Liverpool.
_Suicides buried in Cross Roads_ (Vol. iv., pp. 116. 212.).--This was
formerly the general practice in the South of England, and it has
occasionally been resorted to within the last thirty years. At
Chalvington, in Sussex, there once resided, according to a popular
tradition, the _only honest miller ever known_. About a century since,
this person, finding it impossible to succeed in business, hanged
himself in his own mill, and was buried in a neighbouring "crossways."
An oaken stake, driven through his body, taking root, grew into a tree,
and threw a singular shrivelled branch, the only one it ever produced,
across the road. It was the most singular tree I ever saw, and had
something extremely hag-like and ghostly in its look. The spot was of
course haunted, and many a rustic received a severe shock to his
feelings on passing it after nightfall. The tradition was of course
received by the intelligent as a piece of superstitious _folk-lore_, and
the story of the "only honest miller" was regarded as a mere _myth_,
until about twenty-five years ago, when a labourer employed in digging
sand near the roots of the scraggy oak tree, discovered a human
skeleton. This part of the history I can vouch for, having seen, when a
schoolboy, some of the bones. I must not omit to mention that the honest
miller of Chalvington owned the remarkable peculiarity of a "tot" or
tuft of hair growing in the palm of each hand!