Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/97

 olden time. One of these states that the stone was hurled from the Castle Field, and that the two cavities are the prints of Giant Tarquin's finger and thumb. Another alleges that it was thrown from the Old Bridge at Manchester; that it is gradually sinking into the earth, like Nixon's stone in Delamere Forest, and that on its final disappearance, the destruction of the world will ensue. A third tradition is recorded by Baines in his "History of Lancashire" (vol. ii. p. 257), and was also noticed in a paper read before the Rosicrucian Brotherhood of Manchester. The latter account, as obtained from two old residents near the memorial, is somewhat as follows:—During a malignant plague visitation (one of which took place in A.D. 1351, three near the close of the sixteenth, and six or seven during the seventeenth century), in order to prevent the infection from spreading, the inhabitants, like those of Eyam, Derbyshire, during a similar epidemic, were confined within specified limits, marked on the highways leading to the town by certain stones like the one now under notice. A similar stone once existed at Cheetham Hill, according to the statement of an old person still living; and Rochdale had also, till within these few years, its plague stones, locally called "milk stones," evidently a corruption of "mickle" or great stones. The Stretford tradition goes on to assert that a market was held there, and the townspeople, after washing the money in one of the basins, filled with water or vinegar, as a disinfectant, deposited it in the other, filled in like manner, and then retired to a short distance. The country folks then advanced for the corn, vegetables, and other produce, and left their money in one of the cavities. There yet remain two other traditions respecting this stone. The first is, that the stone was formerly on the opposite side of the