to the height of a man. Knights and hunters were
wont, when fatigued with heat and thirst, to ascend the hillock in
question to obtain relief. This had to be done singly and alone. The
adventurous man then would say: "I thirst," when a cupbearer would
appear and present him with a large drinking-horn adorned with gold and
gems, as, says the writer, was the custom among the most ancient
English, and containing liquor of some unknown but most delicious
flavour. When he had drunk this, all heat and weariness fled from his
body, and the cupbearer presented him with a towel to wipe his mouth
withal; and then having performed his office he disappeared, waiting
neither for recompense nor inquiry. One day an ill-conditioned knight of
the city of Gloucester, having gotten the horn into his hands, contrary
to custom and good manners kept it. But the Earl of Gloucester, having
heard of it, condemned the robber to death, and gave the horn to King
Henry I., lest he should be thought to have approved of such wickedness
if he had added the rapine of another to the store of his own private
property. Gervase of Tilbury wrote near the beginning of the thirteenth
century. His contemporary, William of Newbury, relates a similar story,
but lays its scene in Yorkshire. He says that a peasant coming home late
at night, not very sober, and passing by a barrow, heard the noise of
singing and feasting. Seeing a door open in the side of the barrow, he
looked in, and beheld a great banquet. One of the attendants offered him
a cup, which he took, but would not drink. Instead of doing so, he
poured out the contents, and kept the vessel. The fleetness of his beast
enabled him to distance all pursuit, and he escaped. We are told that
the cup, described as of unknown material, of unusual colour and of
extraordinary form, was presented to Henry I., who gave it to his
brother-in-law, David, King of the Scots. After having been kept for
several years in the Scottish treasury it was given by William the Lion
to King Henry II., who wished to see it.[112]

By a fortune somewhat rare, this story, having been written down in the
days of the early Plantagenet kings, has been lately found again among
the folk in the East Riding. The how, or barrow, where it is now said to
have occurred is Willey How, near Wold Newton, on the Bridlington road,
a conspicuous mound about three hundred feet in circumference and sixty
feet in height. The rustic to whom the adventure h