Blarney Stone

It is said that if you have kissed the "Blarney Stone", you can acquire the gift of eloquence - the gift of the gab.
This ancient stone can be found high on the outside of the battlements of Blarney Castle, near Cork in Ireland. To kiss the stone, you have to get someone to hold your legs, so that you hang down far enough to smooch. I did this in 1977. An attendant held my legs. As I was hanging, he blithely informed me, that people had in the past slipped and fallen to their deaths. Oh! and he had forgotten to tell me that it would cost £10 for him to hold me! Did I agree? I did - but I didn't feel much like talking for a long while after that.