It was a fascinating read, loved it, thanks for sharing. A friend of mine had a book with all sorts of 'tales, fables, stories' similar to this one and some of them drew you in so much that you had to read it till the end. Strange though thoughts of The Hound of the Baskervilles came to mind.
Old Family Yarns.
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Jan 16, 2023
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#4
Yes definitely. Md dad passed away on 30 January 2019 aged 96 and was 19 days shy of his 97th birthday (18/02). Now and again something comes into my mind and I think, 'I wish my mum or dad was still around so I could ask them about a story I'd forgotten' but, sadly it is not to be.
I write old family yarns and fables. Here is one of my favourites. It is obviously fun to teach the children their family history........ or is it?
Great Aunt Maggie,
Margaret Rose Baker 1915-2000. When Annie Jane Baker was pregnant with Aunty Maggie she went off shopping in nearby Ashby, there were very few shops in Osgathorpe where the Baker family has been born and bred probably since the time of William the Conqueror. Great Grandad Reg was a small boy at the time and was cared for in the thatched cottage by his father Isaac. The Bakers were very simple country folk, so when Annie’s dreams had become plagued by dogs barking in the fog over the undulating hills of the area, they were a little uneasy, but it came to pass that the dreams were more a vision than a dream. A gift of vision handed down in the family by Phoebe Goldstraw (Anglicized from Goldstrain) no doubt.
During the trip to Ashby de la Zouch the heavily pregnant Annie was walking back from the market with bags of groceries, she took a shortcut towards the castle to get a lift on a horse drawn dray. She cut through the church and walked down the narrow path at the side of the Vicars Garden wall when out of a gateway a great hound lunged, growled, snarled and barked at her in an ungodly and demonised like manner.
Annie was shaken, she dropped her groceries and shrieked, fortunately by the time the last potato had stopped rolling around on the floor a kind gentleman was taking hand of the dog. His finely dressed wife was comforting Annie and helping her gather herself and her things. Annie was not physically hurt, and even though very shaken she managed to bustle her way to the dray and get safely home where she relayed the story to Isaac.
As the pregnancy continued Annie’s dreams of the dog in the hills did not abate, if her mind wandered whilst doing her chores the daydream turned to the dog from her dreams and the dog at Ashby, her mind was plagued all the more.
Then the baby came, it was a little baby girl, (Margaret Rose 15th June) there was a slight problem though, the baby had a dogs paw for a foot on the end of her right leg. Nothing was said, everyone knew that the great hound had caused this, so baby Maggie was wrapped up in swaddling and treated like everyone else.
As the years passed Maggie managed to hide her secret dogs paw foot. Even at St Marys dances (The church in Osgathorpe) and The Storey Arms pub, Maggie was known to be an incredible dancer. Maggie never married, but she always had a little dog by her side. No-one in living memory saw Maggie’s dog paw foot with the exception of Reg Baker, her brother. There are no pictures of it, indeed all pictures of Maggie are cropped at the knees, but then you wouldn’t want people to see your foot if it was a dog’s paw would you!