<i>The Lambton Wyrm
Lambton, County Durham</i>


While fishing one Sunday morning, the young heir of Lambton caught a huge Wyrm. It was so repulsive in appearance that he threw the loathsome reptile into a near-by well, but it soon crept to a hiding place more suited to its ever-increasing size. Time rolled on. The heir of Lambton went to the wars and returned seven years later to find the countryside terrorized by the huge reptile. A sibyl told him how he might slay it - but he must swear to kill the first living thing he met on his return. The vow was taken, the Wyrm slain - alas! The first person he met was his own father. Kill him his son could not, and for nine generations the sibyl's curse lay upon the house.