3. The third is the shield of Sir John Randon; Gules, a bend checquy or and azure, impaling Argent, a frette, and on a chief, gules, three escallops of the field; over all, the chief of the order.
If any readers of "N. & Q." could furnish me with more examples, I should be much obliged.
John o' the Ford.
Malta.
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.