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more likely that the 'Pining Wife' story was invented by some
long-forgotten novelist who knew the history of Wiston House and
its owners, and was determined to improve on it. I think it was
told to me in good faith, but my original informant is now dead,
and I have not heard the story since.
bowl of soup. (Anon, 'Perhaps it was the Devil Brewing his Soup',
West Sussex Gazette, 27/6/68.)
If one runs three times round the clump one sees a lady on a white
horse, and if you can manage to struggle round seven times, you are
rewardedby a sight of the Devil. (Letter from Miss Davey, of Chilgrove,
in West Sussex Gazette, 25/7/68, with reference to an experience in
1962.)
As is obvious, there is considerable variation as to times,
season, number and difficulty of circuits, the nature of the
apparition, and what, if anything, will ensue. My own recollection,
from ca. 1945, is of being told that the Devil appears after only
one circuit, at any time of day, and chases you to the Devil's Dyke
(about nine miles off).
The most intriguing feature of this legend is the basin of soup/
bowl of porridge/glass of milk; it is a pity that no version explains
whether one ought to accept it, or what will happen if one does.
In an article in the West Sussex Gazette, 2 L. N. Cadlin suggests
that it might come from folk-memories of some rite actually
practised in the Romano-Celtic temple on Chanctonbury centuries
ago in which the priest gave a ritual drink to the worshippers;
he points out that magic cauldrons recur constantly in Celtic
myths. One might add the argument that 'double-square' temples
consisted of an inner shrine and an outer portico which is thought
to have been used for processions; the seven circuits could be a
memory of these processions. Meat-broth, milk and porridge
might all be ritual foods; they are all present in the fantastic meal
prepared by the Fomorians for the Dagda. It is at any rate satis-
factory that the legend should have appeared in print as early as
1909, the same year that the building was found and one year
before the report identifying it as a temple was published; this
seems to rule out any possibility that the legend was influenced by
knowledge of the temple's existence.13
On the other hand, the idea that a supernatural being will offer
food or drink to passers-by at some prominent natural or man-made
12
See note 9.
1a The excavator himself writes as if he had believed at the time that the
buildings uncovered were for military purposes, and had been only later, and a
little reluctantly, converted by other archaeologists into recognizing them as a
temple. He is therefore most unlikely to have unwittingly fostered the spread of
supernatural stories.
127
131