1/20 16 ISO 200
"The Devil, so it is said, had been infuriated by the conversion of Sussex, one of the last strongholds of paganism in England, and more particularly by the way the men of the Weald were building churches in all their villages. So he swore that he would dig right through the Downs in a single night, to let in the sea and drown them all. He started just near Polynings and dug and dug most furiously, sending great clods of earth flying left and right - one became Chanctonbury, another Cissbury, another Rackham Hill, and yet another Mount Caburn. Towards midnight, the noise he was making disturbed an old woman, who looked out to see what was going on. As soon as she understood what he was up to, she lit a candle and set it on her window-sill, holding up a sieve in front of it to make a dimly glowing globe. The Devil looked round, and thought this was the rising sun. At first he could hardly believe his eyes, but then he heard a cock crowing - for the old woman, just to make quite sure, had knocked her cockerel off his perch. So Satan flew away, leaving his work half done. Some say that as he went out over the Channel, a great dollop of earth fell from his cloven hoof, and that's how the Isle of Wight was made; others that he bounded straight over into Surrey, where the impact of his landing formed the hollow known as his Punch Bowl; others, that he hurled the Goldstone into Hove as he flew away."
- Simpson, J (2009) Folklore of Sussex. Third edition. Gloucestershire: The History Press.
No comments:
Post a Comment