Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/349

 Collectanea. 3 1 7

Behind dog it is Dog, before dog it is Mr. Dog.

Better fe fowl say Dog did, than fe dog say Fowl did.

Bragging ribber neber drown somebody.

Alligator lay egg, but him no fowl. Cyril F. Grant.

Some Camberley Folklore.

A gardener told me that "you should plant shallots on the shortest day and gather 'em on the longest day."

A good deal of legendary matter has gathered round an old tower in the grounds of a girls' school here. The following are the chief stories told about it :

Dick Turpin used it as a hiding place.

It was once seven stories high and was used as a beacon to direct travellers along the Portsmouth road.

It was built by a gentleman who intended to make it the hall of a great mansion he was going to build. A drawbridge was to be made which could be let down to connect the house with the main road.

The girls of the school say that there is a secret passage leading from the tower to the cellars underneath the school.

E. M. Richardson, The Knoll, Camberley.

Country Tales from Cornwall.

I was out to help shoot the rooks of a nice old J. P. man, about ten miles from here, at his place in Cornwall. He told me that one day he met a little girl walking along a lane near Lostwithiel who asked him to eat a cake. He said that he had already breakfasted and did not particularly want a cake, but she would insist on his eating her cake, and sitting on a stone while doing so. So he finally took it to please her, and was relieved to find it was only a tiny one. The little girl ran back.

On proceeding and turning the corner of the road he came across a christening party consisting of two men, some women and a baby in arms. One of the women came up to him and said, " You are the gentleman who blessed the baby. Thank you, sir." He expostulated ; said he had done no such thing,