The Legend of John Trinnaman's Pool - part 2

...John Trinnaman called repeatedly for the pantry boy to tend to his kitchen duties until the mistress heard his calls and told the butler that she had instructed the pantry boy to bring the lamb to her daughter. John Trinnaman resented this, fearing that one day the pantry boy would take over his job and with it the favours of the household.

The butler nursed this grievance for a long time and brooded over it. He threatened the pantry boy not to go beyond the walls of the kitchen again. Later he locked the boy away in an attic room intending to starve him to death. The daughter became aware of this and knowing that the owls had their roosts in the attic beams, she fed them continuously and they carried their food into the attic. The pantry boy seemed to thrive on his diet of owl meat and instead of starving became fatter.

Completely frustrated because he could not starve the pantry boy to death John Trinnaman called the boy down to the kitchen where he beat him until he confessed that the daughter had helped to keep him alive by feeding the owls. In anger, John Trinnaman picked the boy up by his legs, swung him round and bashed the boy’s brains out against the kitchen wall. He then carried the dead boy down to the river Erme and threw him into the water... [cont.]