Dorset myth-conception

As readers of Fortean Times know, the world is full of "myth-conceptions" which sound so credible they get repeated ad nauseum, even though there is no truth to them. Here is one that has just been pointed out to me by Paul Jackson, concerning the Drax Estate's prominent "Stag Gate" on the A31 (the main route from Dorchester to the M27). The Stag is famous for having five legs -- and everyone in Dorset "knows" the reason for this. But they're wrong, as Paul explains:

"It seems that it has often been assumed (by me too) that the Stag was given a fifth leg to ensure that it looked like it had four legs when viewed from the road. Presumably when it only had four legs, it appeared to have three! However, when reading the Drax estate website I noticed that: Although the stag appears to have five legs, the 'fifth leg' is actually a 'tree stump' originally incorporated into the sculpture to add strength, as can be clearly seen in the photos [reproduced at left]. There are quite a few comments on-line and in publications that the stag has five legs so that it appears to have four when viewed from any angle, which is clearly imaginative but incorrect."