The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1891-07-16
HISTORIC BLOOD STAINS.
English Superstitions Regarding
Scenes Of Bloodshed.
Legendary Tales Which Have Becu
Handed Down from Generation
to Generation for Cen.
turtles Past.

Connected with some Of our old coun-
try seats are romantic stories of strange
blood stains still visible-the silent, in
delible witnesses of tragic scenes COM
mitted in the distant past, says the
London Standard. At Condover hall,
Shropshire, there Is said to be a blood
stain which has been there since the
time of Henry VIII, and cannot be eff
faced. According to local tradition,
which has long been current in the
neighborhood, it is the blood of Lord
Knevett, the owner of the hall and es-
tate at this period, who was treacher-
ously slain by his son. But this story,
which is utterly at variance with facts
bearing on the history of Condover and
its owners in years gone by, must be
classed among the legendary tales Of
the country.
At Cothele, q mansion on the banks of
the Tamar, the marks are still to be
seen Of the blood split by the lord of
the manor, when, for some supposed
act Of perfidy, he slew the warder Of
the drawbridge. Nathaniel Hawthorne,
on one occasion, enjoyed the hospital
ity of Smithills hall, Lancashire, and
was so impressed with the well-known
legend of the Bloody Footstep" that in
three separate instances he founded fic-
tions upon it.
A curious story is told by Miss jack
son in her shropshire Folklore" Of
blood stains at Plaish hall, near Carding-
ton. This legend runs that a party Of
clergy were assembled one night at
Plaish playing cards. All the doors
were locked, when suddenly they burst
open without any apparent cause.
Again they were locked, "but presently
they burst open a second time, and
third. Then the old gentleman ap-
tpeared in the midst of the company,
and they all rose and fed excepting the
host, whom the others basely left face
to face with the enemy. None ever
saw that wretched man again, either
alive or dead. Only great stain of
blood, shaped like a human form, was
found on the floor of the room, and, de-
spite all efforts, the mark could never
be washed out" Ever since this oc-
currence the house has been haunted,
and at midnight a ghostly troop of
horses are heard, with such noise that
none can sleep.
The Cornishman knows from the red
filmy growth on the brook-pebbles that
blood has been shed there-a belief still |
firmly credited. Thus, some years ago,
writes Mr.. Hunt in his popular Ro-
mances of the West Of England" "a Cor
nish gentleman was cruelty murdered
and his body thrown into a brook. I |
have been shown stones taken from
this brook with bright red spots on
some vegetable growth upon them. It
Is said that ever since the murder the |
stones in this brook are spotted with |
gore, whereas they never were so previ-
ously to this dreadful deed" Accord |
ing to another strange Cornish belief
told Of st. Denis blood, it is related |
that at the very time when his decapi. |
tation took place in Paris blood fell on |
The stones Of the churchyard of st.
Denis. Ever since these blood stains |
are reported to be specially visible
when a calamity Of any kind is near at
hand.
The red poppies which followed the
blowing Of the fields of Waterloo after
;he duke of Wellington's victory was
said to have sprung from the blood of
,he troops who fell during the engage
nent; and the fruit of the mulberry,
which was originally white, tradition
Informs us became empurpled through
human blood, a notion which in certain
parts Of Germany accounts for the color
If the heather. Defoe speaks of q GER
ain camp called Darrow Hill, and
writes: ''They say this was Danish
lamp, and the roads hereabouts being
,vergrown with Daneweed, they fancy
t sprung from the blood of Danes slain
n battle, and that If cut upon certain
lay in the year bleeds." In Wales the
lwarf elder is nick-named '.Plant of
he Blood of Man." and the wall flower
s known in Palestine as the BLOOD
lrops of Christ" Among other plants
which are said to owe their dark-stained
blossoms to the blood drops which
rickled from the cross may be men
ioned the wood sorrel, the spotted
'eisicaria, the arum, the purple orchis,
md the red anemone; while a French
egend accounts in the same way for
he crimson-spotted leaves of the rood
ielken.
London Poverty.
Mrs. Annie Besant, carrying her New