| Legend: |
Once, a dark Italian stranger appeared in Lowestoft, becoming friends with a 14 year old fisher boy, whom he tried to persuade to travel with him to 'foreign parts.' Although the boy refused, the man said that he himself still had to go, and asked that the boy should look after his dog, a fine, curly black retriever. This dog, large, long and lean, had often been seen around since the man's arrival, but always alone.
After the stranger had left the boy and the dog became inseparable, often swimming together in the sea. But one day they swam far out, and when the boy turned to go back to shore, the dog snarled and snapped at his neck and legs, forcing him ever further out. He swam on in fear, with what he knew was 'Black Shuck' after him, but finally he heard the dog come alongside, and turned - to look into the face of the stranger. It gave him a devilish grin, and flew at his neck with a snarl. But just as he thought he was done for, a passing ship came to his rescue and hauled him aboard, his neck torn badly by the animal's teeth.
The dog dived, reappearing a little way off, then swam away and vanished. It was said that, even before these events, young boys occasionally disappeared in the sea off Ness Point, only to be washed ashore days later, with their throats torn open. (1)
Morley Adams (2) tells this tale of "a small seaside hamlet" further down the coast than Orford, which Theo Brown identifies with Felixstowe (3).
But only four years after James told it of Lowestoft, the story had been
appropriated for the Cromer area, with Runton Point taking the place of
Ness Point. (4) |
| Sources: |
(1) M. H. James: 'Bogie Tales of East Anglia' (Pawsey & Hayes, 1891), p. 25-7.
(2) Morley Adams: 'In the Footsteps of Borrow & Fitzgerald' (Jarrolds, 1914), p. 126-8.
(3) Theo Brown: 'The Black Dog', in Folklore' Vol.69 (1958), p. 186.
(4) The
'Norfolk News', 1895, quoted in Peter Haining: 'The Supernatural Coast'
(Robert Hale, 1992), p. 43-4.
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