A
ship from there had been wrecked on the coast of Japan, having many of
the lilies on board, and the next year the flowers appeared,--springing
up, I suppose, on the wave-beaten strand.
Wishing to send a letter to a dead man, who may be supposed to have gone
to Tophet,--throw it into the fire.
Sir Arthur Aston had his brains beaten out with his own wooden leg, at
the storming of Tredagh in Ireland by Cromwell.
In the county of Cheshire, many centuries ago, there lived a half-idiot,
named Nixon, who had the gift of prophecy, and made many predictions
about places, families, and important public events, since fulfilled. He
seems to have fallen into fits of insensibility previous to uttering his
prophecies.
The family of Mainwaring (pronounced Mannering), of Bromborough, had an
ass's head for a crest.
"Richard Dawson, being sick of the plague, and perceiving he must die,
rose out of his bed and made his grave, and caused his nephew to cast
straw into the grave, which was not far from the house, and went and laid
him down in the said grave, and caused clothes to be laid upon him, and
so departed out of this world. This he did because he was a strong man,
and heavier than his said nephew and a serving-wench were able to bury.
He died about the 24th of August. Thus was I credibly told he did,
1625." This was in the township of Malpas, recorded in the parish
register.
At Bickley Hall, taken down a few years ago, used to be shown the room
where the body of the Earl of Leicester was laid for a whole
twelvemonth,--1659 to 1660,--he having been kept unburied all that time,
owing to a dispute which of his heirs should pay his funeral expenses.
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