Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/300

274 "Mr. Frost, the writer of the book referred to, in an introduction to the second edition, tells us that while the first edition was in the press he fell in with two other versions of the legend. One sets forth that the wind one day brought two new imps to view the new ]Iinster at Lincoln. The first being over curious, slipped inside the minster to see what was going on, and was so astonished at the marvels he both saw and heard that his heart became as stone within him, and he remained rooted to the ground. The other imp, grieving for his brother and seeking for him in vain, alighted unwittingly upon the shoulders of a certain witch, and was instantly turned to stone, but the wind still haunts the minster precincts waiting his companion's return, now hopelessly disconsolate, and now raging with fury. "According to the other version, when the Minster was nearing its completion, the devil, who had narrowly and jealously watched the good bishop's proceedings, at once took up his position as over-lord, saying with a grim smile as he looked over Lincoln, 'Ah, my good friend, all this mine !' " In the introduction to the first edition of this little book, the writer gives a version of the old Lincolnshire legend which, up to the time, had not previously appeared in print. It was told him some five or six years ago by a North Lincolnshire man, sixty years of age, who as a boy had heard his father relate it. According to that version the devil was very angry with Bishop Remigies for coming to Lincoln, because up to that time Satan had it all his own way in the town and district. Having failed to dissuade the bishop from building the cathedral, the devil waylaid him at the south-west corner of the building and tried to kill him, but the good prelate in his extremity called for aid upon the blessed Virgin Mary, to whom the church was to be dedicated, whereupon she sent a mighty rushing wind, which, catching the devil, so hustled and buffeted him that he slipped inside the church for safety, where he has been ever since, nor dare to come out, knowing that the wind awaited his return in order to make an end of him, and is waiting there still."

So far the reviewer of Mr. Frost's book; but a different explanation of the devil's intimate connection with the Minster is printed in White's Directory of Lincolnshire, p. 491 (1882). Here we read as follows : "The south porch, or bishop's door, supposed to have been erected about 1256, has a rich but mutilated