498 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 296. 



drab of the suUens, and hath not fat enough 

 for her porrage, or butter enough for her bread, 

 and she hath a little help of the epilepsy, or 

 cramp, to teach her to roll her eyes, wry her 

 mouth, gnash her teeth, startle with her body, 

 hold her arms and hands stiff, &c. And then 

 when an old Mother Nobs hath by chance called 

 her 'idle young housewife,' or bid the devil 

 scratch, then no doubt but Mother Nobs is the 

 witch, and the young girl is owl-blasted," {Declar- 

 ation of Popish Impostures quoted hy Hutchinson.) 



One of the various methods of dissolving the 

 spell is now resorted to. It is a belief that the 

 power for evil ceases the moment blood is drawn 

 from the witch, and this is now and then tried, as 

 in a late instance where a man was summoned 

 before the bench of magistrates and fined for 

 having assaulted the plaintiff and scratched her 

 with a pin. When an ox or other beast has died 

 in consequence of the ill-wish, it is usual to take 

 out the heart, stick it over with pins and nails, 

 and roast it before the fire until the pins and nails 

 have one by one dropped out of it ; during which 

 process the witch is supposed to be suffering in 

 mysterious sympathy with the wasting heart. 

 There are many stories told of how the wicked 

 woman has been driven by these means to con- 

 fess, and to loose the family from the spell. Re- 

 course is sometimes had to measures of a less 

 delicate description. When the friendly parasites 

 become unpleasantly numerous, it was, not long 

 since, the custom to send a friend, or even the 

 town crier, to shout near the door of the witch, 

 " take back your flock ! take back your flock ! " 

 a ceremony which was said to be foUdwed by an 

 abatement of the inconvenience. The wiser me- 

 thod of preventing spells is very often taken, and 

 the house and all it contains are protected by the 

 nailing of a horse-shoe over the centre of the door- 

 way. There are few farm-houses without it, and 

 scarcely a boat or vessel puts to sea without this 

 talisman. Another preventive of great fame is 

 the mountain ash, or care., of which more here- 

 after. 



Besides the witch and the conjurer, we have 

 yet another and more pleasing character to men- 

 tion, namely the charmer. She is generally an 

 elderly woman of good reputation, and supposed 

 to be gifted with supernatural power, which she 

 exercises for good. By her incantations and 

 ceremonies she stops blood, cures inflamed eyes, 

 and the erysipelas, vulgo vocato, wild-Jire. I know 

 but little of her doings, except that she is too 

 much given to make frequent and vain use of 

 sacred names in her verses. The following is one 

 of her many charms, good for an inflammation : 



" There were two angels came from the east ; 

 One brought fire, the other frost. 

 Out fire ! in frost ! 

 In the name of " &c. 



I shall finish this note by transcribing an original 

 letter dated Septr. ye 14th, 1696, and addressed 

 by Blackburne (? Archdeacon) to the Bishop of 

 Exeter of that date. It is interesting, and comes 

 in appropriately as illustrative of witchcraft in the 

 W^est of England. The case is mentioned by 

 Hutchinson, who gives some details which do not 

 differ from those here given, and remarks that 

 "no inconvenience hath followed from her ac- 

 quittal." {Historical Essay, p. 612. 2nd edit.) 

 " My Most Hon'*. Lord, 



Yr Lordship was pleas'd to command me by 

 Mustion to attend the tryal of y^ witch, and give 

 you some account of it. It was thus : 



Elizabeth Horner, alias Turner, was arraigned 

 on three several inditements for murthering Alice, 

 the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Bovet, and 

 for pining and laming Sarah and Mary, daughters 

 of y® same Thomas and Elizabeth Bovet. 



The evidence given w*^'' was anything material 

 was this : — Thomas Bovet, the father, swears that 

 Alice the youngest of y" three daughters, being 

 about four years old was taken very ill in her 

 belly, &c., that physitiens cou'd see no natural 

 cause of her illness, and y' she died in five days. 

 That Mary was so taken likewise. Her body 

 strangely distorted, and her legs twisted like the 

 screw of a gun, that she wou'd often goe w**" her 

 eyes shut into the fire, and say that Bett Horner 

 drove her in : continued thus above seven weeks. 

 She was about ten years old. 



That Sarah, nine years old, was taken after the 

 same manner, — complained of being scratch't in 

 bed by a cat w^*" she said was Bett Horner, whom 

 she describ'd exactly in the apparel she had on, 

 tho' the child had not seen her in six months be- 

 fore. 



That after her imprisonment they were both 

 tormented by pinching and biting, al y^ time 

 crying out stil on Bett Horner, at present the 

 prints of pinches and markes of teeth appearing 

 on their arms and cheeks (this point attested also 

 by Justice Auchester who was w"" the children at 

 y'= time). That they would vomit pins and stones, 

 two crooked pins came away in Sarah's water. 

 Sarah cry'd out, the witch had put a pin into her, 

 the point of one appeared just under the skin, and 

 at last it came out upon her middle finger ; cry'd 

 out of being struck by the witch w**" a stick, the 

 mark of which stroke appear'd at the time upon 

 her ankle. Sarah said that Bett Horner told her 

 how she kill'd Alice by squeezing her breath out 

 of her body, and that she had a teat on her left 

 shoulder which was suck't by toads. 



Elizabeth Bovet, the mother depos'd in like 

 manner concerning Alice, who continued ill five 

 days, and so dy'd, crying out, —why doe you kill 

 me. That Sarah and Mary were taken ill alter- 

 nately, not able to say their prayers, saying they 

 were threatened by the witch, if they shou'd doe 



