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Digging Harry
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Story By Stephen Rainsbury
Inspired By Chris Scott (Ex Concord VSU) at Frylands Wood May 20th 1972
Leaders Notes During the day wander around with a shovel, then hide it. About an hour before the camp fire ask them if they have seen where you left it and offer a free mars bar to whoever finds it. then tell them this story.
Wherever anything is enclosed in [ square brackets ] then substitute the nearest equivalent to where you are telling the story
There was an old farmer, Harry Southgate, who owned at a farm in [the
village down the road]. But he had an absolute horror of a wife and she was
always nagging at him to get a bigger farm and have more money just like
her brothers.
He got fed up with this and one night after she had been moaning at him all day
he completely lost his temper and cut off her head with an axe.
Apparently he buried her in the woods, around here somewhere, under an
old [Oak] tree, just like that one over there. But when he went to bed that
night he could hear her calling out to him from the woods , threatening
revenge "Harry, you killed me and I cannot rest in peace. I will have my
revenge but until I do you will get no rest either". It kept him awake all
night.
Each night he could hear her threats, each night louder and more horrible
than the last, and every night he got no sleep.
"Harry I will have my revenge and when I do you will die a hideous death and
suffer just like me. You let me down in life and did me evil in death, there
will be no rest for you Harry Southgate"
After a week of this he had no sleep and was getting frantic so he went back
to the woods to dig her up and take the body far far away. He found the body
but her head was missing. He took the body down to the sea and threw it in,
but when he got to bed rather than the silence he had hoped for the threats
were worse.
"Harry, you can't get rid of me that easily, until you confess to the police
you will get no rest"
Eventually he started going crazy and went to the police, but they didn't
believe him because he had no proof. Remember he had thrown the body in the
sea and he couldn't find the head.
He went straight back to the woods to try and find the head, and started
digging holes to look for it. This continued for a year and a day, during
which time he had no rest and no sleep, and then one day finally he
collapsed and died.
They had a service for him but during the quite bit there was a ghostly
voice "You are dead Harry Southgate but you will not rest in peace", and
even to this day people tell of a woman's voice echoing through [ these
woods ].
That was nearly 50 years ago, but local people still remember and when ever
they see a hole they say "the Ghost of Harry Southgate dug that"
At about 3.00 AM start digging outside their tents!
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Unless shown otherwise Copyright Scout Notebook - 2001
http://www.ukonline.net/scoutnotes/
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