Dartmoor is a region located in the center of the county of Devon, England. His landscapes are a beautiful national park of 953 km ² that inspires many legends, some of them as alive as the mystery surrounding the tomb of Mary Jay.
Dartmoor is well known for being the setting of the novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1902), perhaps the most famous of all Sherlock Holmes starring, and also the mystery of the tomb of Mary Jay .
In late 1700, a orphaned babygirl was abandoned at the gates of "The Poor House" Newton Abbot. She was given a surname beginning with whatever letter the Poor House had progressed to, in this case 'J'.
Mary Jay stayed at the Wolborough Poor House until her teens, and she looked after younger children. Later she was sent to Canna farm where she was employed as an 'apprentice' which meant she would work both in the house and on the fields.
Soon the beautiful Mary or Kitty Jay, as she is also known, began receiving attention from the farmer's son. She became pregnant and therefore suffered the rejection of the family. She was thrown out of the farm with a reputation as a prostitute. Another version of the legend says she was raped.
She knew very well that due to this false rumor, she never could find employment in the region. She didn´t want to return to the Poor House. So she took a tragic final decision and hanged herself in one of the barns nearby.
The custom of the day was that someone who commited suicide could not be buried in consecrated ground so she was buried at the intersection of a road and a moorland track.
Since then, everyday fresh flowers appear on the grave.Nobody is ever seen leaving them but no matter what time of year there are always flowers. It is also said that the grave is often visited by "The Pixies" little people, fairies, living in nearby forests. Some motorists who have spent the night next to the grave say they have seen even the figure of the farmer's son grieving for Jay.
Dartmoor today is under the supervision of the Dartmoor National Park Authority. Certain areas of Dartmoor have been used as military training camp for over 200 years. The rest of the park can be visited by the public.
http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/kitty_Jay.htm
http://elzo-meridianos.blogspot.com.es/2009/05/el-sepulcro-de-la-joven-mary-jay.html
