I will turn you into a toad,
That on the ground doth wend;
And won, won, shalt thou never be,
Till this world hath an end."
To the fairy days of long, long ago belong Prince Wynd and the Princess
Margaret and the wicked Witch Wife. But still in the country near
Bamborough, as maids go wandering in the gloaming down by the yellow
sands and the rough grass where the sea-pinks grow, they will be
suddenly startled by a horrible great dun-coloured thing that moves
quickly towards them, as though to do them a harm. With loudly beating
hearts they run home to tell that they have encountered the venomous
toad that hates all virtuous maidens, who once was a queen, her who
created the Laidley Worm of Spindleston-Heugh.
A BORDERER IN AMERICA
It would be matter for wonder if, in the histories of old Border
families, record of strange personal experiences did not at times crop
up. Sons of the Border have wandered far, and have sojourned in many
lands, and borne their part in many an untoward event. But it is not
likely that any can lay claim to adventures more strange and romantic
than those which, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, befell a
youthful member of one of the most ancient of these Border clans.
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