A collection of famous British legends, some hundreds of years old and other absolutely ancient.
The ghost of Herne the Hunter - the huntsman of King Richard II who wore a hat made of deer antlers when he dies - is said to haunt Windsor Great Park next to Windsor Castle, still hunting stag.
The Legend of Richmond Castle
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Richmond, North Riding of Yorkshire[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]
[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Deep in a crypt below the keep sleep King Arthur and his Knights. Peter Thompson, a potter by trade, found his way in, and saw King Arthur's Sword and Horn lying upon one of the richly-carved tombs. Though awed, Peter raised the Sword. Immediately armour clattered on every side, and tombs began to open, to be instantly still again when in terror he replaced the blade; he neglected however, to blow the Horn: "Potter Thompson, Potters Thompson, hadst thou blown the Horn, Thou hadst been the greatest man that ever was born." Half-crazed, he dashed away and stopped the entrance-hole. [/COLOR][/FONT]
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The Cau'd Lad of Hylton
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Hylton, County Durham[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]
[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]One night the servants in a large house were disturbed by strange noises from the kitchen, and in the morning they found the room in a state of confusion. Those who knew said that it was the work of a goblin, so although the disturbance went on night after night, no-one wished to interfere. At last, however, the servants decided they could stand the inconvenience no longer. They laid a green cloak and hood before the fire, and kept watch. When the goblin appeared and caught sight of the gay apparel, he danced with delight. Wrapping the mantle around him, he pranced about the room - then disappeared. The servants were never again troubled by him. [/COLOR][/FONT]
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The Lambton Wyrm
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Lambton, County Durham[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]
[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]While fishing one Sunday morning, the young heir of Lambton caught a huge Wyrm. It was so repulsive in appearance that he threw the loathsome reptile into a near-by well, but it soon crept to a hiding place more suited to its ever-increasing size. Time rolled on. The heir of Lambton went to the wars and returned seven years later to find the countryside terrorized by teh huge reptile. A sibyl told him how he might slay it - but he must swear to kill the first living thing he met on his return. The vow was taken, the Wyrm slain - alas! The first person he met was his own father. Kill him his son could not, and for nine generations the sibyl's curse lay upon the house. [/COLOR][/FONT]
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The Legend of Cardigan Bay
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Cardigan, Cardiganshire[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]
[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Tradition says that Cardigan Bay was once dry land. It was then known as the Lowland Hundred (Cantref y Gwaelod) and boasted no less than sixteen cities. But the land lay lower than the level of the sea, and dykes were built to keep back the ever-encroaching waters. Disaster came through the foolishness of Siethennin the Drunkard, son of the King of South Wales, who in one of his mad fits opened the sluices. The inhabitants fled in terror to the uplands, leaving their land forever to the dominion of the sea. [/COLOR][/FONT]
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The Sleeping Dragons of Snowdon
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Dinas Emrys, Caernarfonshire[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]
[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]The chief Vortigern, who asked the Saxons into England to help him, withdrew from the bother he himself had inflamed, to where the Conwy rises near Snowdon. There he began to build a castle. But what he built by day crumbled by night, and men told him that only the blood of a fatherless child would make his mortar resist darkness. Searches at last found such a child; it was Merlin, whose extraordinary wisdom stayed the murderers' hands. Merlin bade the men dig below the walls, where they found two sleeping Dragons, whose furious quarrels on waking caused the nightly downfall of the building. [/COLOR][/FONT]
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The Death of Robin Hood
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Kirklees, West Riding of Yorkshire[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]
[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Robin, being grievously sick, went to his cousin, Prioress of Kirklees, who had great fame for the letting of blood. He was welcomed and his vein opened forthwith. But finding himself locked in, faint and with no means of staunching the flow, he scented treachery. Feebly he sounded his horn. But Little John was listening and burst doors to reach him. From his comrade's arms Robin shot a broad arrow through the window, saying: "Bury me where it falls." And there they buried him, as he wished, with his bow at his side and a green turf under his head. [/COLOR][/FONT]
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Wulfhere the Kind-Hearted
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Isle of Wight, Hampshire[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]
[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]When Wulfhere, King of the Angles, invaded the Isle of Wight he defeated the Jutes in battle, and took Redwald the Bold captive. The spears of Wulfhere's soldiers would have slain the vanquished enemy, had not Edith of Stenbury flung himself at the King's feet with an impassioned cry: "Spare him, Wulfhere the Kind-Hearted!" Her prayer was granted, and it was not long before the two former enemies became bosom friends. Even when Wulfhere, to his bitter disappointment, found his suit rejected by Edith in favour of Redwald, he remained true to his name. Bequeathing the island to the care of the two lovers, he left its shores forever. [/COLOR][/FONT]
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The Red Rider
