A STRANGE STORY.

Northern Advocate, 3 December 1921, Page 3

A STRANGE STORY.

PROPHECY FROM THE SCAFFOLD.

LONDON, Oct. 7.

A weird story comes from Montgomery concerning a grave in the parish churchyard. Exactly a hundred years ago, John Newton Davies, a farm bailiff, was publicly hanged there for highway robbery. With the rope around his neck on the scaffold, he declared that, in proof of his innocence, grass would not cover his grave for a century. His supposed prophecy has been fulfilled. To-day, on the neglected grave, there is still a ■ barren, sterile strip in the form of a cross, though thick grass grows unhindered all around. Past and present sextons have stoutly denied that anything has ever been done to keep the grave bare, and superstition holds that anydne trying to frustrate the prophecy meets an unnatural end.

Mr J. E. Tormley, C.8.E., the churchwarden, who is a well-known solicitor and public man in Montgomeryshire, has given his views on the matter. "I am not a superstitious man," Mr Tormley said, "but there is certainly something uncanny about the grave. I am sure tfyat nothing is ever done to stop the grass which grows all around overspreading the sterile strip. The sexton would be afraid of his life toin terfere with the grave. There are too many tragedies connected with it. I myself would not for anything sow grass on it, nor would I let any friend do so. These facts I can vouch for: About fifteen years ago a commercial traveller, hearing of the grave and its strange tale, carefully planted seeds on it. A fortnight later he met with a sudden death. Another man planted a rose tree on the head of the grave. The tree grew, but the man was seized with paralysis, and never recovered. There are other like stories, for which I canont vouch. They may be, no doubt are, merely coincidences, but that won't remove the local belief." Montgomery is now waiting to see if the grass will spread over the grave, as the century has expired.