Oxford, August 2. 1851.
_Suicides buried in Cross-roads_ (Vol. iv., p. 116.).--P. M. M. makes
inquiry respecting a practice formerly observed of _burying murderers in
cross-roads_. I have often heard that _suicides_ were formerly interred
in such places, and that a stake used to be driven through the body. I
know of two places in the neighbourhood of _Boston_ in Lincolnshire,
where such burials are stated to have taken place. One of these is about
a mile and a half south of Boston, on what is called the _low_ road to
Freiston; a very ancient _hawthorn tree_ marks the spot, and the tree
itself is said to have sprung from the stake which was driven through
the body of the self-murderer. The tradition was told me sixty years
since, and the interment was _then_ said to have occurred _a hundred
years ago_; the suicide's name was at that time traditionally
remembered, and was told to me, but I cannot recall it. The tree
exhibits marks of great age, and is preserved with care; it still bears
"may," as the flower of the whitethorn is called, and _haws_ in their
season.
The second grave (as it is reported) of this kind is on the high road
from Boston to Wainfleet, at the intersection of a road leading to
Butterwick, at a place called _Spittal Hill_; near the site of the
ancient hospital or infirmary, which was attached to the Priory of St.
James at Freiston. This spot is famous in the traditions of the
neighbourhood as the scene of the appearance of a sprite or hobgoblin,
called the "_Spittal Hill_ TUT;" which takes, in the language of the
district, the shape of a SHAG _foal_, and is said to be connected with
the history of the suicide buried there.
TUT is a very general term applied in Lincolnshire to any fancied
supernatural appearance. Children are frightened by being told of _Tom
Tut_; and persons in a state of panic, or unreasonable trepidation, are
said to be _Tut-gotten_.