Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-01-02
ANCIENT ENGLISH CUSTOMS.
The Giant of the Chalk Hills-BuryinG
Suicides ut Cross Eoaals

The Giant of the Chalk Hills-Burying
Suicides at Cross Roads.
Amongst the almost universal custom OF
raising tumuli, statues or monuments COM
memorative of persons and events, England,
perhaps, stands alone with II peculiar custom
of carving objects on the sides of chalk hills.
The "Cerne Giant,n which is to be seen at
great distance, dug on a hillside at Cerne
Abbas, Dorsetshire, is a very interesting
specimen of this unique art. l do not re-
member the dimensions, but the figure ocru-
pies a considerable space, otherwise it would
not be easily distinguished a: 6 distance,
where only it can be made out. 1t is that of
n man with u club in his hand, and although
1t was, lbeheve, intended to represent one of
the carly kings of England, do not think it
is certain which.
Strange objects of this and other kinds,
however, generally bear ''local reputation" !"
or otherwise, local tradition, which in the
present case is, as usual, rather absurd, and
is to the effect that the figure represents a
giant who once killed and feasted on q farm
ers sheep on the hill, and hSving gorged him
self lay down to sleep, when the villagers
stole upon and killed him! ! should state
that to form the figure the surface earth is
dug away, revealing the white chalk, and it
would seem that considerable skill must have
been displayed and the work directed from a
distance, in order to give it the proper per-
spective, While the giant" has evidently
existed for many centuries, there is IN excel
lent modern figure of horse and rider on a
hill near the little watering place of Wey-
mouth, representing King George III, who
visited there. A statue is also erected on the
esplanade, with an inscription recording the
event The hill incisions have to be cleaned
up about once in two years.
The singular ancient custom OF burying
suicides at cross county roads has long since
become obsolete. 1 believe the persons so
"honored" had met their fate chiefly, if not
entirely, by drowning. 1t will be remem-
bered that Hood, relating the tragic end of
one of these unfortunates, concludes with the
witty couplet:
And they buried iiim at four cross roads
With stake in his inside.
1t is said that OH being interred-presum-
ably without Il cofiin-a green stake was
driven through the body of tho victim.
The somewhat baTbarous custom of glib
betting murdereis, too, has happily long since
been abolished. Tho worst form of gibbet-
ing alive or starving the condemned man to
death in an iron cage or soma lonely heath,
exposed to the elements, was terrible COM
pared with the milder form OF exposing the
body after death on n post. IN many locali-
ties tho site of gibbeting post is commemo-
rated, the writer remembering a spot called
Jack Whites Gibbet"
Turning to something little more pleas
ant. the reader may not have heard, or, if SO,
seen what are termed fairy rings" which
consist of distinct and perfectly formed
beaten round tracks, of about one foot, on a
green field, down or rabbit warren, ''tradi-
tionally" said to be formed by a fairy. These
rings vary in size and distinctness, and while
some are quite fifty yards in circumference,
others ere not more than ten or fifteen, and
arc generally surrounded by the commonest
fungi or toadstool 1t would be interesting
to know how these rings are really formed,
and although there seems some reason to
to suppose they are produced by the gambols
Of rabbits yet it is difficult to understand
how they could contrive to form a complete
circle.-Detroit Free Press.