504 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Dec. 29. 1855. 



After this simple prescription, "VVallis pressed 

 him to eat: "But he said, 'No, friend, I will not 

 eat ; the Lord Jesus is sufficient for me. Very 

 seldom doe I drinke any beere neither, but that 

 which comes from the rocke. So, friend, the 

 Lord God be with thee.' " 



So saying, he departed, and was never more 

 heard of; but the patient got well within the given 

 time, and for many a long day there was war 

 hot and fierce among the divines of Stamford, as 

 to whether the stranger was an angel or a devil. 

 His dress has been minutely described by honest 

 Sam. His coat was purple, and buttoned down 

 to the waist ; " his britches of the same couler, all 

 new to see to;" his stockings were very white, 

 but whether linen or jersey, deponent knoweth 

 not ; his beard and head were white, and he had 

 a white stick in his hand. The day was rainy 

 from morning to night, " but he had not one spot 

 of dirt upon his cloathes." 



Aubrey gives an almost exactly similar relation, 

 the scene of which he places in the Staffordshire 

 Moorlands. He there appears in a " purple shag 

 gown," and presci'ibes balm-leaves. 



So much for the English version of the Wan- 

 dering Jew, Nothing tending to illustrate a 

 theme to which the world has been indebted for 

 Salathiel, St. Leon, Le Juif Errant, and The Un- 

 dying One, can be said to be wholly uninteresting. 



V. T. Stbbnberg. 

 15. Store Street. 



rOLK LORE IN MONMOUTHSHIRE. 



(^Concluded from p. 484.) 



The rude band of some one, who evidently en- 

 tertained no respect for the subject, has just at 

 this interesting part torn out a whole sheet of the 

 copy, so that from pages 73. to 80. there is an 

 entire blank. We then come to a story of the 

 fairies carrying men in the night in a state of in- 

 sensibility to other places. 



" Mr. Edmund Miles, of Ty yn yr Uwj'n in Ebwy-vawr, 

 and some young men of the neighbourhood, going witli 

 him a hunting to Langattock Criekowel in Breconsliire, 

 Mr. Miles having, besides two or three estates in Ebwy- 

 vawr Valley, an estate in those parts. Among others, a 

 brother of "mine went with him, Mr. Miles being my 

 father's landlord. After hunting a great part of the day, 

 and they had sat down to rest, when they were conclud- 

 ing to return home, up started a hare just bj'them. After 

 which the hounds ran, and they after the hounds. After 

 the hare had given them a long chace, the hounds fol- 

 lowed it to the cellar-window of Richard the Tailor, who 

 kept the publick- house in the village of Langattock, and 

 challenged the hai'e at the cellar-window : that village at 

 that time being very infamous for witches in all the 

 country round, and this man among the rest was believed 

 to be one, and one Avho resorted to the company of the 

 fairies. This begat a suspicion in the company that he 

 was the hare which had played them that trick ; to make 

 it too late for them to return home, that they might stay 



No. 322.] 



to spend money at his house that night. It being now 

 too late to return home, and being Aveaiy, they did stay 

 there. But they were very free in their suspicions and 

 reflections upon him. Mr. Jliles, who was a sober, wise 

 gentleman, although of few words, was not without his 

 suspicion with the rest, though ho persuaded them to 

 speak less. And when my brother, some time in the 

 night, wanted to go out to make -water, Mr. Miles, and 

 others with him, dissuaded him from going out, but to do 

 it in the house ; which he disdaining to do, ventured to 

 go out, but did not return ; which after waiting awhile, 

 the company became uneasy and very stormy, and abusive 

 in language to the man of the house, threatening to burn 

 the house if my brother did not return ; and so trouble- 

 some they were, that the man and his wife left the room 

 and went to bed. The companj' were still waiting and 

 expecting his return, and slept httle. Next morning, not 

 very early, he came to them. They were exceeding 

 glad to see him, though he appeared like one who had 

 been drawn through thorns and briars, with his hair dis- 

 ordered and looking bad, who was naturally a stout man, 

 and of a good healthy complexion. They were very 

 curious to knov/ where he had been, and what had hap- 

 pened to him. He told them he had been travelling all 

 night in unknown, rough ways, and did not know where 

 he Avas, until early that day he saw himself at Twyn 

 Gwnlliw, near the entrance into Newport Town, Avhere he 

 helped a man, from Risga, to raise a load of coal which 

 had fallen from his horse. Suddenly after he became in- 

 sensible, and was brought back into the place from whence 

 he had been taken. In a few hours, therefore, he must 

 have been carried by these infernal spirits, through the 

 air, more than twenty miles, for so long the Avay is from 

 Newport to Langattock village. Let none say that this 

 was impossible or unlikely, since the devil is said in 

 Scripture, Math. iv. 5, C, to carry the Son of God through 

 the air to the pinnacle of the temple, when he tempted 

 llim to destroj' Himself; our Saviour sufiering it that He- 

 might be an experimental sympathiser, and deliverer of 

 those who are tempted, as many are, with this kind of 

 destructive temptation. 



" The above relation, not very long ago, I had from 

 the mouth of the Rev. Mr. Thomas Lewis, who then was 

 one of the company. This notable turn came to pass 

 about the year 1733. And so it was long kept from my 

 knowledge, and the knowledge of my father and mother. 

 It seems he had desired the company to keep it secret, so 

 that it was not told me till many years after his death. 

 After this he became sober and penitent, especially after 

 the death of my father and mother, who before was a 

 stranger to the life of godliness, and lived badly; only he 

 had some natural virtues, and had a respect for people 

 whom he thought to be truly religious and sincere. 



" But some may ask, to what purpose are things of this 

 nature related, and what good end can it serve ? I answer, — 



" That having taken upon me to give a full account of 

 this parish, I could not properly avoid giving some ac- 

 count of these extraordinary things, which really came to 

 pass in it, and of which those persons who knew of them 

 would expect to hear, and would blame the omission of 

 them. I also reasonably apprehend that a well-attested 

 relation of apparitions and agencies of spirits in the world, 

 is a great means, perhaps the most effectual of any ex- 

 ternal means, to prevent the capital infidelities of atheism 

 and Sadducism, which get much ground in some coun- 

 tries ; for in VVales, where such things have often hap- 

 pened, and sometimes still do in some places, though but 

 seldom, now we scarce meet with any who question the 

 being and apparition of spirits. Wales indeed is in 

 general happily free from this capital infidelity, of bad 

 tendcncv towards atheism; though it is to be wished that 



