LEGENDARY MONSTERS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20283, 18 April 1934, Page 11

LEGENDARY MONSTERS.

Loch Ness Has Not a Monopoly. Scores of English motorists recently made their way to Loch Ness in the hope of catching a glimpse of the monster which is said to be inhabiting its depths. But other English districts can offer, if not the real thing, at least certain legendary associations with similar creatures of the past. At Handale, in the parish of Lofthouse, Cleveland, there is a place called Scaw Wood. It is named after a gallant youth who, ages ago, is said to have slain a great serpent there at the mouth of its cave abode. This creature is reputed to have decoyed maidens to its lair and then devoured them. Lambton Castle, Northumberland, has given its name to the “ Worm ” which, according to tradition, once devastated the local countryside. After each marauding expedition it retired to the foot of a certain rock in the River Wear. Eventually one of the Lambton family, protected by armour specially fitted with great spikes, waited at the rock for the creature to return. When it came it wrapped its loathsome coils around Lambton and became so lacerated in consequence that it died. A window-pane in Lambton Castle preserves a pictorial representation of this thrilling encounter. At Heybridge, Essex, the age of seaserpents is recalled by the presence on the church door of an iron clamp which represents one of these fabulous creatures. So -what price Loch Ness now? SYNTHETIC RUBBER. A synthetic rubber claimed to possess all the qualities of the natural product and to be impervious to the action of both oils and heat has just been produced in Great Britain. This information is given in an announcement by a large chemical company, forwarded by Vice-Consul Wallace E. Moessner, at Manchester, and made public by the Department of Commerce. The chemical company is reported to have stated that, despite the cost of producing the synthetic rubber as compared with the prevailing price of natural rubber, the product can be used successfully and economically for many special purposes because of its unusual qualities.