Burning Fern brings Rain (Vol. v., p. 242.).
—In some parts of America, but more particularly in the New England States, there was a popular belief, in former times, that immediately after a large fire in a town, or of wood in a forest, there would be a "fall of rain." Whether this opinion exists among the people at present, or whether it was entertained by John Winthrop, the first governor of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, and the Pilgrim Fathers, on their landing at Plymouth, as they most unfortunately did, their superstitious belief in witchcraft, and some other "strange notions," may be a subject of future inquiry.
W. W.
La Valetta, Malta.
Plague Stones (Vol. v., pp. 226. 374.).
—I have often seen the stone which G. J. R. G. mentions as "to be seen close to Gresford, in Denbighshire, about a quarter of a mile from the town, on the road to Wrexham, under a wide-spreading tree, on an open space, where three roads meet." It is, I conjecture, the base of a cross. This stone may be the remnant of the last of a succession of crosses, the first of which may have given its Welsh name, Croes ffordd, the way of the cross, to the village. There is no tradition of any visitation of the plague at Gresford; but there is reason to suppose that it once prevailed at Wrexham, which is about three miles distant. Near that town, and on the side of a hill near the footpath leading from Wrexham vechan to Marchwiel Hall, there is a field called Bryn y cabanau, the brow of the cabins; the tradition respecting which is, that, during the prevalence of the plague in Wrexham, the inhabitants constructed wooden huts in this place for their temporary residences.
A QUONDAM GRESFORDITE.
I do not think the "Plague Stone" a mile or two out of Hereford has been mentioned in the Notes on that subject. If my memory is correct, there is a good deal of ornament, and it is surrounded by a short flight of stone steps.
F. J. H.