2°d S. VIII. July 23. '69.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



67 



Tempsford, Bedfordshire*, and forwarded to a 

 friend together with a " Dugdale : " — 

 " My Good Friend, 



" I have sent you Master Dugdale, in 

 which I hope you will find both pleasure and satis- 

 faction, and I hope you will leave the Monkish 

 Storys as I do, that is, as I find thim so I leave 

 thim, (as Saul did his father's Asses) for Indeed 

 I have very little faith in those Legendary Tales. 

 S"^ I can compare myself not much unlike Shake- 

 spears Rich^ the third when he says I have nothing 

 to do but to view my shadow in the sun, &c. So 

 if you shoud have any Jobb fall, if its only for 

 Imployment, I shall gladly accept it, and with 

 Comp" to ffriends, 



" Your most sincere ffriend 

 "&h''"=SerS 



" Tempsford, 

 Tuesday, 18 May, 79." 



" S. Patrick." 



CUTHBERT B£D£. 



WITCHCRAFT IN CHURNING, ETC. 



" The following document (published about 1832) from 

 jMr. Manning of Halstead, is preserved in the British 

 Museum : — 



" ' Siii, — The narrative which I gave j'ou, in relation to 

 witchcraft, and which you are pleased to laj-- your com- 

 mands upon me to repeat, is as follows : — There was one 

 Mr. Callet, a smith by trade, of Havingham, in the 

 county of Suffolk, formerly servant in Sir John Duke's 

 family in Benhall in Suffolk. As it was customary with 

 him assisting the maid to churn, and being unable, as 

 the phrase is, to make the butter come, threw a hot iron 

 into the churn, under the notion of Avitchcraft in the 

 case, upon which a poor labourer then employed in carrj'- 

 ing manure in the yard, cried out in a terrible manner, 

 * the}' have killed me, they have killed me,' still keeping 

 his hand upon his back, intimating where the pain was, 

 and died upon the spot. Mr. Callet, with the rest of the 

 servants, took off the poor man's clothes, and found, to 

 their great surprise, the mark of the iron that was heated 

 and thrown into the churn stronglj' impressed upon his 

 back. This account I had from Mr. Callet's own mouth, 

 who being a man of unblemished character, I verily be- 

 lieve. I am, Sir, &c. 



"'Samuel Manning. 



« ' Halstead, August 2, 1732.' " 



We are informed by Professor Sinelar (in Sa- 

 tan's Livisible World Discovered, edit. 1769, p. 101.), 

 that "another old woman taught her neighbour 

 this charm when the butter would not come : — 

 " Come butter come. 

 Come butter come, 

 Peter stands at the gate 

 Waiting for a butter'd cake. 

 Come butter come ! " 



The superstition on this head had therefore run 

 pretty parallel in England and Scotland, only the 

 " old woman's " enticing charm was decidedly of a 

 more innocent kind than Mr. Callet's " hot iron " 



[* Has our correspondent any authority' for stating that 

 Bishop Symon Patrick was Rector of Tempsford ?— Ed. ] 



that frightened the "poor labourer" to death. 

 Such matters are now scarcely credible, and yet 

 we cannot blame either the " smith " or the " old 

 woman " for having adopted the notions of the 

 age, seeing both were in the company of many 

 eminent men of a like belief; even in that of the 

 church of Rome herself, who professedly had her 

 exorcisms " pro lacte " and " pro butyro." It ap- 

 pears, however, worthy of remark that the learned 

 Mr. George Sinelar, no less designated than a 

 professor of philosophy and ^mathematics in the 

 celebrated college of Glasgow, had not been aware 

 that butter will not " come " unless the cream to 

 be churned is at a certain heat which any ordinary 

 dairy-maid now understands, and, regulating the 

 degree of heat required by that little useful in- 

 strument the thermometer, at once puts to flight 

 both magic and magicians. Mr. Callet, with his 

 " hot iron," was near upon the principle, but he 

 unfortunately imputed it to a wrong cause. The 

 '* mark " on the back of the " poor labourer " had 

 likely arisen from the suddenness of his death, re- 

 ceiving injuries or otherwise, through perhaps 

 violently falling on the ground, and leaving on 

 his skin what are called "blue or bruised marks," 

 which may accidentally have assumed the resem- 

 blance of Mr. Callet's " iron ; " but, be that as it 

 may, a warm imagination and high credulity 

 could scarcely fail to trace something answering 

 the purpose- 

 In modern times a few shreds and patches of 

 these " beggarly elements " are to be seen in vari- 

 ous forms, though gradually wearing out. A West 

 Country medical practitioner used many years 

 since to amuse me with a number of similar anec- 

 dotes to the preceding, well told in the vernacular 

 of the district, one among which I happen to have a 

 note of. An old woman, a specimen who, in Mr. 

 Sinclar's days, if not good for burning as a witch, 

 would at least have been strongly suspected, waited 

 upon the doctor, who heard a gentle tap at his 

 door. 



D. Who's there ? Come in. 



O. W. (Peeping in very slyly). I see ye're en- 

 gadg'd, doctor. I was wantin an unco canny 

 word ye, but I'se come back again. 



D. O, you need not go away. 



O. W. warily steps in, and drawing him to a 

 corner inquires if he had onie Skaith Saio (salve). 



D. What are you going to do with it ? 



O. W. Na, Sir, ye ken it's no for raysel, I mean 

 it was no me that was thinkin about it ; but a 

 neebor o mine thocht my dochter had gotten 

 Skaith, for she has never been richt sin Hughoc's 

 house was brunt, an she said if I wad get ti^pence 

 worth Skaith saw an rub ier a' oer wi't she 

 wad grow better soon. Now, Sir, as I kent ye 

 was a sober man, an up to heaps o things, I thocht 

 ye cud tell me whether it wud do guid or no. 



D. Indeed, I think it will not do any good 



