The writer of this remembers his grandmother telling him this story when he was a boy in Newcastle on Tyne.

Cf. Grimm, i. "The Robber Bridegroom," pp. 164, 389.

Chambers, Book of Days, vol. i. p. 291, "Mr. Fox."

Halliwell, Nursery Rhymes, p. 164, "The Story of Mr. Fox"; and Benedict, in "Much Ado About Nothing," act i. scene i.[62]

Cf. Hofberg, p. 14, "Herrn till Rosendal," where the horrors of the lord's house drives his betrothed away; and the "Iron Virgin," of Munich, who was said to clasp the doomed in her arms and pierce them with spikes. Fraser's Magazine, 1872, p. 354.

The story reminds us strongly of Blue Beard. Cf. Notes and Queries, 7th S. ii. p. 321.