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Bramhall, Cheshire[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]
[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]On a night of dreadful storm, when the howling gale shook the stout timbers of Bramhall Hall, the bell of the portal gate clanged furiously. Into the courtyard rode a horseman clad in crimson, mounted on a coal-black steed, whose eyes shone with an unearthly glare. In spite of the horseman's sinister appearance, the Knight of Bramhall Hall made him welcome, and gave him food and lodging for the night. By morning the storm and subsided, and the sun rose peacefully in the clear sky. But the red rider and his coal-black horse had vanished, and upon his bed the Knight of Bramhall lay dead. [/COLOR][/FONT]
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The Devil's Arrows
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Boroughbridge, North Riding of Yorkshire[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]
[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]The King of the Brigantian Celts, to weigh the merits of the Druids' lore against the newly-come teaching of the Christians, bade that both should be debated before him. At first the new faith made ground, until a late arrival among the Druids turned the tide by his strong personality and his ridicule. But a movement of his cloak showed that his feet were melting the rock he stood on, and sinking into it. Discovered, he rose into the air in a smother of curses. He moulded into bolts the masses of half-molten rock which clung to his legs and flew towards Iseur, the capital city, intending to destroy it. But the bolts were miraculously intercepted, and fell harmlessly to earth. [/COLOR][/FONT]
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King Edward & the Woodcutter
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Old Windsor, Berkshire[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]
[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]A woodcutter who went to sleep in the forest of Bruelle was horrified, on waking, to find that he had been stricken blind. He suffered long in his affliction, until in a dream he was directed to offer prayer in eighty-seven churches. This he did and, at the end of his pilgrimage, he went to (Old) Windsor, where he sat in the King's porch. King Edward the Confessor, hearing of the man's trouble and of his dream, sent for him and placed his hand, dipped in holy water, upon the blind man's eyes. Immediately the woodcutter's sight was restored. [/COLOR][/FONT]
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Herne the Hunter
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Windsor, Berkshire[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]
[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Herne was the favourite huntsman of Richard the Second. Mortally wounded while saving his master from a stag at bay, he was miraculously cured by a stranger, who tied the antlers of a dead stag to the dying man's brow. He claimed in payment all Herne's skill in venery. Crazed by the loss of that skill in the craft he loved, Herne fled to the forest, where a pedlar found his horned corpse hanging from an oak. But every night he returned at the head of a spectral hunt to harry the Windsor game as of old. Even to this day, there are those who see the eerie apparition of Herne the Hunter with a deer's antlers on his head out hunting near Windsor Castle[/COLOR][/FONT]
britannia.com
The ghost of Herne the Hunter - the huntsman of King Richard II who wore a hat made of deer antlers when he dies - is said to haunt Windsor Great Park next to Windsor Castle, still hunting stag.
The Legend of Richmond Castle
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Richmond, North Riding of Yorkshire[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Deep in a crypt below the keep sleep King Arthur and his Knights. Peter Thompson, a potter by trade, found his way in, and saw King Arthur's Sword and Horn lying upon one of the richly-carved tombs. Though awed, Peter raised the Sword. Immediately armour clattered on every side, and tombs began to open, to be instantly still again when in terror he replaced the blade; he neglected however, to blow the Horn: "Potter Thompson, Potters Thompson, hadst thou blown the Horn, Thou hadst been the greatest man that ever was born." Half-crazed, he dashed away and stopped the entrance-hole. [/COLOR][/FONT]
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The Cau'd Lad of Hylton
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Hylton, County Durham[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]One night the servants in a large house were disturbed by strange noises from the kitchen, and in the morning they found the room in a state of confusion. Those who knew said that it was the work of a goblin, so although the disturbance went on night after night, no-one wished to interfere. At last, however, the servants decided they could stand the inconvenience no longer. They laid a green cloak and hood before the fire, and kept watch. When the goblin appeared and caught sight of the gay apparel, he danced with delight. Wrapping the mantle around him, he pranced about the room - then disappeared. The servants were never again troubled by him. [/COLOR][/FONT]
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The Lambton Wyrm
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Lambton, County Durham[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]While fishing one Sunday morning, the young heir of Lambton caught a huge Wyrm. It was so repulsive in appearance that he threw the loathsome reptile into a near-by well, but it soon crept to a hiding place more suited to its ever-increasing size. Time rolled on. The heir of Lambton went to the wars and returned seven years later to find the countryside terrorized by teh huge reptile. A sibyl told him how he might slay it - but he must swear to kill the first living thing he met on his return. The vow was taken, the Wyrm slain - alas! The first person he met was his own father. Kill him his son could not, and for nine generations the sibyl's curse lay upon the house. [/COLOR][/FONT]
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The Legend of Cardigan Bay
