Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/197

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V. JULY, 1919.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

191

ell, the celebrated " Ebbing and Flowing r ell." This was most probably at one me a holy well.

Haelig-keld is the Anglo -Slaxon for holy ell. There is a spring near Malmerby, in ichmondshire, which in Anglo-Saxon days >re this name of Haelig-keld, and has thus ven the name of Halikeld to the Wapentake
 * this day.

Speaking of the ebbing and flowing well at iggleswick the author of ' The West Riding Yorkshire ' in Methuen's " Little Guides " >ries says :

"It is incredible that in very early times, hen springs of all kinds were the objects of >neration, this singular curiosity should escape jservation. It has been suggested, indeed, that tis was a holy well ; and that the name of the ?dication saint of Giggleswick Church St. Al- jlda is merely a corruption of haelig-keld and tat the- lady herself is imaginary. Yorkshire rchceological Journal, xii. 83."

WM. SELF WEEKS.

Very little is known of this good woman, id indeed it has been suggested that there sver was any such person. If she did exist, le was a Saxon princess who was strangled Y the Danes. The parish church of iddleham in Yorkshire stands on the spot here the sad deed is said to have been tacted, and inside the church there is some ained glass that recalls the martyrdom, ast century a stone coffin was discovered in le church and in it were the bones of a oman. People, jumping to conclusions >rhaps, declared that these were the mortal mains of the saint herself. On the other hand, it is argued that from me immemorial there has been a well at iddleham, where the ancient Briton lenched his thirst and then gave thanks to ie kindly genius of the spring. The txons would have called it Halikeld (haelig, cred, and keld, a fountain). The early iristians no doubt substituted the Blessed irgin for the spirit of the fountain and >dicated their church to St. Mary of alikeld. The Normans, not understanding iixon, corrupted the name into St. Mary id St. Alkelda (not Akelda, as given by .e correspondent to ' N. & Q.'), and the ory of the martyrdom grew up later. A mewhat similar case is that of St. Osyth Essex, who also is said to have been a ixon princess murdered by the Danes. Saints are so few in this wicked world of irs that it is sad to have to prove that ere has been one less of them than is mmonly supposed.

T. PERCY ARMSTRONG.

There is one church besides that of Middle- ham dedicated to St. Alkelda, that of" Giggleswick, where the same corruption of the word Halikeld seems to have taken place. For at Giggleswick is the marvellous well whose ebbing and flowing is not easily accounted for even now, and which in old days must have been attributed to super- natural agency.

Near Melmerby in the North Riding is a spring still called Halikeld, which gives it name to the Wapentake.

M. H. DODDS.

Home House, Low Fell, Gateshead.

[The REV. A. G. KEALY also thanked for reply.]

EXCHANGE OF SOULS IN FICTION (12 S. v. 124). The following works of fiction all 1 treat of this subject :

Flames : a London Phantasy. By Robert S. Hichens. ' The soul of a human Mephistopheles seizes one man's personality and seduces another ; a weird story, akin on one side to 'Dr. Jeykll and Mr.- Hyde.' Ligeia. By Edgar Allan Poe.

Tells of a woman of powerful will returning from the dead and usurping the living body of her husband's second wife. The Return. By Sir John De La Mare.

Gives the experiences of a man whose person- ality has been seized by a being from beyond the grave.

As far as I recollect the following novels also treat of the same subject :

A Beleaguered City. By Mrs. Oliphant.

An Exchange of Souls. By Barry Pain.

The Jacket. By Jack London. It may also be of interest to your corre- spondent that in Lord Byron's ' The De- formed Transformed ' the soul of the Stranger passes into the body of Arnold; and in Spenser's ' Fairie Queen,' where - Priamond and Diamond are slain, their souls take up their abode in the body of their surviving brother Triamond.

ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

H. G. Wells' s 'The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham,' a short story in ' The Plattner Story and Others ' (Methuen & Co.).

G. H. WHITE. 23 Weighton Road, Anerley.

Perhaps some of the following books will, fall within the class of novels required :- J. D. Hennessey's ' A Lost Identity,' F. Anstey's 'Vice Versa,' Barry Pain's 'The One Before,' J. Donnelly's ' Doctor Huguet,' Mrs. Rosa Praed's ' The Insane Root,' M. E. Braddon's ' The Conflict,' T. W. Speight's ' Strange Experiences of Mr. Verschoyle,' George Griffith's 'Denver's