British Museum, June 27.
FOLK LORE.
Stanton Drew and its Tradition.
—At the little village of Stanton Drew, in the county of Somerset, east of the road between Bristol and Wells, stands a well-known Druidical monument, which, in the opinion of Dr. Stukeley, was more ancient than that at Abury. It consists (according to a recent writer) of four groups of stones, forming (or, rather, having formed when complete) two circles; and two other figures, one an ellipse. Although the largest stones are much inferior in their dimensions to those at Stonehenge and Abury, they are by no means contemptible; some of them being nine feet in height and twenty-two feet in girth. There is a curious tradition very prevalent amongst the country people, respecting the origin of these remains, which they designate the "Evil Wedding," for the following good and substantial reasons:—Many hundred years ago (on a Saturday evening), a newly married couple, with their relatives and friends, met on the spot now covered by these ruins, to celebrate their nuptials. Here they feasted and danced right merrily, until the clock tolled the hour of midnight, when the piper (a pious man) refused to play any longer: this was much against the wish of the guests, and so exasperated the bride (who was fond of dancing), that she swore with an oath, she would not be baulked in her enjoyment by a beggarly piper, but would find a substitute, if she went to h-ll to fetch one. She had scarcely uttered the words, when a venerable old man, with a long beard, made his appearance, and having listened to their request, proffered his services, which were right gladly accepted. The old gentleman (who was no other than the Arch-fiend himself) having taken the seat vacated by the godly piper, commenced playing a slow and solemn air, which on the guests remonstrating he changed into one more lively and rapid. The company now began to dance, but soon found themselves impelled round the performer so rapidly and mysteriously, that they would all fain have rested. But when they essayed to retire, they found, to their consternation, that they were moving faster and faster round their diabolical musician, who had now resumed his original shape. Their cries for mercy were unheeded, until the first glimmering of day warned the fiend that he must depart. With such rapidity had they moved, that the gay and sportive assembly were now reduced to a ghastly troop of skeletons. "I leave you," said the fiend, "a monument of my power and your wickedness to the end of time:" which saying, he vanished. The villagers, on rising in the morning, found the meadow strewn with large pieces of stone, and the pious piper lying under a hedge, half dead with fright, he having been a witness to the whole transaction.
DAVID STEVENS.
Godalming, May 10. 1851.
Minor Notes.
The Hon. Spencer Perceval.
—Being on a tour through the West of England some years ago, I found myself one morning rapidly advancing up the river Tamar, in the gig of "the Captain of the Ordinary" at Plymouth. We were bound for the noble ruins of Trematon Castle, in the area of which a good modern house has been erected, and in one of the towers is arranged a very pleasing collection of antiquities.
As we proceeded up the river, the gallant captain related the following anecdote in reference to the then proprietor of Trematon:—