Richmond Sleepers and Potter Thompson; which, mayhap, is scarcely worth preserving, were it not that it has preserved and handed down the characteristic, or rather trade, cognomen and surname of its timorous at least, if not cowardly, hero.