Another story is connected with the old "Hind's Head" at Bracknell, which was another of these mantraps, where many travellers slept to rise no more. One winter's night a stout-hearted farmer stayed there, and joined several jovial companions round the kitchen fire. They ate and drank merrily, and at last the serving-maid showed the traveller to his chamber. She told him that he was surrounded by robbers and murderers, showed him a trap-door at the side of the bed, on which if he stepped he would tumble headlong into a deep well. She directed him to tie the bed into a bundle, put it on the trap-door, and escape by the window. He did so; down went the bundle, instead of the farmer, into the well, and he managed to effect his escape. Rousing the neighbourhood he captured the villains, who were all executed, and the bones of many of their victims were found in the well. Happily such inns were rare. To describe the conditions of the old inns for which England was famous, of the good fare which awaited the travellers by the coach, of the spacious corridors, of the comfortable beds hung with silk and smelling of lavender; to tell of all the great folk who entered their doors--kings, queens, poets, generals, highwaymen, statesmen, grooms, conspirators, coachmen--all this would require much space to relate. When railways came in, their ancient glory departed; the old stables are destroyed; grass grows in the courtyard; and the object of their existence has almost ceased to be. CHAPTER XXIII VILLAGE SUPERSTITIONS AND FOLKLORE Belief in witches--Survival of water ordeal--Witches turned into hares-- Cruelties practised on witches--Bishop Jewel on the "evil eye"-- Fairies--Berkshire popular superstitions--Field-names--Homes of famous men--Washington Irving's description of an English village--Rural exodus--Conclusion.