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| From Rev. Abraham Fleming's account of the appearance of the ghostly black dog "Black Shuck" at the church of Bungay, Suffolk in 1577 |
This should be a morning to set the church bells ringing in that vanished village of Shipden which lies beneath the sea! But all I can hear above the roaring of wind and sea is the scream of a sea-bird and the song of a lark which the storm cannot keep from soaring. If there were any truth in those old legends of tolling bells in the sea depths, such a gale as this should make the East Anglian coast as musical as the "City of Churches" on a Christmas Eve ; for many a ham- let, and many a church which was a landmark to seamen, has gone down cliff between Aldborough and Lynn. But now it is the children only who listen for the bells, just as it is the children only who go about at night in fear of Black Shuck. If this were a stormy night instead of a stormy day the old fisher-folk of the coast would say it were just the time for Black Shuck to be abroad ; for he revels in the roaring of the waves and loves to raise his awful voice above the howling of the gale.
