"I shall take it very kind if you will, sir, for you know we poor people don't know much about these things." "Very often quite as much as many who are richer, Matthew,--but here comes our young squire, anxious like ourselves to keep a dry coat on his back; so I shall now be telling my story to rich and poor together, and I hope make it plain to both." After a few words of friendly greeting between Mr. Acres and himself, the three sat down on the stone seats of the Lich-Gate, and he at once proceeded to answer the old Shepherd's question. "The word _Lich_[2]," he said, "means a _Corpse_, and so _Lich-Gate_ means a Corpse-gate, or gate through which the dead body is borne; and that path up which you came just now, Matthew, used formerly to be called the _Lich-path_[3], because all the funerals came along that way. In some parts of Scotland is still kept up the custom of _Lyke-wake_ (_Lich-wake_), or watching beside the dead body before its burial[4]. The pale sickly-looking moss, which lives best where all else is dead or dying, we call _lichen_. Then you know the _Lich-owl_ is so called because some people are silly enough to think that its screech foretells death. And I must just say something about this word _lich_ in the name of a certain city; it is _Lichfield_. Now _lich-field_ plainly means the field of the dead: and where that city now stands is said to have been the burial-place of many Christian Martyrs, who were slain there about the year 290. You will remember, Mr. Acres, that the Arms of the City exhibit this field of the dead, on which lie three slaughtered men, each having on his head, as is supposed, a martyr's crown. Now, Matthew, I think I have fully replied to your question; but I should like to say something more about the use and the history of these Lich-Gates." Illustration: Lich-Gate at Birstal "Will you kindly tell us," said Mr. Acres, "how it is that there are so few remaining, and that of these there are probably very few indeed so much as four centuries old[5]."