Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/406

 374 Collectanea.

yearly on Low Sunday, by the Bailiff of the Hundred, from some willow bough growing in Abbotte-Rothing Wood.'

Inhabitants of the Manor of Loughton had the right of lopping trees for firewood in Epping Forest from St. Martin's Day to St. George's Day. It was said to be due to a grant from Queen Elizabeth, and to be " conditional on their commencing to lop the trees as the clock struck midnight on the preceding night. They were wont to meet for that purpose at Staples Hill, within the Forest, where, after lighting a fire, and celebrating the occasion with draughts of beer, they lopped from twelve o'clock till two- o'clock, and then returned to their homes. The branches, accord- ing to the custom, could not be faggoted in the Forest, but were made into heaps, six feet high, and were then drawn out of the Forest on sledges. In olden times the first load was drawn out by white horses."

The wood could only be cut for the use of the inhabitants of the Parish. It was done for the last time m 1879.-

J. B. Partridge.

Gloucestershire Legends.

Lege/id of the Cleeve Hill Stone. — Between Marl Cleeve and Offenham, on the left bank of the Avon, is a long, and almost straight ridge, which slopes down abruptly to the river and its meadows. Along its brow runs an old (reputedly Roman) road; and where this is crossed by a way leading from the village of Prior's Cleeve to Cleeve Mill, is a prehistoric barrow, upon which is a heavy mass of stone, evidently the base of a fourteenth century wayside cross. The presence of this stone is accounted for by a legend.

Once upon a time, the Devil perched on Meon Hill (in Quinton, Co. Gloucester), and looking towards Evesham, was annoyed by the sight of its Abbey, then in great prosperity. There being a big stone at hand, he kicked it at the Abbey with malicious

^ See Morant's History of Essex, i. 126.

- Eversle}, Commons, Forests, and Footpaths, 1910, p: 67.