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Cardigan, Cardiganshire[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Tradition says that Cardigan Bay was once dry land. It was then known as the Lowland Hundred (Cantref y Gwaelod) and boasted no less than sixteen cities. But the land lay lower than the level of the sea, and dykes were built to keep back the ever-encroaching waters. Disaster came through the foolishness of Siethennin the Drunkard, son of the King of South Wales, who in one of his mad fits opened the sluices. The inhabitants fled in terror to the uplands, leaving their land forever to the dominion of the sea. [/COLOR][/FONT]
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The Sleeping Dragons of Snowdon
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Dinas Emrys, Caernarfonshire[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]The chief Vortigern, who asked the Saxons into England to help him, withdrew from the bother he himself had inflamed, to where the Conwy rises near Snowdon. There he began to build a castle. But what he built by day crumbled by night, and men told him that only the blood of a fatherless child would make his mortar resist darkness. Searches at last found such a child; it was Merlin, whose extraordinary wisdom stayed the murderers' hands. Merlin bade the men dig below the walls, where they found two sleeping Dragons, whose furious quarrels on waking caused the nightly downfall of the building. [/COLOR][/FONT]
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The Death of Robin Hood
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Kirklees, West Riding of Yorkshire[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Robin, being grievously sick, went to his cousin, Prioress of Kirklees, who had great fame for the letting of blood. He was welcomed and his vein opened forthwith. But finding himself locked in, faint and with no means of staunching the flow, he scented treachery. Feebly he sounded his horn. But Little John was listening and burst doors to reach him. From his comrade's arms Robin shot a broad arrow through the window, saying: "Bury me where it falls." And there they buried him, as he wished, with his bow at his side and a green turf under his head. [/COLOR][/FONT]
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Wulfhere the Kind-Hearted
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Isle of Wight, Hampshire[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]When Wulfhere, King of the Angles, invaded the Isle of Wight he defeated the Jutes in battle, and took Redwald the Bold captive. The spears of Wulfhere's soldiers would have slain the vanquished enemy, had not Edith of Stenbury flung himself at the King's feet with an impassioned cry: "Spare him, Wulfhere the Kind-Hearted!" Her prayer was granted, and it was not long before the two former enemies became bosom friends. Even when Wulfhere, to his bitter disappointment, found his suit rejected by Edith in favour of Redwald, he remained true to his name. Bequeathing the island to the care of the two lovers, he left its shores forever. [/COLOR][/FONT]
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The Red Rider
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Bramhall, Cheshire[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]On a night of dreadful storm, when the howling gale shook the stout timbers of Bramhall Hall, the bell of the portal gate clanged furiously. Into the courtyard rode a horseman clad in crimson, mounted on a coal-black steed, whose eyes shone with an unearthly glare. In spite of the horseman's sinister appearance, the Knight of Bramhall Hall made him welcome, and gave him food and lodging for the night. By morning the storm and subsided, and the sun rose peacefully in the clear sky. But the red rider and his coal-black horse had vanished, and upon his bed the Knight of Bramhall lay dead. [/COLOR][/FONT]
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The Devil's Arrows
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Boroughbridge, North Riding of Yorkshire[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]The King of the Brigantian Celts, to weigh the merits of the Druids' lore against the newly-come teaching of the Christians, bade that both should be debated before him. At first the new faith made ground, until a late arrival among the Druids turned the tide by his strong personality and his ridicule. But a movement of his cloak showed that his feet were melting the rock he stood on, and sinking into it. Discovered, he rose into the air in a smother of curses. He moulded into bolts the masses of half-molten rock which clung to his legs and flew towards Iseur, the capital city, intending to destroy it. But the bolts were miraculously intercepted, and fell harmlessly to earth. [/COLOR][/FONT]
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King Edward & the Woodcutter
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Old Windsor, Berkshire[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]A woodcutter who went to sleep in the forest of Bruelle was horrified, on waking, to find that he had been stricken blind. He suffered long in his affliction, until in a dream he was directed to offer prayer in eighty-seven churches. This he did and, at the end of his pilgrimage, he went to (Old) Windsor, where he sat in the King's porch. King Edward the Confessor, hearing of the man's trouble and of his dream, sent for him and placed his hand, dipped in holy water, upon the blind man's eyes. Immediately the woodcutter's sight was restored. [/COLOR][/FONT]
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Herne the Hunter
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Windsor, Berkshire[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]
[FONT=arial, helvetica][COLOR=#00000]Herne was the favourite huntsman of Richard the Second. Mortally wounded while saving his master from a stag at bay, he was miraculously cured by a stranger, who tied the antlers of a dead stag to the dying man's brow. He claimed in payment all Herne's skill in venery. Crazed by the loss of that skill in the craft he loved, Herne fled to the forest, where a pedlar found his horned corpse hanging from an oak. But every night he returned at the head of a spectral hunt to harry the Windsor game as of old. Even to this day, there are those who see the eerie apparition of Herne the Hunter with a deer's antlers on his head out hunting near Windsor Castle[/COLOR][/FONT]
britannia.com
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