ON KIRK-GRIMS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1678, 4 October 1887, Page 3

ON KIRK-GRIMS

When Fiords 111., Count of Holland, returned from having homage dono him at Walcheren he aent the best workmen to Flanders to restore tho damß or dykes which were In bad condition. One dam could uot be Btopped as it oroaaed a quicksand, and the men ware at their wits' end what to da. Then a Dutchman seized a dog by Its tail and flung it into the qtrckaand, and hastily the men thr«w fagots over it and constructed their dam, which is called to this day after it Hontsdamai. An inspector of dams on the Elbe, m 1885, In hia Praxis', relates that, as he was engaged on a peculiarly difficult dyke, an old peasant assured him It never would be made solid without he first sank a living child under its foundations. In some cases the origin of the animal connection with the building ia completely forgotten, and a new fable has been invented to explain it. For instance, over the church door at Georgenzsll, m Ftanconia, is a g-eat carved wolf a head ; and the story goes that when the builders were engaged on the church a wolf defended them against all the wild beasts of the forest. In gratitude for this service they sculptured bis head over the port*]. But what is most probable is that they burled a live wolf under the fouadaton, and he, aa Kirk-Grim, was their special defence. The oaatle of Hinneberg is said to take its name from a hen having laid an egg on one of the towers when it was completed, and before anyone hao taken up his habitation m it. Far more probably a hen had been laid alive under the foundation atone to become the haunting tutelary spectre of the oasile. The black dog of Peel Oastle In the lale of Man is woll-kuowD, bat not its origiD. Almost cortair>ly its bores lie beneath the foundations, Popular superaition acknowledges the existence of the spectra dog, but forgets how he came there. We atill makfe much ado about laying foundation stones, and bury boneath them bottles | containing coins. This ceremony is the lingering on m a feeble, eviscerated form of the old sacrifice, Money is now substituted for a living animal, and the living animal was a eubatitutefor a human victim. Qaite recently, the church of Holsworthy, m North Devon, has been restored and In part rebuilt. Whan the south wall of the church was being pulled down, a cavity was discovered m the very centre of the wall m which were huimn remains, which crumbled to dust on exposure. There waa no sign of its bavlrjg been fashioned as a tomb nor any external mark on the walla to indicate that a body was laid there. In faot, the body had distinctly been laid m the wall, embedded m the stones and mortar, and the wall built about and over It. Probably It waß the body of some malefactor, who was hanged, and then deliberately enclosed m the wall to secure its stability for one thing, and likewise that its ghost nvght haunt the church and churchyard, as a spiritual policeman, warning ofi robtera •• ni witches — to be, m a word, the Holsworthy church grim. It mußt be rtmembered that m pre-Reforma-tion times maty valuables were kept m the church, a great deal of altar plate, and the money collections m boxes at shrines. In Buch ohurcbes at St Albans, and Stone, m Keut, there remain to this day treos of the watch-lofts., where a guardian was always watching agaimt sacrilege, against the plunder of tho pilgrims' offering, Bnt a ghostly watcher was more economical than one who ate and drank, and he needed no relief : consequently moat ohnrohejj wore thuß furnished. — "Oornhlll Magaslne."