Kilkenny.
_Haveringemere._--Gervase of Tilbury, in the 4th book of his _Otia
Imperialia_, sect. 88., mentions a certain pond or mere lying near the
confines of Wales, and named Haveringemere, of which the peculiarity is,
that if a person passing over it in a boat utters, in a loud voice, certain
opprobrious words, a commotion arises in the waters and sinks the boat. The
words, as printed in the edition of Leibnitz (Leibnitii _Scriptores
Brunsvicenses_, tom. i. p. 990.), are "_Prout haveringemere_ aut
_allethophe cunthefere_;" which he explains to mean, "_Phrut_ tibi, mare,
et omnibus qui te transfretant." He adds with great simplicity: "Et satis
mirandum, quod aquæ hujus modi concipiunt indignationes." It is plain that
we ought to read, "Phrut Haveringemere, and alle thai that on thee fere"
(_i. e._ ferry). _Phrut_ or _prut_ is a word of contempt, of which Mr.
Halliwell gives an instance, _s. v._ Prut, from an Harleian MS.: "And seyth
_prut_ for thy cursing prest." Is anything known of this mere at the
present day, and is there any remnant of this old superstition? Gervase
wrote his book anno 1211.