all
barrows, at the west end of the course. These _hippodromes_ were called,
in the language of the country, _rhedagua_; the racer, _rhedagwr_; and the
carriage, _rheda_--from the British word rhedeg, to run.

One of these _hippodromes_, about half a mile to the southward of
Leicester, retains evident traces of the old name, _rhedagua_ in the
corrupted one of Rawdikes. "There is another of these," says Dr. Stukely,
"near Dorchester; and another on the banks of the river Lowther, near
Penrith, in Cumberland; and another in the valley just without the
town of Royston."

WALTER E.C.

_Pratt-street, Lambeth._

* * * * *

THE SKETCH-BOOK.

* * * * *

THE BEGGAR WOMAN OF LOCARNO.

At the foot of the Alps, near Locarno, was an old castle, belonging to a
marquess, the ruins of which are still visible to the traveller, as he
comes from St. Gothard--a castle with lofty and roomy apartments, high
towers, and narrow windows. In one of these rooms, an old sick woman was
deposited upon some straw, which had been shaken down for her by the
housekeeper of the marquess, who had found her begging before the gate.
The marquess, who was accustomed to go into this room on his return from
hunting, to lay aside his gun, ordered the poor wretch to get up
immediately out of her corner, and begone.

The creature arose, but slipping with her crutch upon the smooth floor,
she fell, and injured her back so much, that it was with great difficulty
she got up, and, moving across the room as she had been desired, groaning
and crying sadly, sank down behind the chimney. Several years afterwards,
when the circumstances of the marquess had been much reduced by war and
the failure of his crops, a Florentine gentleman visited the castle, with
the intention of purchasing it, in consequence of the beauty of the
situation. The marquess, who was very anxious to have the bargain
concluded, gave his wife directions to lodge the stranger in the same
upper room in which the old woman had died, it having, in the meantime,
been very handsomely fitted up; but, to their consternation, in the middle
of the night, the stranger entered their room, pale and agitated,
protesting loudly that the chamber was haunted by some invisible being;
for that he had heard something rise up in the corner, as if it had been
lying among straw, move over the chamber with slow and tottering steps,
and sink dow