gained the victory he would blow three notes upon his bugle, then his father was to loosen his favourite greyhound, which would come to the bugle’s call. Having made all preparations, the heir started on his mission. Standing in midstream, he waited the onset of the worm. It came, and seeing its enemy, wound itself about him; but as it tightened its hold, the razors cut it into many pieces, which, falling into the water, were swept away by the current, and so were unable to grow together again. Thus the victory was won, and the bugle sounded; but the old lord, overjoyed at the thought of his son’s victory, forgot to let loose the hound, and ran himself to meet the conqueror. Here now arose a difficulty; the son would not be a parricide. He went again to the witch, and she told him that the only alternative was the doom that none of his family should die a peaceful death, to the seventh, or some say the ninth, generation. Tradition sayeth that this alternative was accepted, and that no head of the family died on his bed for several centuries after. There are two stone figures of some antiquity preserved at Lambton Castle. One of these is apparently an effigy of our hero in the middle of the fray, only the worm has ears, legs, and a pair of wings. The other figure is a female one, and marked by no very characteristic features. _The Sockburn Worm._ The legend of the Sockburn worm is very similar to that of the Pollard boar. It is recorded in an old manuscript that Sir John Conyers, knight, slew a monstrous and poisonous wyvern, or worm, which had devoured many people in fight, for the scent of the poison was so strong no person could stand it. But before making this enterprise, [Illustration: LAMBTON CASTLE IN 1835.] having but one son, he went to the church of Sockburn in complete armour, and offered up his only son to the Holy Ghost. The place where this great serpent lay was called Graystane. The gray stone is still pointed out in a field near the church. For more than six hundred years the manor of Sockburn was held by the singular service of presenting a falchion to the Bishop of Durham on his first entering the diocese, and it was the duty of the Lord of the Manor of Sockburn, or his representative, to meet His Grace at the middle of Sockburn Ford, or on Croft Bridge, which spans the River Tees, and after hailing him Count Palatine and Earl of Sadberge, to present him with a falchion, saying: "My Lord Bishop, I here present you with the falchion wherewith the champion Conyers slew the worm, dragon, or fiery flying serpent which destroyed man, woman, and child, in memory of which the King then reigning gave him the manor of Sockburn, to hold by this tenure, that upon the first entrance of every Bishop into the county this falchion should be presented." The Bishop, after receiving the weapon in his hand, promptly and politely returned it, and at the same time wished the Lord of Sockburn health and a long enjoyment of the manor.