This is one of a series of new caches in CREW Marsh Trails. They all will have a theme of "Ghosts."
Newgate Prison once stood by the Old Bailey and was home to a supernatural hound that was an omen of bad luck. A prison inmate first wrote about the hound in 1596 and recounted that during a terrible famine in London, the prison inmates had turned to canniblism to stay alive. A scholar was imprisoned at this time, having been accused of witchcraft, and no sooner had he arrived than he was overpowered by the stronger men and eaten.
Shortly afterward, the inmates began seeing a large, black dog roaming the dark corridors, and one by one, each man who had eaten the scholar was hunted down and torn apart by the beast. When the number had dwindled to only a handful of remaining men who had eaten the scholar, they were deranged with fear and broke out of the prison to escape. It is said that no man really escaped, however, and those last murderers were found by the dog and met the same fate as their fellow inmates.
About CREW:
The CREW Land and Water Trust is a private, non-profit conservation organization dedicated to the preservation and stewardship of the water resources and natural communities in and around the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed (CREW). This 60,000-acre watershed in partnership with the South Florida Water Management District (which owns and manages the land) and the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (which monitors wildlife, hunting, and provides law enforcement on CREW). CREW is the largest intact watershed in southwest Florida, straddling Lee and Collier Counties. CREW’s majestic 5,000-acre sawgrass marsh is the headwaters for the entire watershed.
Thanks to CREW's Executive Director, Bob Lucius and the staff at CREW as well as South Florida Water Management District for allowing us to use the CREW trails for geocaching.